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In order to understand how reasonable
people could allow themselves to take
part in the miscarriage of justice that the
Salem witch trials represent,
 we need to consider the kind of society
the Puritans created in Salem Village.

Massachusetts was different from the
other colonies in that it was a theocracy
(a commonwealth dominated by
theology).
 Their system of governance was founded
on and designed to preserve their
religious principles.

The Puritans believed they were God’s
chosen people on an errand in the
wilderness
 (literally believed they were establishing a
New Jerusalem).
 The Puritans feared the wilderness: originally
they tried to convert the Natives in the
area,
 but when they resisted the Puritans decided
the Natives were agents of the Devil who
needed to be destroyed.

Although witchcraft charges were
common at the time, no other
community experienced such
widespread panic and terror.
 There were feuding factions within the
community who used the terror to further
their own causes.

Friction among the residents and political
instability of the village (under siege by the
Natives) give us the motives of the adults.
 But what about the children? The presence
of Tituba among the girls, society’s
oppression, religious belief and fear of
prosecution,
 a sense of impending doom from Native
raids and the political instability (mixed with
the rivalries of the village)
 all combined to produce the social
paranoia that fueled the witch hunts.



After WW2,
Americans realized
the Soviet Union was
a powerful and
potentially
dangerous
adversary.
This view was
seemingly confirmed
by the news of Soviet
nuclear capability.
Riding the wave of
popular opinion, Senator
McCarthy created a stir
and rose to national
prominence
 by announcing to the
media that he had
information proving that
high ranking officers
 and executives in the
U.S. State Department
and in the military were
communists.

His unsupported
allegations gave rise to
congressional
investigations.
 In all walks of life (film
and television, business,
education, government)
innocent people were
unjustly persecuted for
their views.
 Many were fired from
their jobs simply for being
suspected of being a
communist!

Although McCarthy had
a few years of celebrity,
he was eventually
proved to be a fraud.
 The “Red Scare” ended,
but not before many
people had their lives,
families and careers
destroyed.


Leviticus 16:20-22

20 “And when he has made an end of atoning for
the Holy Place and the tent of meeting and the altar,
he shall present the live goat.
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of
the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of
the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all
their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the
goat and send it away into the wilderness by the
hand of a man who is in readiness.
22 The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a
remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the
wilderness.


Scapegoat: A person, group, or thing
that bears the blame for the mistakes or
crimes of others.
 Witch-hunt: An attempt to find and
publicly punish people, usually whose
opinions are considered to be subversive
and dangerous.

The rumour that Betty is the victim of
witchcraft is running rampant in Salem, and
a crowd has gathered in Parris’s parlor.
 Parris has sent for Reverend John Hale of
Beverly, an expert on witchcraft, to
determine whether Betty is indeed
bewitched.
 Abigail denies that she and the girls
engaged in witchcraft to Rev. Parris but
then coaches the girls about what to say
publicly.

In Puritan Salem, young
women such as Abigail,
Mary, and Mercy are
largely powerless until
they get married.
 Proctor, in his first
appearance, is
presented as a quickwitted, sharp-tongued
man with a strong
independent streak.
 These traits would seem
to make him a good
person to question the
motives of those who cry
witchcraft.

His guilt over his affair
with Abigail makes him
guilty of the hypocrisy
that he accuses others
of and weakens his
resolve at key times.
 During his disagreement
with Rev. Parris we see
that any time one
argues with the church
they are accused of
“doing the Devil’s work”.

Reverend Hale is an
intellectual man, and he
has studied witchcraft
extensively. He arrives at
Parris’s home with a
heavy load of books.
 Townsfolk immediately
begin questioning him
about various
behaviours their spouses
or neighbours have
been showing to see if
there is an evil influence
at work.

Upon questioning
Abigail, Tituba gets
accused which leads to
a snowball effect.
 Once there is a
confession (and
forgiveness) the others
quickly begin adding
their parts to get out of
any possible punishment.

Abigail and her troop have achieved an
extremely unusual level of power and
authority for young, unmarried girls in a
Puritan community.
 They can destroy the lives of others with a
mere accusation, and even the wealthy
and influential are not safe.
 Mary Warren is so full of her newfound
power that she feels able to defy Proctor’s
assumption of authority over her.

Proctor’s sense of guilt begins to eat
away at him.
 He knows that he can bring down
Abigail and end her reign of terror,
 but he fears for his good name if his
hidden sin of adultery is revealed.

Proctor’s intense dilemma over whether
to expose his own sin to bring down
Abigail is complicated by Hale’s decision
 to visit everyone whose name is even
remotely associated with the
accusations of witchcraft.





Hale, meanwhile, is
undergoing an internal
crisis.
He clearly enjoyed
being called to Salem
because it made him
feel like an expert.
His pleasure in the trials
comes from his
privileged position of
authority
with respect to
defining the guilty and
the innocent.



However, his surprise
at hearing of
Rebecca’s arrest and
the warrant for
Elizabeth’s arrest
reveals that
Hale is no longer in
control of the
proceedings.


The desperate
attempt by Giles,
Proctor, and Francis to
save their respective
wives
exposes the extent to
which the trials have
become about
specific individuals.



Danforth and
Hathorne do not want
to admit publicly that
they were deceived
by a bunch of young
girls, while Parris does
not want the trials to
end as a fraud.
the judge and the
deputy governor react
to Proctor’s claims by
accusing him of trying
to undermine the
court.
In order to dispose of
Proctor’s threat,
Danforth and Hathorne
exercise their power to
invade his privacy.
 Although Proctor has not
yet been formally
accused of witchcraft,
 Danforth and Hathorne,
like Hale earlier, question
him about his Christian
morals
 as though he were
already on trial.



They hope to find in
his character even the
slightest deviation
from Christian doctrine
because they would
then be able to cast
him as an enemy of
religion.


Much of Act III has to
do with determining
who will define
innocence and guilt.
Proctor makes one
desperate bid for this
by finally overcoming
his desire to protect his
good name, exposing
his own secret sin.



He hopes to replace
his wife’s alleged guilt
with his own guilt and
bring down Abigail in
the process.
Unfortunately, he
mistakes the
proceedings for an
actual search for the
guilty,
when, in fact, the
proceedings are
better described as a
power struggle.






Months have passed, and things are falling
apart in Massachusetts,
making Danforth and Hathorne increasingly
insecure.
They do not want to, and ultimately cannot,
admit that they made a mistake
in signing the death warrants of the nineteen
convicted,
so they hope for confessions from the
remaining prisoners
to insulate them from accusations of mistaken
verdicts.
Clearly, the most important issue for the
officials of the court is the preservation of
 their reputations and the integrity of the
court. As a theocratic institution, the
 court represents divine, as well as
secular, justice.
 To admit to twelve mistaken hangings
would be to question divine justice and
 the very foundations of the state and of
human life.

Proctor fixates on his name and on how it
will be destroyed if he signs the
confession.
 Proctor’s desire to preserve his good
name earlier keeps him from testifying
 against Abigail, leading to disastrous
consequences.
 His goodness and honesty, lost during his
affair with Abigail, are recovered.

 FULL TITLE
· The
Crucible
 AUTHOR · Arthur
Miller
 TYPE OF WORK · Play
 GENRE · Tragedy,
allegory
 TIME AND PLACE
WRITTEN · America,
early 1950s





DATE OF FIRST
PUBLICATION
· 1953
NARRATOR · third-person
narrator who fills in the
background for the
characters.
CLIMAX · John Proctor tells
the Salem court that he
committed adultery with
Abigail Williams.
PROTAGONIST · John Proctor
ANTAGONIST · Abigail
Williams


SETTING (TIME) · 1692
SETTING (PLACE) · Salem,
· Serious and tragic—the
language is almost biblical.
 THEMES · Intolerance; hysteria;
reputation
 MOTIFS · Empowerment;
accusation, confession, legal
proceedings in general
 SYMBOLS very few examples of
symbolism beyond typical
witchcraft symbols (rats,
toads, and bats), the entire
play is meant to be symbolic,
with its witch trials standing in
for the anti-Communist “witchhunts” of the 1950s.

a small
town in colonial
Massachusetts
 POINT OF VIEW · The Crucible is a
play, so the audience and
reader are entirely outside the
action.
 FALLING ACTION · The events
from John Proctor’s attempt to
expose Abigail in Act IV to his
decision to die rather than
confess at the end of Act IV.
 TENSE · Present
TONE