The Crucible

The Crucible

Written by	Arthur Miller
Characters	Abigail Williams Reverend John Hale Reverend Samuel Parris John Proctor Elizabeth Proctor Thomas Danforth Mary Warren
Date premiered	22 January 1954
Place premiered	Martin Beck Theatre New York City
Original language	English
Subject	Salem witch trials
Genre	Tragedy, Drama
Setting	Salem, Massachusetts
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The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play based on the actual events that, in 1692, led to the Salem Witch Trials, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693.

The play was written in the early 1950s as a response to McCarthyism,^[1] when the US government blacklisted accused communists. Miller himself was to be questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of "contempt of Congress" for failing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.^[2] It was first performed at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953. The reviews of the first production, which Miller felt was stylized and too cold,^[3] were largely hostile, although the New York Times noted "a powerful play [in a] driving performance".^[4] Nonetheless, the production won the 1953 "Best Play" Tony Award.^[5] A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic.^[6] Today it is studied in high schools and universities, because of its status as a revolutionary work of theater and for its allegorical relationship to testimony given before the House Committee On Un-American Activities during the 1950s. It is a central work in the canon of American drama.^[7]

Plot summary

Act I

The play begins with Reverend Parris praying over his daughter Betty who lies unconscious in her bed. Through conversations between Parris and his niece Abigail Williams, and between several girls, the audience learns that the girls, including Abigail and Betty, were engaged in occultist activities in a nearby forest. These, apparently, were led by Tituba, Parris's slave from Barbados. On catching them in the act, Parris jumped from a bush, startling them. Betty promptly fainted and has not yet recovered. During this session, Abigail also drank chicken blood in a bid to kill Elizabeth Proctor. She tells the girls that she will murder anyone who utters a word about what happened. The townspeople do not know exactly what the girls were up to, but there are rumors of witchcraft.

John Proctor enters the room in which Betty lies, and Abigail, otherwise alone, tries to seduce him. Proctor, a farmer, had an affair with her a while ago, but now he wants to forget it, and duly rejects her advances.

Reverend John Hale is summoned to look upon Betty and research the incident. He is an expert in occultist phenomena and is eager to put into practice his acquired learning. He questions Abigail, who accuses Tituba of being a witch. Tituba, afraid of being hanged, professes faith in God and accuses Goodwives Good and Osborne of witchcraft. Abigail and Betty, who has by now woken up, claim to have been bewitched and profess their faith in God, too. They sing out a list of people whom they claim to have seen with the Devil.

Act II

Elizabeth questions Proctor to find out if he is late for dinner because of a visit to Salem. She tells him that their servant, Mary Warren, has been there all day. Having previously forbidden Mary from going to Salem, Proctor becomes angry, but Elizabeth explains that the servant has been named an official of the court. Proctor learns that four magistrates have been named to the General Court and that the Deputy Governor of the Province is serving as judge. The court has thus far jailed fourteen people for witchcraft.

Elizabeth tells Proctor that he must go to Salem and reveal that Abigail is a fake. He hesitates and then declares that he cannot prove what she told him because they were alone when they talked. Elizabeth becomes upset because he has not previously mentioned this time alone with Abigail. Proctor believes that she is accusing him of resuming his affair. An argument ensues.

Mary returns. Proctor is furious that she has been in Salem all day, but she advises that she will be gone every day because of her duties as an official of the court. Mary gives Elizabeth a poppet that she made while in court, and tells the couple that thirty-nine people are now in jail, and that Goody Osborne will hang for her failure to confess to witchcraft. Proctor is angry because he believes that the court is condemning people without solid evidence. Mary states that Elizabeth has also been accused, but, as she herself defended her, the court dismissed the accusation.

Elizabeth tells Proctor that Abigail wants to dispose of her. She believes that Abigail will accuse her of witchcraft and then have her executed because she wants to take her place as Proctor's wife. Elizabeth asks Proctor to speak to Abigail and tell her that no chance exists of him marrying her if anything happens to his wife. Elizabeth and Proctor argue once more.

Reverend Hale visits the Proctor house and tells Elizabeth and Proctor that the former has been named in court. Hale questions Proctor about his poor church attendance and asks him to recite the Ten Commandments. When Proctor gets stuck on the tenth, Elizabeth reminds him of the commandment forbidding adultery.^[8]

Proctor tells Hale that Abigail has admitted to him that witchcraft was not responsible for the children's ailments. Hale asks Proctor to testify as much in court and then questions Elizabeth to find out if she believes in witches. Giles Corey and Francis Nurse arrive and tell Proctor, Hale and Elizabeth that the court has arrested both of their wives for witchcraft.

Not long after, Ezekiel Cheever and Marshal Herrick turn up with a warrant for Elizabeth's arrest. Cheever discovers the poppet that Mary made for Elizabeth, together with a needle inside it. Cheever tells Proctor and Hale that Abigail has charged Elizabeth with attempted murder. Cheever reports that, after apparently being stabbed with a needle while eating at Parris' house, Abigail accused Elizabeth's spirit of stabbing her.

Mary tells Hale that she made the doll in court that day and stored the needle inside it. She also states that Abigail saw this because she sat next to her. The men still take Elizabeth into custody, and Hale, Corey and Nurse leave.

Proctor tells Mary that she must testify in court against Abigail. Mary replies that she fears doing this because Abigail and the others will turn against her. Proctor discovers that Mary knows about his affair.

Act III

The court questions and accuses Martha Corey of witchcraft. Giles Corey interrupts the court proceedings and declares that Thomas Putnam is "reaching out for land!" He is removed from the courtroom and taken to the vestry room.

Judge Hathorne, Deputy Governor Danforth, Ezekiel Cheever, and Parris enter the vestry room. Corey says that he owns six hundred acres of land, and a large quantity of timber. Corey also states that the court is holding his wife Martha by mistake. Corey tells Danforth that he had asked Hale why Martha read books, but he never accused her of witchcraft.

Corey and Francis Nurse state that they both have evidence for the court. They have been waiting for three days to present the evidence, but to no avail. Danforth responds that they must file the appropriate paperwork for the court to hear them. Nurse tells Danforth the girls are pretending.

Act IV

Act Four starts with Proctor chained to a jail wall totally isolated from the outside. The authorities send Elizabeth to him, telling her to try to convince Proctor to confess to being a warlock. Proctor gives in to the authorities and the advice of Reverend Hale. Hale is now a broken man who spends all his time with the prisoners, praying with them and hoping to save their lives from their unjust fates. Hale advises prisoners to confess to witchcraft, so that they can live. Proctor confesses to the crime of witchcraft, he then signs the document saying that he is a wizard. But then tears it up when Proctor realizes that Danforth is going to nail the signed confession to the church (which Proctor fears will ruin his name and the names of other Salemites). The play ends with Proctor and Rebecca Nurse (an accused witch) being led to the gallows to hang.

Characters

Minor Characters

Elizabeth [Quietly, factually]: He were not hanged. He would not answer yes or no to his indictment; for if he denied the charge they'd hang him surely, and auction out his property. So he stand mute, and died Christian under the law. And so his sons will have his farm. It is the law, for he could not be condemned a wizard without he answer the indictment, aye or nay." From this it is obvious of Giles' reason for holding out so long against so much pain: As long as he did not answer yes or no, his children would be able to keep his estate. Whether this was for his children's sake or for an attempt to spite Thomas Putnam's greedy obsession with buying up land is arguable. The play supports both possibilities.

Historical accuracy

In creating a work for the stage Miller made no attempt to represent the real, historical personalities of his characters: he developed them to meet the needs of the play. Indeed, in most cases the surviving records give no indication upon which he could draw. He fused certain characters into one: for example the judges "Hathorne" and "Danforth" are representative of several judges in the case, and the number of young girls involved was similarly reduced. Abigail's age was increased to allow the plot device of the relationship with Proctor. Most of the historical roles, however, are accurately represented and the judicial sentences pronounced on the characters are as given to the real-life counterparts.^[9]

The action of the play takes place only seventy years after the community arrived as settlers from Britain, and the characters would have had retained strong regional dialects from the home country. Miller ignored this, giving all his characters the same colloquialisms, such as "Goody" for good wife, and drawing on the rhythms and speech patterns of the King James Bible to achieve the effect of historical perspective he wanted.^[1]

Film adaptations

References

^ ^a ^b Blakesley, Maureen (1992). "The language of the play". The Crucible, a play in four acts. Oxford, England: Heinemann. pp.xv. ISBN 0435232819.
^ Loftus, Jospeh A. (June 1, 1957). "Miller Convicted in Contempt Case", New York Times. Retrieved on 27 November 2008.
^ Abbotson, Susan C. W. (2005). Masterpieces of 20th-century American Drama. Westport CT: Greenwood. pp.p 78. ISBN 0313332231.
^ Atkinson, Brooks (January 23, 1953). "The Crucible", New York Times. Retrieved on November 27, 2008.
^ Staff. "The Crucible". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved on November 27, 2008.
^ Griffin, John; Griffin, Alice (October, 1953). "Arthur Miller Discusses The Crucible". in Roudané, Matthew C.. Conversations with Arthur Miller. Jackson MS: University Press of Mississippi. pp.p 24. ISBN 0878053239.
^ Wilmeth, Don B.; Bigsby, C. W. E. (1998). The Cambridge History of American Theatre. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. pp.p 415. ISBN 0521669596.
^ The fact that Proctor forgets this particular commandment creates irony because the audience, along with Proctor and Elizabeth, realises that he also forgot the commandment when he had his affair with Abigail. As he has failed to incorporate it into his life, it fails to remain in his memory.
^ Miller, Arthur (1992). "A note on the historical accuracy of the play". in Blakesley, Maureen. The Crucible, a play in four acts. Oxford, England: Heinemann. pp.xvii. ISBN 0435232819.