Torn by trials and tribulations
Paul Byrne
The Age, Education -- Monday, October 27, 2008
Internal struggles are at the heart of Arthur Miller's play, writes Paul Byrne.
Internal struggles are at the heart of Arthur Miller's play, writes Paul Byrne.
CONFLICT, we are often told, is considered a normal part of life but it is something most people would rather avoid.
Conflict is the essence of drama. Without it films and theatre would not be worth watching. Conflict - verbal or
physical - is essential in getting the audience involved, because it is conflict that propels the action forward.
For audience involvement to be sustained, however, it must go beyond these two elements. Effective conflict must
also be internalised, with characters struggling against their worse natures or inner demons.
In his fictionalised portrayal of people and society during the witch trials in the theocracy of Salem in 1692, Arthur
Miller has given us the full spectrum of characters - from the most demonic to the saintly.
In The Crucible we see people who struggle as much with themselves as they do with their neighbours.
Conflict, as playwright Rib Davis says, implies choice. "When there is conflict, we, the audience, are invited to take
sides." Sometimes taking sides is made even easier when Miller doesn't mince words in describing the characters that
he disdains and those he admires or sympathises with.
From the outset, Miller's contempt for the local minister Reverend Parris is readily apparent. Parris is described as a
man who "in history ... cut a villainous path, and there is very little good to be said of him". Abigail Williams has an
endless capacity for dissembling and Thomas Putnam has a "vindictive nature (which) was demonstrated long before
the witchcraft began". Later, in act four, when Judge Hathorne and Deputy Governor Danforth appear for the first
time in the vestry room of the Salem meeting house, Hathorne is described as a "bitter, remorseless Salem Judge".
Surprisingly, the description of Danforth seems somewhat milder but this is deceptive. He is described "as a grave
man in his 60s of some humour and sophistication that does not, however, interfere with an exact loyalty to his
position and cause". It is only at the end of the play that we fully realise the implications of Miller's understatement.
"Danforth's exact loyalty to his position and cause" results in untold human misery and suffering for the people of
Salem. In describing those characters we can happily side with, Miller's language is sympathetic and affirming.
Proctor on his entrance is described as a man who "had a sharp and biting way with hypocrites" as well as being
"powerful of body, even tempered, and not easily led". We know from this description that conflict will be unavoidable
when Proctor confronts the likes of those mentioned above. And in describing the elderly and esteemed Rebecca
Nurse, Miller tells us that "the general opinion of her character was so high that to explain how anyone dared cry her
out for a witch ... we must look to the fields and boundaries of that time". This refers to the battle for land that lies at
the heart of many of the destructive accusations that people such as Thomas Putnam made against innocent people.
Miller does not describe Elizabeth Proctor at all on her entrance in act two. Instead the playwright reveals her through
her dialogue and actions. Elizabeth initially strikes the audience as passive (her kowtowing to Mary Warren is an
example) and she seems quick to sense any faltering in Proctor's rejection of Abigail Williams. But by the play's end,
her loyalty to her husband is unflinching.
Just as Miller portrays characters in different ways in both sides of this conflict, so he adds levels of complexity when
portraying the inner conflicts of two characters in particular. Reverend Hale is the only character who moves from
seemingly unshakeable conviction at the play's outset to doubt at the end. In the beginning of the play Hale sees in
his books "the Devil (who) stands stripped of all his brute disguises". But in the final scenes Hale sees his own hand in
the human devastation he has wrought in Salem by the numerous death warrants he has signed including that of the
saintly Rebecca Nurse. As he says, "where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed".
On the other hand, Proctor's internal conflict works on two levels. First he berates himself - needled somewhat by his
wife Elizabeth - for his heated sexual encounters with Abigail Williams. When he admits his adultery to the court to
expose Abigail in act three, Francis Nurse reacts with horror and Proctor, taking a dark view of his own soul, tells
Francis: "I wish you had some evil in you that you might knowme!"
Then there is Proctor's much greater internal struggle. He could save his life and be with his now pregnant wife
Elizabeth. All he must do is lie to the court and say that he had seen the devil. Miller cranks up the tension by Proctor
admitting guilt and then signing his confession, even saving some face by refusing to name names in the process. But
when he refuses to give Danforth the signed confession, we know he is doomed. Yet by this action Proctor finally
resolves this internal struggle. Before he mounts the gallows he says: "You have your magic now, for now I do think I
see some shred of goodness in John Proctor."
The Crucible has long been seen as an analogy for the injustices that the House Un-American Activities Committee
wrought on the political and cultural life of America in the late 1940s and beyond.
Yet in Miller's portrayal of this sad and sorry part of history The Crucible still stands solidly on its own merits, due in
no small part to the levels of conflict that Miller has so skillfully and powerfully interwoven.