A close focus on act III of ‘The Crucible’
Christina Brodie A close focus on act III of 'The Crucible'
The play, 'The crucible', shows how people react to mass hysteria caused by a group of people, as people did during the McCarthy hearings in the 1950's. The "House un-American activities committee" searched for communist sympathisers because they were felt to be a threat to the state. Many Americans were wrongly accused of being communist sympathisers and were convicted and sentenced without any real evidence of them having committed a crime. Mere suspicion was classed as evidence. And like the during the witch hunts, anyone who spoke out was accused which made defending yourself a death wish. This is how McCarthyism was linked with the witch-hunts that had taken place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
The title of the play describes exactly what was happening at the time of the witch-hunts. A crucible is a container in which metals are heated to extracted the pure element from impurities, and crucible is another word for a cauldron that witches use to brew their magic potions in. So the word 'crucible' could metaphorically be used to explain how the activities in Salem were like a potion brewing in a cauldron with the potion being 'mixed' to separate the witches (impurities) from the good, god-loving citizens (element).
The opening scene of the play shows the girls dancing in the woods around a cauldron, they are spotted by Parris who also see's that one of them is naked.
The people of Salem were Puritans and so dancing was perceived as a sin.
The morning after the dancing, two of the youngest girls cannot wake from bed. A doctor is called to help the girls but he cannot diagnose what is wrong with them or how they can be helped, His only advice is to look to the unnatural. The girls do not confess to their activities until Parris confronts them. Abigail says all that they did was dance and strongly denies that any of them were naked, 'Uncle, we did dance.' 'There is nothin' more. I swear it, uncle.'
Mrs Putnam, the mother of the other ill child, believes that her daughter Ruth and Parris's daughter Betty's illnesses are caused by the devil. Parris calls for Hale who is an expert on 'demonic arts'
Parris is the minister of the Village, much to the Putnam's dismay. Mr Putnam's brother was in competition with Parris for the position of minister and so the Putnam's have a grudge against not only Parris, but the Nurse family who prevented him from being minister and many of there neighbours for various reasons. Especially with Giles Corey who has worked out that the Putnam's will do anything to get their hands on other peoples land, 'This man is killing his neighbours for their land!' John Proctor also has a grudge against Parris.
Hale arrives in Salem, He is a confident and well education young man who believes he has all the answers. As he is examining Betty Giles Corey distracts him by asking him questions about his wife. Giles says that his wife reads strange books whilst they are in bed and while she is reading, he cannot pray. Hale carries on trying to help Betty with little effect. Parris tells Hale that he thinks he saw a kettle in the grass with the girls in the wood with something moving inside it. Hale questions Abigail but she denies that ...
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Hale arrives in Salem, He is a confident and well education young man who believes he has all the answers. As he is examining Betty Giles Corey distracts him by asking him questions about his wife. Giles says that his wife reads strange books whilst they are in bed and while she is reading, he cannot pray. Hale carries on trying to help Betty with little effect. Parris tells Hale that he thinks he saw a kettle in the grass with the girls in the wood with something moving inside it. Hale questions Abigail but she denies that she drank blood and called the devil. Abigail then realises that if the truth is found out she will get in a lot of trouble and so she passes the blame onto Tituba, Parris's black slave, by saying that Tituba forced her to drink blood and even blames her wicked dreams on the slave.
Tituba confesses to save herself from being hung. She mentions four people's names that she supposedly saw with the devil. Abigail mentions more and more names and then the rest of the girls join in, mentioning the names of anyone they hate, have a grudge against or just dislike. As the girls cried out more names, the hysteria began to grow.
By accusing others of witchcraft they are diverting attention away from their original misdemeanours.
We can see that the Proctors relationship is not very strong, they make petty small talk over dinner and don't appear to be happy together. One reason for this may be that Elizabeth has not forgiven John for having an affair with Abigail whilst she was ill.
Whilst Mary was at court with the other girls where people were being tried for witchcraft she made a poppet for Elizabeth. Abigail was sitting next to Mary whilst she made it.
By now 39 women had been arrested and Goody Osborn was sentenced to hanging.
Mary, who had always been a very shy, timid girl was now becoming very easily led along by Abigail and just as confused between fact and fantasy as the other girls and. This is apparent when she tells the Proctors that Sarah Good had confessed to having made contact with Lucifer, and that Sarah Goods spirit tried to choke her in the courtroom. Mary then speaks of even more fantasy when she says that terrible stomach pains had been inflicted upon her when she had turned the old woman away whilst she was begging. Mary also accused the old woman of mumbling a spell to her, but Sarah Good claimed it was not a spell, it were her commandments. The court asked her to repeat the commandments, but she could not.
Hale travelled around the houses of the accused so he could get to know those who were being accused. But the truth is that even at this earlier stage, he was unsure about the truth of all this. When he goes to the Proctors, he tests John's Christian faith by asking him to explain why he hadn't attended church every Sunday and why his youngest child had not been baptized. His excuses was that he didn't want his child being baptized by Parris and he didn't really want to attend his services as he had plenty of work to be doing on the farm. Hale asks John and Elizabeth to repeat their commandments, Elizabeth repeats each one of them correctly. But John forgets one- Thou must not commit adultery.
John tries to convince Hale that the girl's story is all just pretence to cover up the activities that happened in the woods. Hale begins to realise that he may be fooled by the innocence of the girl's youth.
Giles Corey and Francis Nurse's wives are the next to be arrested. Next is Elizabeth. Cheever goes to arrest Elizabeth and is ordered to search her home for poppets. He asks Elizabeth if she has ever kept any, she replies with 'not since I was a girl'. Cheever then sees the one that Mary had made for her. Elizabeth explains to him that Mary had only given it to her that day and she had made it whilst she was bored in court. The Proctors weren't aware that Abigail had a needle into her stomach. Cheever lifted the clothes on the poppet to reveal its body. A needle was stuck through it in the same place as on Abigail's body.
As Elizabeth is chained and taken away, Giles (who realises now that Hale is aware this is all fraud) urges Hale to act. Although Hale appears to be a very well educated and confident man we can see his cowardice when he does not act upon his own suspicions.
That night when Proctor is left alone with Mary, he tells her that she must explain to the court how the poppet came to be there and why the needle was stuck in to it.
Mary weeps, she wants to help but is scared as Abigail has threatened to kill her and charge lechery on Proctor.
Abigail is an 18 year old slave. As a child she witnessed the death of her parents by Indians and was then taken into service at the Proctors house. Whilst working for the Proctors Abigail had an affair with John whilst his wife Elizabeth was ill. As soon as Elizabeth found out about the affair, she threw Abigail out of her house and onto the high road.
Abigail then went to work for her uncle, Parris.
As the play goes on and more lies are told, we realise just how scheming and selfish she is. She loves the new found attention and power that she has amongst the girls whom she controls physiologically. She is fully aware of the power that she now has- she can, and does, name those who she does not like and has them accused of witchcraft.
She is still in love with John Proctor even though her clearly states he no longer wants anything to do with her, 'I will cut off my hand before I reach for you again'.
John Proctor is a hard working family man, he owns and works on his farm. He has and demands respect from others in the village, and is generally a well thought of man. As Herrick describes in court 'I have known this man all my life. It is a good man.'
He not only thinks of himself and his wife, but also about his friends and their wives. He presents the court with a list of people who believe that some of the women being accused are the 'saintliest women in Salem', 'The people signing it declare their good opinion of Rebecca, my wife and Martha Corey.'
John's wife, Elizabeth is a very strong, loving and kind Christian. She believes that she runs a good Christian household, follows her religious duties and lives according to her beliefs.
Her love for her husband is so strong that she forgives him for committing lechery and goes against her religion by lying to the court to try to protect his name.
In the final scene of the play she tells John that she blames herself for him committing adultery - 'if I had not kept such a cold house'
The majority of the characters are very self absorbed- they are more concerned about their reputation and name then they are about their family, friends and neighbours welfare.
Nicholas Hytner makes good use of the way the characters are shot in the courtroom scenes. Those who are together in believing the same thing or fighting for the same cause are filmed together, those who speak out on their own are shot on there own.
A great example of this is shown with Hale. Originally he is in the same shot as the rest of the members of court, but then as he signs more death warrants and begins to question his actions he is shown alone or between those being accused or questioned and the members of court.
Seeing the characters in groups, pairs or individually in shots shows more clearly than the text does who is against, together, or in agreement with whom. Most of the courtroom shots were filmed at eye level- as if the viewer were there looking at the characters face to face. This created the feeling of all attention being on the person questioned, and highlighted the importance of the things that they said as there were no distractions for the viewer to look elsewhere other than at the characters face.
The way that Elizabeth was shown in between her husband and Abigail when the court asked her to confess if, to her knowledge, John had committed adultery. When Danforth begins questioning her about this, he asks why Abigail was no longer the Proctors servant. 'She dissatisfied me' is Elizabeth's unconvincing reply. At this time, the camera is showing Abigail and Proctor with Elizabeth further back in between them so she appears small. This shows that Abigail and Proctor were both depending on Elizabeth's answer to prove one of them to be a liar. As Danforth's questions begin to get closer to the truth, the camera gets closer to Elizabeth's face so that when Danforth asks 'To your knowledge has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery?' the camera is showing only Elizabeth's startled face. After moment's hesitation, she faintly answers 'No, sir.' The camera then zooms out to show Abigail and Proctor with Elizabeth still in the middle until she is taken away. Individual shots, especially close-ups, build intensity.
The setting in the courtroom created an excellent atmosphere, it was dark and gloomy with rays of sun entering the dull room from a small window. The atmosphere between the people was just as dark and depressing as the courtroom itself, with the ray of light perhaps trying to resemble the small amount of truth, honesty and dignity left in the village.
Although I did enjoy reading the book, I much prefer the film because it makes the story line much clearer and makes it more exciting and interesting by using camera shots and setting to add more interest to the play and to make it more appealable to others.
The story is a shocking insight into history; It's hard to believe that it is actually a true story.
