ENGLISH HOME LANGUAGE
DRAMA
THE CRUCIBLE
ARTHUR MILLER
STUDY MANUAL
CONTEXT
Early in the year 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a collection of girls fell ill,
falling victim to hallucinations and seizures. In extremely religious Puritan New England, frightening
or surprising occurrences were often attributed to the devil or his cohorts. The unfathomable
sickness spurred fears of witchcraft, and it was not long before the girls, and then many other
residents of Salem, began to accuse other villagers of consorting with devils and casting spells.
Old grudges and jealousies spilled out into the open, fuelling the atmosphere of hysteria. The
Massachusetts government and judicial system, heavily influenced by religion, rolled into action.
Within a few weeks, dozens of people were in jail on charges of witchcraft. By the time the fever
had run its course, in late August 1692, nineteen people (and two dogs) had been convicted and
hanged for witchcraft.
More than two centuries later, Arthur Miller was born in New York City on October 17, 1915. His
career as a playwright began while he was a student at the University of Michigan. Several of his
early works won prizes, and during his senior year, the Federal Theatre Project in Detroit
performed one of his works. He produced his first great success, All My Sons, in 1947. Two years
later, in 1949, Miller wrote Death of a Salesman, which won the Pulitzer Prize and transformed
Miller into a national sensation. Many critics described Death of a Salesman as the first great
American tragedy, and Miller gained an associated eminence as a man who understood the deep
essence of the United States.
Drawing on research on the witch trials he had conducted while an undergraduate, Miller
composed The Crucible in the early 1950s. Miller wrote the play during the brief ascendancy of
Senator Joseph McCarthy, a demagogue whose vitriolic anti-Communism proved the spark
needed to propel the United States into a dramatic and fractious anti-Communist fervour during
these first tense years of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Led by McCarthy, special
congressional committees conducted highly controversial investigations intended to root out
Communist sympathizers in the United States. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected
Communists were encouraged to confess and to identify other Red sympathizers as means of
escaping punishment. The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations. As people began to realize
that they might be condemned as Communists regardless of their innocence, many “cooperated,”
attempting to save themselves through false confessions, creating the image that the United States
was overrun with Communists and perpetuating the hysteria. The liberal entertainment industry, in
which Miller worked, was one of the chief targets of these “witch hunts,” as their opponents termed
them. Some cooperated; others, like Miller, refused to give in to questioning. Those who were
revealed, falsely or legitimately, as Communists, and those who refused to incriminate their friends,
saw their careers suffer, as they were blacklisted from potential jobs for many years afterward.
At the time of its first performance, in January of 1953, critics and cast alike perceived The Crucible
as a direct attack on McCarthyism (the policy of sniffing out Communists). Its comparatively short
run, compared with those of Miller's other works, was blamed on anti-Communist fervour. When
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,Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of spying for the Soviets and executed, the cast and
audience of Miller's play observed a moment of silence. Still, there are difficulties with interpreting
The Crucible as a strict allegorical treatment of 1950s McCarthyism. For one thing, there were, as
far as one can tell, no actual witches or devil-worshipers in Salem. However, there were certainly
Communists in 1950s America, and many of those who were lionized as victims of McCarthyism at
the time, such as the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss (a former State Department official), were later
found to have been in the pay of the Soviet Union. Miller's Communist friends, then, were often
less innocent than the victims of the Salem witch trials, like the stalwart Rebecca Nurse or the
tragic John Proctor.
If Miller took unknowing liberties with the facts of his own era, he also played fast and loose with
the historical record. The general outline of events in The Crucible corresponds to what happened
in Salem of 1692, but Miller's characters are often composites. Furthermore, his central plot device
– the affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor – has no grounding in fact (Proctor was
over sixty at the time of the trials, while Abigail was only eleven). Thus, Miller's decision to set
sexual jealousy at the root of the hysteria constitutes a dramatic contrivance.
In an odd way, then, The Crucible is best read outside its historical context – not as a perfect
allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, but as a powerful and
timeless depiction of how intolerance and hysteria can intersect and tear a community apart. In
John Proctor, Miller gives the reader a marvelous tragic hero for any time – a flawed figure who
finds his moral center just as everything is falling to pieces around him.
PLOT OVERVIEW
In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the
forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister,
Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris's daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd
gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale,
an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls' ringleader, about the events
that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris's niece and ward, admits to doing nothing
beyond “dancing.”
While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the
other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks
to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor's home the
previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth.
Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls.
Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her
bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris,
the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. This dispute
centers on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault lines run through the Salem
community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs.
Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls' activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behavior, and
demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses
to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the
devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with
other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar.
A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the
ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches.
Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes
jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of
Abigail's circle, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the
court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their
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, argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles
Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested.
Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her, Proctor
browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and expose Abigail and the other girls as
frauds.
The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the
girls are lying. Danforth is suspicious of Proctor's motives and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth
is pregnant and will be spared for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to
allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they
turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with
Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor's claim,
Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural
honesty, she lies to protect Proctor's honour, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar.
Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks
down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is
arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings.
The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighbouring
towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all of Parris's money with her.
Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save
their lives, but they refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into
confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the
officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists
that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his
admission of guilt. Despite Hale's desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and
the witch trials reach their awful conclusion.
CHARACTER LIST
John Proctor – A local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor's husband. A stern,
harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has a hidden sin—his affair with
Abigail Williams—that proves his downfall. When the hysteria begins, he hesitates to expose
Abigail as a fraud because he worries that his secret will be revealed and his good name ruined.
Abigail Williams – Reverend Parris's niece. Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor
household, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair
with her husband, John Proctor. Abigail is smart, wily, a good liar, and vindictive when crossed.
Reverend John Hale – A young minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft. Reverend Hale is
called in to Salem to examine Parris's daughter Betty. Hale is a committed Christian and hater of
witchcraft. His critical mind and intelligence save him from falling into blind fervor. His arrival sets
the hysteria in motion, although he later regrets his actions and attempts to save the lives of those
accused.
Elizabeth Proctor – John Proctor's wife. Elizabeth fired Abigail when she discovered that her
husband was having an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold.
Reverend Parris – The minister of Salem's church. Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power-hungry,
yet oddly self-pitying figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris
is very concerned with building his position in the community.
Rebecca Nurse – Francis Nurse's wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in
tremendous regard by most of the Salem community. However, she falls victim to the hysteria
when the Putnams accuse her of witchcraft and she refuses to confess.
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