Themes And Characters In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an interpretation of the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Puritan Massachusetts in which religion, justice, individuality and dignity play a vital role. These factors define the characteristics of many of the most significant characters in the play. Some of them being John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale, Danforth and many others. The Salem witch trials were a result of the lack of expression of individuality and the fact that no individual could expect justice from the majority culture as a result of the deterioration of human dignity in the Puritan society of Salem.

How many people have you met in your life that is stronger because of a difficult experience they went through? Most people are because we take these difficult experiences and grow from them and become better people. This is the exact case is expressed in the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. The story begins in Salem, Massachusetts 1692 right in the middle of a period of witchcraft hysteria. During this time many people were accused of being witches and wrongly convicted by judges Danforth and Hathorne. The characters in the story are struggling because of a girl named Abigail who gets caught practicing witchcraft and then starts naming and accusing others so that she doesn’t get in trouble; one of these people being a well-respected farmer, John Proctor’s, wife Elizabeth. The title, The Crucible, refers to a test, trial, ordeal, formation by fire, and vessel baked to resist heat, and the entire story is an allegory meaning it has a hidden meaning. John Proctor symbolizes a crucible by embodying the definition of one, as he went through a test and was formed by fire.

Purist Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 suffered from a rapidly increasing phenomenon: witchcraft accusations and trials. The Crucible is a play that recounts the times of this incident. For the most part, it follows a man known as John Proctor. He is a sensible, honest, and hardworking man who made the mistake of succumbing to lust which sets off a chain of events that leads to the witch trials, and to his own demise. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible’s protagonist John Proctor proves to be a flawed human being who struggles to make sense of his past relationship with Abigail, his love for his wife, and his pride.

The main accuser, Abigail Williams, had an ulterior motive to destroy Elizabeth Proctor. Beforehand, Abigail had an affair with Elizabeth's husband, John Proctor, and Abigail believed if she removed Elizabeth, she would have John to herself. Most of Abigail's allegations were based on false claims, believing the relationship between her and John Proctor to be true love.

Crucible, a noun defined as; a container of metal or refractory material employed for heating substances to high temperatures, in the traditional sense but, it also means a severe, searching test or trial. The latter of the two definitions is exactly what Arthur Miller had in mind when he wrote the play, The Crucible. The play set in Salem Massachusetts during the start of the infamous Salem Witch Trials, is about the struggle to discover truth within the twisted and brutal lies flying about the little town, started mainly by a young girl by the name of Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams, as we quickly come to know, is the past mistress of the prominent Mr. John Proctor, a local farmer. As the tension rises in the

Abigail was a servant in Proctor´s house. Elizabeth was not a very loving woman. Proctor fell for Abigail created an affair with her. “After he had confessed it to Elizabeth, she dismissed her from her service because she did not want to tell the people in Salem that the reason was the affair between John and Abigail.” (Dulain). Abigail, Tituba and the girls went to the forest in the morning. They danced and murmured words, Abigail drank blood to curse John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth, and she would do anything to have John Proctor. Reverend Paris fond blood, Abigail and the girl’s dancing, and mercy naked. Abigail knew drinking blood is a form of witchcraft, so she tries to cover up on what they actually did in the forest. She threatens the girls to not say a word or she will harm them. "Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you." (Miller)

pull it down and so denounce God and place a whore in God’s place is

The Crucible was based in 1692 in and around the town of Salem, Massachusetts, USA. The Salem witch-hunt was view as one of the strangest and most horrendous chapters in the human history. People that were prosecuted were all innocent and their deaths were all due to false accusation of people’s ridiculous belief in superstition and their paranoia. The Puritans in those times were very strict in personal habits and morality; swearing, drunkenness and gambling would be punished. The people of Salem believed in the devil and thought that witchcraft should be hunted out.

After having an affair with John Proctor, she couldn’t accept not being without him. Abigail also admires “how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife” like Elizabeth be unaware of the affair she had with John Proctor(act1pg#). As a result to the affair, Proctor is trying to rebuild his marriage with his wife. Abigail continues to intervene in John Proctors marriage and attempts to manipulate Proctor so he would confess his love for her. Proctor admits his love for her, but does not continue his affection because Abigail seeps of vengeance for other individuals. He portrays her “as a lump of vanity” who thinks to dance on his “wife’s grave!”(act 3). For her own selfish desires, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft and tries to intentionally sabotage her. She does this for the purpose of her own selfish and fictitious relationship that she has with Proctor. Abigail believes she has the capability to influence Proctor, but her egoistic actions to win his undefining love makes her appear as the criminal in the

Abigail’s love for John Proctor caused her jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor. Which later caused her selfishness as well when accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft. While she was a servant for John and Elizabeth Proctor, Elizabeth contracted an illness and was unable to fulfill her husband’s desires. As a result, he was seduced by Abigail, which Abigail, because of her young age and thus having an easy manipulation standing point,

Abigail becomes so focused on crushing on John Proctor it kills him and nineteen others. This occurs because of her ignorance to be mature and accept reality. Abigail loves John Proctor and she will do anything in her power to acquire him. John Proctor cheats on his wife with Abigail, consequently giving Abigail a foothold on him. She takes advantage of that, and goes mad attempting to receive his attention. “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a-”(Miller 23-24). In attempt to win back John Proctor, she makes lies up about Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife. Abigail lets her anger out on the girls, supposedly her friends, in Salem. She is controlling the girls because they fear her. Abigail takes this

In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, a play about teenage girls discovered to practice witchcraft who then accuse the fellow women of the town to have bewitched them, a notable change occurs in the protagonist, John Proctor’s, character. Proctor, as he enters the story, gives the audience a first impression of one who isn’t easily fooled and holds secret meetings behind his wife’s back. As the story progresses, though, the audience as shown a deeper side of Proctor, one that reveals his not so even temper, his willingness to set things right, and his re-discovered love for his wife.

Abigail has a reason behind doing all of the things she has done. She is consumed by the feelings she has conjured for Proctor, and among those feelings, she is determined to find a way to be with him. “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion when I come near… I saw your face when she put me out. You loved me then and you still love me now!” (Miller 22). When Abigail says this, it exhibits how attached Abigail is to Proctor and how devoted she is to him. “Abigail displays a remarkable firmness of purpose; her passion is a violent, pent up power” (Siebold 144). Abigail does not do all of this for recreational activity. She has mapped out a plan to get what she wants out of the all of the falsehood that she has told and the commotion she has produced. However, she has not dreamed the affair up; Proctor is not blameless. “Proctor is a guilty man… He has betrayed his wife” (Kellman 1746). It should not be taken lightly, the sin Proctor has committed. John, no matter how guilty, he now feels, has given Abigail the false hope she now clings to, by having the affair with her. To sum it all up, There is a reason that Abigail does this, if not for the affair John had with her giving her a hope of a future together with him, then for her own feelings for him that she has materialized from nothing. Abigail is making this

Beginning in 1245 in France and peaking in the late 1670s, witch trials become one method by which to subdue and control social deviance--beggars, drunkards, outspoken women, and even the mad. Control was placed in the hands of the church, which began to wane the Enlightenment took hold. Yet, twenty years after the “zenith” of these trials, in 1692, witch trials found new life within a small Puritan community of Salem, Massachusetts (Cockerham 2014: 10-11). Scholars have returned again and again to this event, demanding that “Salem must be about something other than witches, demons, superstitious clergy, and hysterical children. Otherwise it simply does not make sense” (Rivett 2008: 495). So how do we begin to make sense of what seems to be a bizarre example of mass hysteria? Did these people simply go mad? I believe Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, holds the answers. In order to fully grasp the trials, first we must look to the broader social context of Salem. Using popular scholars of the time and the works of Weber and Durkheim, I will expose the social causes behind the deaths of these people, illustrated by Miller’s text. Then I will briefly explore the social context within which Miller himself was writing, exposing a pattern of paranoia and anxiety evolving out of isolation and individualism, a pattern which did not end in 1692.

In every literary work, there are themes. A theme is a broad idea, moral or message of a book or story. One individual may construe the themes of a book or story differently than another, but that is the pure beauty of themes. One great literary work is The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller. Succinctly, the play is about the Salem witch trials that took place in Massachusetts in 1692. Throughout the story, the townspeople indict their neighbors of being a witch and practicing witchcraft. On the surface, this historical drama has a few universal and enduring themes. Themes are universal because regardless of where in the world, the ideas still relates to everyone and is understood. Themes are enduring because the ideas are found