Context Statement
I decided to study Arthur Miller’s The Crucible because I found
it a powerful drama and I was struck by its clever parallel with the events
occurring at the time Miller was writing. It was the intrigue of this parallel
that assisted me in deciding on my focus. The themes dealt with by Miller
in The Crucible transfer directly to McCarthyism in the 1950s, and
I wanted to examine these themes. I wanted to discover what the themes
are, how Miller develops them, and how they relate so well to two very
different times. I decided this would be best done through the development
of Miller’s main characters. I chose Abigail Williams, John Proctor and
Deputy-Governor Danforth because they each represent a different aspect
of Miller’s themes: Abigail ‘hands over’ her conscience, Proctor keeps
his conscience, and Danforth accepts the consciences of others. This shows
how the injustice develops.
In my creative component I wanted to explore the themes in a different
way and through a different character. I chose Reverend John Hale because,
unlike the three characters studied in my analytical component, Hale undergoes
a change in his attitude towards the events. Abigail, Proctor and Danforth
each represent one aspect of Miller’s themes, while Hale gives a wider
representation by changing his point of view. My purpose in writing my
creative component was to further explore Miller’s themes relating to conscience,
guilt and justice by showing John Hale’s change in attitude towards these
issues. I also wanted to gain insight into Hale’s character. He intrigued
me because of knowledge I acquired of his real life counterpart. The real
John Hale wrote a book in 1697 regarding the witch hunt, and he shared
the ambivalent attitude towards the proceedings of his character in The
Crucible. I wanted to explore this in my creative component.
I chose the form of letters for my creative component because I thought
it best showed the changing point of view of Hale. Letters are a way of
documenting the present, and so show Hale’s attitude at the time of writing.
The change in his attitude is therefore recorded. The final piece is included
to gain insight into Hale’s character. His letters to his colleague are
reserved and formal, and it is only when talking to God that he opens up
and reveals honestly what he is feeling. The omniscient view-point in his
plea to God completes the recording of Hale’s changed attitude: it is his
most honest and humble feelings about his realisation. This depth of honesty
would not have been disclosed to his colleague in a letter, but is vital
in understanding the extent of Hale’s realisation.
The language employed for my creative component is in accordance with
Hale’s language in TheCrucible. Some sayings have been taken from
the text, and so have some uses of grammar which may appear peculiar. The
language is formal and involves long sentences which is a convention of
the times. Words such as ‘goody’, ‘quit’, ‘were’ and ‘be’ have been used
in ways to make the language sound the same as that of Salem in 1692. The
prayer at the end is not divided into paragraphs because it is the pouring
out of a constant train of thought and therefore does not allow for breaks.
Analytical Essay - The Crucible
Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, Arthur Miller's The Crucible
describes the witch hunt that saw harmless people hanged for crimes they
did not commit. The Crucible provides an accurate historical account
of the witch hunt, but its real achievement lies in the many important
issues it deals with. Miller’s concerns with conscience, guilt and justice
develop into significant and thought-provoking themes throughout the play.
These themes are developed through the characters of Abigail Williams,
John Proctor and Deputy Governor Danforth. The Crucible is even
more successful when the wider relevance of these issues is considered.
This occurs particularly when the themes of the play are examined in relation
to the events occurring at the time Miller was writing.
The inhibitions born out of the Puritanical values of the time are perhaps
what forced Abigail Williams into such evil behaviour. Abigail and the
girls are allowed no freedom to have fun, a point illustrated by their
fear that their parents will discover they were dancing in the forest.
Later, as the girls successfully accuse more and more people of witchcraft,
they begin to seek revenge on the adults in their lives who have oppressed
them and who, until now, they were bound to obey unfailingly. Abigail Williams
depicts Miller's concern with guilt and conscience. When speaking of the
Salem witch hunt, Miller talks about 'men handing conscience to other men'.
This handing over of conscience is one of Miller's most prominent concerns
in the play. When people shed the responsibility of their conscience, they
are no longer able to feel guilt, and their sense of right and wrong is
left in utter confusion. Miller saw guilt as 'a quality of mind capable
of being overthrown'. This is seen through Abigail who sheds her conscience
firstly to get herself out of trouble by accusing Tituba, and eventually
to seek revenge on the adults who make her life miserable. The court of
Salem accepts Abigail's false claims and, in doing so, divests her of her
conscience and she is left with no sense of guilt for what she has done.
This handing over of conscience eventually spreads throughout the wider
Salem community where people willingly shed their conscience in the developing
state of hysteria. In The Crucible, people feel guilty for not being
as 'pure' as they are supposed to be. The trial is an opportunity for these
people to shed their guilt and prove publicly and to themselves the extent
to which their behaviour accords with the dominant beliefs.
John Proctor’s struggle is in understanding the fundamental significance
of his conscience. What separates him from the other characters is that
he will not hand over his conscience, even for the sake of saving his life.
Proctor is aware that he is a 'sinner'. He feels that his affair with Abigail
was wrong, not because this is what contemporary moral fashions denote,
but because he himself feels it is wrong. In the final Act, Proctor decides
to confess because he knows he is not a 'good' man and feels that dying
for the cause of being 'good' is therefore a pretence. He says of his confession:
'I think it is honest, I think so; I am no saint'. However, it is when
Proctor is pressed to disclose other witnesses that he realises he cannot
confess. By naming others, Proctor would be handing over his conscience.
The masterful scene between Proctor and his wife in the final act deals
with his struggle to be true to himself. Elizabeth refuses to judge Proctor
and influence his decision to live, saying: 'I am not your judge, I cannot
be'. Proctor now realises that the only one to judge him is himself: he
has a conscience. By refusing to let others judge him, Proctor keeps his
conscience and hangs as an innocent man rather than living as a liar.
Throughout The Crucible Arthur Miller is concerned with guilt
and conscience. He uses the central character of Abigail Williams to show
how, in incidences of public terror, people will 'hand over' their conscience
to authority and thereby shed their guilt in order to prove their accordance
with dominant beliefs. This divesting of conscience causes individuals
to lose their sense of right and wrong and, through the character of John
Proctor, Miller shows how this affects those who refuse to part with their
conscience, raising Miller's next concern: the administration of justice.
The mass hysteria brought about by fear of witchcraft in The Crucible
leads to an upheaval in people's sense of right and wrong and thereby obscures
the course of justice. Miller was concerned with how easily people are
willing to forget their firmly-established beliefs and values in order
to comply with the majority and protect themselves. Miller says the people
were:
without a memory even of certain elemental decencies which...earlier
no one would have imagined could be altered, let alone forgotten.
People highly respected in the community are easily convicted, and normally
discredible children are wholly and completely believed. Abigail Williams
has no shame in asserting her power to promote injustice, while John Proctor,
having refused to hand over his conscience, maintains his sense of justice.
He would rather be wrongly considered a witch by the public than know himself
to have partaken in an injustice.
When looking at the issue of the administration of justice, it is most
important to examine who was promoting the sudden change in values and
who was accepting responsibility for all the handing over of consciences.
This was, of course, the court of Salem, represented in The Crucible
largely by the character of Deputy Governor Danforth. When discussing the
Salem witch hunt, Miller describes the judges and other prosecutors as
being absolutely dedicated to evil and says that about the proceedings
there was 'a sadism that was breathtaking'. Danforth is an administrator
of justice who allows highly respected elderly citizens to face vicious
cross-examination; he allows children to accuse these people and convicts
them without evidence or other witnesses. His justification for this is
that:
witch craft is...on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime...therefore,
who may possibly be witness to it?
By announcing this, the girls are unlimited in what they may proclaim and
who they may accuse. A previously firmly established sense of justice among
the Salem community is lost, and Danforth contributes to its breakdown.
He promotes injustice by encouraging the girls to name more people who
have conspired with the devil, as well as forcing the accused to either
confess or be hanged. The extent of Danforth's evil is seen in the final
act where many of the prosecutors begin to realise that they have done
wrong. Danforth, however, refuses to renege on his sentencing. His evil
is that he realises what has happened and the part he plays in it, and
decides that it is a good thing. The extent of the injustice is now fully
realised: it is not born merely out of misunderstanding and fear. It comes
from a conscious commitment to evil.
Arthur Miller deals extensively with the issue of the administration
of justice throughout The Crucible. Abigail Williams, by shedding
her sense of guilt, uses her newly-found power to unjustly punish people.
The community of Salem, through their fear of the devil, believe her as
their sense of right and wrong is set into a state of confusion. John Proctor,
by refusing to partake in unjust proceedings, is wrongly punished. Most
importantly however, is the role of the chief administrator of justice,
Deputy-Governor Danforth. He encourages the changing sense of justice among
the community, does not practice justice in his court, and eventually consciously
accepts his unjust behaviour as a good thing.
Throughout The Crucible Arthur Miller is concerned with conscience,
guilt and justice. Abigail Williams 'hands over' her conscience and thereby
sheds her guilt while John Proctor cannot part with his and consequently
hangs. Injustice develops in Salem as others are divested of their conscience
and partake in the wrongful proceedings. The injustice is promoted by the
court whose chief realises what has happened and accepts it without admitting
fault. The witch hunt in Salem in 1692 may have occurred because of the
circumstances of the time: the children were oppressed by the severe puritanical
values, the people were preoccupied by a fear of the devil. However, to
the contrary, it is the great universal significance of Arthur Miller's
themes in The Crucible that makes the play so successful. Miller's
concern with conscience, guilt and justice and the way he deals with these
in the time and setting of The Crucible have a wider relevance that
is striking and masterful.
At the time Miller wrote The Crucible in the early 1950s, the
United States of America was experiencing a modern 'witch hunt' of its
own. Senator Joseph McCarthy, prompted by the tensions of the Cold War,
was convinced that the American government was polluted with communists
and was determined to hunt them out, just as the Salem judges hunted out
witches. McCarthy led the Senate Committee on Internal Security which,
also like the Salem judges, forced people to confess, and then name associates.
The parallel between the two situations is remarkable: both sought to hunt
out 'witches' going against the dominant values of the time; both created
hysteria among the public obscuring the course of justice and forcing people
to comply through lies; both involved individuals speaking out against
others in order to prove their lack of guilt. Miller masterfully recognised
this direct parallel and was able to use the unfamiliar time and place
of the Salem witch hunt to comment on his own time. He wrote about McCarthyism
indirectly to protect himself at the time, but more importantly, he set
The Crucible in Salem in 1692 to prove the wider, on-going relevance
of his themes. The play was topical, but not particular. The problem it
addresses - not specific but, indeed, timeless - could now be seen in perspective.
Certainly, the play remains successful and relevant today.
Historian Marion Starkey writes about an even wider relevance of the
events of Salem. She discusses other 'witches' who occur prolifically throughout
the modern western world resulting from race, religion and nationality
who are targeted as a result of rivalling ideas. She concludes:
Accordingly the story of 1692 is of far more than antiquarian interest:
it is an allegory of our times.
Miller's own involvement in the McCarthy 'witch hunt' is significant in
his writing of The Crucible. He was brought before the investigating
committee and his political beliefs were questioned. He admitted to having
attended a Communist meeting nine years before in order to find out about
their views. He was asked to name the other people present at the meeting
but refused, saying, 'I am trying to and I will protect my sense of myself'.
The way Miller reacts to his interrogation is paralleled with John Proctor's
reaction in The Crucible, showing that Proctor represents Miller's
primary concern: that by keeping conscience, integrity is maintained. The
issues dealt with by Miller in The Crucible are ones which are relevant
and crucial to him.
The witch hunt in Salem in 1692 and McCarthyism in the USA in the 1950s
are remarkably similar situations, and the issues dealt with by Miller
in documenting one of these describes almost perfectly the issues of the
other. Both deal with public concerns and fears developing into hysteria,
and in both cases it is the effects of the hysteria which prove far more
dangerous than the alleged threats themselves. This is because people lose
their sense of justice through the 'handing over' of conscience and the
shedding of guilt. The fact that this pattern repeats itself throughout
history indicates the mastery of Miller: he recognises a crucial concern
of the individual in society.
Throughout Arthur Miller's The Crucible the issues of the 'handing
over' of conscience, the divesting of guilt, and the administration of
justice are presented to create a masterful drama. The Crucible
deals with issues crucial to all people of all time and is therefore a
timeless and momentous play.
Creative Component - The Crucible
Reverend John Hale
Parish of Salem
Salem,
Massachusetts
Sixth of August, 1692
Reverend Thomas,
I write of my progress in assessing the presence of the Devil in the
parish of our colleague, Reverend Parris. I am but two days among the people
of Salem and at once I have discovered sound proof that Lucifer be alive
in this community. I have begun examining many of the victims and, to be
sure, all those who have conspired with the Old Boy will have the light
of the Lord shine on them again.
The confessions of the Salem people have given me confidence in assuming
that the Devil be among these people. You and I both know that the absence
of confession leads to futile probing. God bless Susanna Williams and the
children involved in our last glimpse of Satan in Beverly and thank the
Lord for the uncorrupt outcome of that occasion. However, in Salem the
matter is different. I led a black slave from the bindings of Hell to the
eternal glory of God’s holy light, and I can say only that the breaking
of the spell was undeniable.
Reverend, pray for the people of Salem. I must confess to you my concerns
for this community. God sent these children to hunt out the Devil and I
pray that more and more of these people confess and come back to the holy
kingdom of the Lord. I cannot yet assess the extent of the Devil’s presence
here: perhaps he is gone already; perhaps he conspires still. I pray to
the Lord for restraint and sense as I further my investigations. I strive
to give these people light, goodness and its preservation.
Yours faithfully,
Reverend John Hale
Parish of Salem
Salem,
Massachusetts
Eighteenth of August, 1692
Reverend Thomas,
The Court now sits in Salem trying those who were seen with the Devil
and searching everywhere for a sign that Lucifer be alive.
I confess to you, Reverend, that the situation is concerning. To help
explain my position, I write of a particular concern that developed today.
The name of one Goodwife Elizabeth Proctor was mentioned in the Court today.
I have been in contact with John Proctor during my visit, and I called
this evening to their home to inquire as to the Christian character of
the household. I be required to sign the sentences of the convicted, and
dare not do so without the most thorough investigation and certainty of
proof against the accused. I have learned of John Proctor that his Church
attendance be poor. In seven month he is but twenty-six time in Church
on the Sabbath Day. I have also learned that his third son be not baptized.
When asked to repeat his commandments, Proctor knew but nine. He claims
differences with Reverend Parris have caused his Christian practices to
become private rituals, but his wife is now accused and when questioned
seems to doubt the existence of witches at all. Still, all this cannot
prevent my feeling that these be good people who have lived many years
on God’s earth as perfect Christians, and this is my concern. I am sure
the Devil is alive in Salem and no accusation can be ignored, yet Proctor
speaks words that spark doubt in me. He were overcome with temper when
the Court came for his wife this evening, and he yelled: ‘Is the accuser
always holy now?’ I know the Court will go to the truth of the matter,
yet something struck me in Proctor’s home. I believe he be a true man,
and his question is of some concern to me. I know the Devil to be alive
among these people - I myself was witness to the strength of the black
slave’s confession - but what of the accuser’s worth? God help me, I cannot
judge Goody Proctor guilty or innocent. I have heard much in her favour,
yet she be accused. I shall pray God open up our eyes.
Yours faithfully,
John Hale can be observed down on his knees, pleading with his Maker:
Good Lord in Heaven above, for the accused whose lives I have signed
away, have mercy on me! The children have gone wild, they cannot be believed!
Though it holds up your good law, I have cut off my connection with the
Court. The accused are innocent, Lord - your law has been mistreated and
your Court has been corrupted. I was truly blind to this but you have opened
my eyes. Dear Lord, I will fight the Court’s findings! In the name of your
law I will fight it. I shall counsel the accused to lie to save them from
throwing away your consummate gift, and this speaks sin on my part. But
guide me, and believe me that I seek a Christian way. For to bring your
glory to the heart of the matter, I must turn from your principle, but
I do not turn my back on you. I pray that you stay with me, protect me
in my fight, for I work with one purpose: to preserve life, your greatest
gift. Lord, I must compromise my faith and counsel men to lie, but no faith
may be worthwhile that brings blood. Lord, you may damn me for this. You
may damn me a thousand times for I be your minister on Earth! But better
be damned for lies than damned for murder. Highest Lord, please see my
reason, for it is pride, it is vanity, not to confess! I must encourage
a lie for I count myself a murderer for everyone who hangs. There exists
a fear of your Court in Salem that is enormous and abnormal. Those who
live by your law should have nothing to fear, but if the accused are hanged
if they do not confess, what outlet be there for a plea of innocence? The
accusers have used your Court to put forward private vengeance, so I cannot
believe that all of the accused are part of the plot to topple Christ.
I have decided this without assent from your Court, but, Highest Lord,
I can shut my conscience to it no longer: the proceeding are false and
I have been involved. Forgive me, dear Lord! My entire being pleads your
forgiveness for my involvement in the corruption of your law. Fair and
merciful God, please feel the sincerity of my repentance - it is whole
and absolute in the name of your eternal glory. Oh God, have mercy, for
I now realise what it is I have done! The Devil has had me in his grasp.
I have done his work upon your earth and his victory is vast for he has
won the soul of a minister. Now, with the soul of a minister, I beg your
divine strength to raise me and hold me high amidst your wisdom. I devote
my existence to eliminating the Devil from your earth. Your teachings have
shown me that your law should never lead to sacrifice. Mighty counsellor
of justice, this be only mistaken law! I invest all the energy you bless
me with to ensure the Devil profit nothing from your excellent and beautiful
creation - life. Deliver me from corruption as I thrust my body and soul
into eternal glory in your mighty kingdom.
Amen.
Bibliography
Coles, William E. Jr. (1964). Study Notes- Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.
American R.D.M. Corporation Publishers: New York.
Ericson, Eric. (1981) A Biographical Dictionary of Witches. New
English Library: London.
Miller, Arthur. (1952) The Crucible. Heinemann Educational Books
Ltd: London.
The Crucible (Film) 1996.
Welland, Dennis. (1966) Arthur Miller. Oliver and Boyd Ltd: Great
Britain.
