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By Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller: History
• Grew up during the 1930 ‘s and the Great Depression.
• Had a profound impact on shaping Arthur into becoming a mega-celebrity
• First play was a complete flop, pulled from Broadway after three shows.
• Went on to become a American power house in theatre:
Streetcar Named Desire
Death of a Salesman
The Crucible
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McCarthy vs. Salem Witch Hunt
McCarthyism
•
Senator McCarthy was facing reelection after a very uneventful term
(did little to earn another
appointment)
•
Produced a list of 207 know
communists (government officials,
celebrities).
•
Red Scare during the cold war of the
1950’s was enough to attract a strong
supporting crowd for McCarty.
•
Many citizens were accused, tried,
fined, or jailed because of the false
accusations of one man.
•
Truth of the list fictitious nature ended
McCarthy’s career as a politician.
•
Showed that truth at any coast was
too expensive a price to pay.
Salem Witch Hunt
• Colonial era Massachusetts 1682
• Puritan community, fleeing English religious
reforms of Protestant Church
• Case of mass hysteria
• Ended the theocracy of New England
• Much of the evidence was spectral
• 19 hung, 5 die in prison during the hunt.
Throughout Europe 40,000-100,000 executed for
witch craft (1400-1600’s)
• Used what was considered empirical evidence to
determine guilt 9touch, blemishes)
• Real cause either biological (mould infection in
rye bread, or social (greed, attention seeking,
spite)
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Loss of Civil Liberties
• Citizens could be accused, and face terrible
repercussions.
• Guilt was assumed, innocence had to earned.
• No evidence was ever introduced other than
word of mouth, or the word of the accused in
their own defence.
• Both American historical events, both travesties
of justice.
• Suspension of Civil liberties can never be
justified – ever
• Post 9-11 era is ripe with continued civil liberty
abuse as homeland security continues to justify
these emerging abuses as necessary practices.
• Security at all costs?
The Crucible: Vocabulary
adamant
excommunicate
parish
struck dumb
affidavit
faction
pilgrimage
subservient
autocracy
gibbet
plaintiff
titillated
bowlegged
grapple
poppet
trepidation
clod
intimation
predilection
vengeance
contention
lechery
pretense
contiguous
licentious
prodigious
Crucible
magistrate
propriety
defamation
obscene
providence
deposition
pallor
reproach
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Characters of The Crucible
John Proctor - A local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern, harshtongued man, John hates hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has a hidden sin—his affair with Abigail Williams—
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..
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.
Francis Nurse - A wealthy, influential man in Salem. Nurse is well respected by most people in Salem, but
is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife.
Judge Danforth - The deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials.
Honest and scrupulous, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out
witchcraft.
Characters - continued
Ann Putnam - Thomas Putnam’s wife. Ann Putnam has given birth to eight children, but
only Ruth Putnam survived. The other seven died before they were a day old, and Ann is
convinced that they were murdered by supernatural means.
Ruth Putnam - The Putnams’ lone surviving child out of eight. Like Betty Parris, Ruth falls
into a strange stupor after Reverend Parris catches her and the other girls dancing in the
woods at night.
Tituba - Reverend Parris’s black slave from Barbados. Tituba agrees to perform voodoo at
Abigail’s request.
Mary Warren - The servant in the Proctor household and a member of Abigail’s group of
girls. She is a timid girl, easily influenced by those around her, who tried unsuccessfully to
expose the hoax and ultimately recanted her confession.
Betty Parris - Reverend Parris’s ten-year-old daughter. Betty falls into a strange stupor
after Parris catches her and the other girls dancing in the forest with Tituba. Her illness and
that of Ruth Putnam fuel the first rumors of witchcraft.
Giles Corey - An elderly but feisty farmer in Salem, famous for his tendency to file lawsuits.
Thomas Putnam - A wealthy, influential citizen of Salem, Putnam holds a grudge against
Francis Nurse for preventing Putnam’s brother-in-law from being elected to the office of
minister
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Crucible Act I: Study Questions
1. Why is Reverend Parris praying and weeping as the play begins?
2. Why did Mrs. Putnam send her daughter Ruth to Tituba?
3. What is Proctor's response when Abigail speaks of her love to him?
4. Does Rebecca think that Betty is touched by the devil? why?
5. Why is Mrs. Putnam so quick to believe that Goody Osburn is a witch?
6. Towards the end of act 1, both Abigail and Tituba confess to witchcraft
because....
7. How do the characters in the crucible feel about witches?
8. Describe setting and mood in Act 1.
Crucible Act II: Study Questions
1. Why doesn’t Proctor go to Salem to report what Abigail has told him? Why
does Elizabeth want him to go? Why does Elizabeth mistrust him?
2. How does Proctor feel about the court and Mary Warren’s part in the
proceedings? How has Mary Warren changed?
3. How has Hale changed since his arrival in Salem? Why is he testing Proctor
and Elizabeth? Why hasn’t Proctor been in church?
4. Why is Cheever looking for a poppet? What is the significance of the one
they find?
5. Hale says: “Mary–you charge a cold and cruel murder on Abigail.” What
does he mean?
6. Why does Proctor insist that Mary Warren testify in Elizabeth’s defense?
Why does Mary Warren refuse?
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Crucible Act III Study Questions
1. Why is Giles Cory expelled from court? Why won’t Danforth hear his evidence?
Why is Cory arrested?
2. Why is Mary Warren in court? What does she tell Danforth? Why is Danforth
suspicious of her and of Proctor? Why does Proctor remind her of the angel
Raphael?
3. How does Parris nullify Proctor’s testament? How is Giles’s deposition turned
against him?
4. What is the professed purpose of the court? Why doesn’t the court need
witnesses? What does this suggest about the proceedings?
5. Why does Proctor confess lechery? Why does he think Danforth and Hathorne
will believe his confession? Why don’t they believe him?
6. How is Elizabeth’s testimony used against Proctor? Why is this an unfair test of
Elizabeth’s word against John’s?
7. How does Abigail turn the court against Mary Warren?
8. Why does Hale denounce the proceedings? What should have been the effect
of his denunciation? Why is it not?
Crucible Act IV Study Questions
1. What is the effect of Sarah Good’s and Tituba’s talk about flying south?
Why does Miller include it?
2. How has Parris changed? Why doesn’t the news that Abigail and Mercy
have left town affect the decision of the court? How is Danforth a victim of
his own logic?
3. Why has Hale returned? How has he changed? Why has he changed?
4. Why does Danforth allow Elizabeth to speak to John Proctor? How has she
changed toward her husband? Why doesn’t she take Hale’s advice?
5. How and why does Giles die? Why wasn’t he hanged?
6. Why does Proctor confess? Why will he not name names? Why will he not
let Danforth have his signed paper?
7. Why does John Proctor choose to hang? What does he thereby
accomplish?
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Major Themes
1. Authority and Dissent
2. Martyrdom
3. Community vs. Individual
4. Naming Names
5. Sin and Guilt
6. Self interest
7. Reputation
Authority and Dissent
There are many levels of authority within the world of the Crucible. Early on,
the Reverend Parris is the sole authoritative voice in Salem, as the minister
and a graduate of Harvard College. He is supplanted by the arrival of
Reverend Hale, who derives his authority from books and learning, which are
then further supplanted in turn by the courts and its officials. Meanwhile,
individualists like Proctor and Giles Corey rankle under these layers of
authority – Proctor had long rejected Parris's preaching's, and Corey made
the authority of the law work for him as a constant plaintiff. But being an
outlier is seen as dangerous in this society. Indeed, dissent against official
authority is akin to being an anarchist at best and an agent of Satan at
worst. Proctor and Corey are the two most modern figures in the play for
their willingness to push back against the extreme authority of the courts.
For this, however, they also suffer greatly.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Authority and Dissent.
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Martyrdom
Miller addresses the question of whether a martyr must be a saint by having
Proctor grapple with this very issue throughout the play. The early victims of
the witch hunt are not seen as martyrs because even after death, they are
considered undesired members of society. In contrast, the execution of
Rebecca Nurse is widely recognized as one of martyrdom, because she has
lived a conspicuously upright life and thus walks to the gallows without
protest. Proctor sees himself as the borderline case – a respected member of
society but far from sinless. It is only by recognizing that he need not be as
perfect as Goody Nurse that Proctor finally finds "his goodness" as a moral
man.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Martyrdom.
Community vs. Individual
Salem is a tight-knit community where there is no such thing as private
business. Individual activities like church attendance or book reading or
keeping poppets become admissible evidence in court. Miller speculates that
the community of Salem sought to keep itself together by casting out
undesirable individuals, and in so doing created the atmosphere necessary
for the witch hunts. The court itself was an extension of this principle,
desperately in search of external validity – Danforth cannot possibly
exonerate some when others have already perished for the same crime. But
for the accused, it is only the individual that matters. In the end, Proctor is
left with nothing but his name and reputation.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Community vs. Individual.
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Naming Names
By requiring the accused to name others in their confessions, a witch hunt
like that in Salem or HUAC can take on the form of a pyramid scheme or
chain letter. In other words, to avoid the effects of this curse, you must pass
it on to five other people, and so forth. This "naming names" allowed the
accusations to spread and spread, while also permitting the public airing of
grievances and sins. As a member of the blacklist himself, Miller felt
particularly strongly about the evil of fingering others to save oneself, and
he expresses this idea by having several characters grapple with the
requirement that they name names. Giles Corey is held in contempt – the
charge that ultimately leads to his execution – for refusing to name the
person who told him of Putnam's scheming, and Proctor balks at the court's
intention to question the 91 people who signed his declaration of the good
character of the accused. But it is at the climax that this theme truly comes
to the fore, as Proctor would rather die than accuse more innocent people.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Naming Names.
Sin and Guilt
Miller identifies the witch hunt as an opportunity for the repressed members
of Salem society to publicly proclaim both their own sins and the sins of
others. Guilt has been bottled up at home in this community, and the airing
of sins and grievances is a relief to those previously without an outlet for
confession. Guilt motivates not only the witch hunts themselves, but also
the behavior of several principal characters. Proctor is haunted by remorse
over his infidelity, while Reverend Hale works to undermine the court that he
helped create as penance for his sins. The ultimate irony of the Salem witch
hunts is not only that the sins of the trials quickly outpaced the original
crime, but that there was no original crime to begin with. Indeed, the
abstract concept of sin was made concrete through compounding
avoidances of guilt.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Sin and Guilt.
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Self interest
In varying degrees, the instigators of the witch trials are working to serve
their own self-interest. Abigail begins the hysteria when she finds it a
convenient way to deflect attention from her own sins, and further points
the accusations at Elizabeth to scheme her way into Proctor's arms. Tituba,
the first charged, is also the first to confess when she realizes that a
confession will save her life. Parris at first rankles against the witchcraft talk
because it would undermine his reputation in the town, and later opposes
the execution of prominent community members because their death would
lead to popular uprising. Even Giles Corey died in the way he did because it
was in his own interest – by not pleading and dying under the weighted
rocks, he ensured that his property would pass to his sons rather than to the
state.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Self interest.
Reputation
The reputation of each individual within the Salem community largely dictated
his or her fate. The witch trials featured significant subversions of the dominant
social structure by elevating to a position of power individuals whose reputation
and status were otherwise lowly. Abigail, an unmarried, female orphan, suddenly
became the most important person in town, bringing with her a dozen other
such girls who otherwise could only hope to work as housekeepers until they
married. Similarly, the black slave Tituba, whose race gave her the lowest social
status in Salem, found herself with the ability to decide the fates of people far
more powerful than herself as she accused others of witchcraft. Conversely,
individuals with sparkling reputations like Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor
were dragged through the mud and lost all agency in their situations. John
Proctor is the appropriate protagonist for this story especially because he falls in
the center of Salem's spectrum of reputation. As a landowner and adulterer, he is
placed by Miller at the eye of the storm, watching the entire social structure
pivot around him.
Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the
theme of Reputation.
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