The characters are very important in showing justice and morality. By their juxtaposition and unfairness they show that the punishment should be proportionate to the offence. They also highlight the differences between being moral and immoral. Some of the characters resist corruption and are moral, whereas others give in to the temptation of taking the easy way out. The juxtaposition of the characters is used to show justice and morality by characters having different degrees of morality. The most immoral character is Abigail, who acts to help herself, first to save herself from punishment and then by trying to become the wife of John Proctor. At the beginning of the play, Danforth, the judge, thinks that he is doing what is morally correct. Towards the end he realises that he has been acting on lies, but is too afraid to admit it because he would be blamed for killing innocent people. Therefore at the end of the play, Danforth is just as immoral as Abigail. Sarah Good, in contrast, lies to save her own life, but this immorality does not affect others around her. Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey are both very moral and will not lie even to save their lives.
Abigail is very immoral and corrupt and acts always in self-interest. At the beginning she appears to be sweet and innocent by saying things like ‘I would never hurt Betty. I love her dearly.’ When Betty is sick, Abigail realises that she is going to be in trouble, so she decides to blame Tituba. When talking about the contents of the kettle that was present when they danced, Hale asks 'Did Tituba ask you to drink it?’ Abigail sees an easy way to stop herself being blamed, and shifts the blame onto Tituba. She knows that witchcraft is a hanging offence, but does not care about the effect of accusing someone of witchcraft when it stops her getting into trouble. When Tituba decides to confess, Abigail realises that this is her chance to free herself from all blame and says 'I want to open myself!'. She then starts to name several other names of 'witches' without caring that innocent people would hang because she accused them. Throughout the play, Abigail is a false witness to many people's trials to show that they were witches. She then accuses Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft in the hope that she will hang and Abigail could become John Proctor's wife. This shows that Abigail is a very immoral character and she does not care what effect her actions have on other people as long as she benefits from her actions. Abigail threatens the other characters by saying ‘I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine…. I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!’ By saying this she presents herself as violent and immoral. The fact that she has witnessed such violence in her life could be a reason why she acts so immorally.
Although Danforth is the character that sentences people to be hung if they will not confess, at the beginning of the play he does have some moral principles. He believes that Abigail and the other girls are telling the truth and tries to get rid of the evil in Salem. Despite his morals he does not give the accused people a fair trial and is not suspicious of Abigail. When Proctor accuses Abigail, Danforth starts to suspect Abigail, and says 'She claims as well that none of you have seen these things either...Abigail Williams.... is there any truth in this?' He continues to question her, but in the end believes her or pretends to believe her. When he finds out that Abigail ran away with Mercy Lewis and Parris' money, he 'walks in thought, deeply worried'. He comes to realise that Abigail is false and that he could be hung for killing innocent people. He will not even postpone the hanging of Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey and John Proctor, even though there could be a rebellion because of them being hung. He will not show the public that he was wrong and now knows that he is hanging and has hung innocent people. He is very immoral at the end of the play and acts only to save himself. In this way he is very similar to Abigail.
There are several characters, for example Sarah Good, who confess to witchcraft to save themselves from being hung. Although it is immoral to lie, these people are not as immoral as Abigail and Danforth, because their lying does not seem to affect other people, it only saves their own lives. In the long term it does affect other people because confessing makes the court believe more strongly that witches are real, and so more people are accused of witchcraft.
Proctor has many strict morals and believes in them enough to go to the court and tell them that Abigail is lying. He will only do this when his wife and the wives of his friends are accused of witchcraft because he is worried that Abigail will reveal the truth about him and his affair with her. This affair was an immoral thing to do, and he regrets it, but at the same time does not want to hurt Abigail. Proctor is worried about the consequences for himself of doing the right thing. When Elizabeth Proctor asks him to tell the court that Abigail is a fraud, before they find out that she is accused, he replies with '(angering) I know I cannot keep it. I say I will think on it!'. He knows what he should do, but cannot bring himself to do it because of the shame that he would have to live with. He also says 'If the girl's a saint now, I think it is not easy to prove she's fraud...I have no proof for it.' By saying this he is trying to convince both Elizabeth and himself that he is doing the right thing by postponing telling the court. He knows that he should tell the truth and save the innocent people, but also knows that there is a possibility that he will be ruined by it. Proctor tells Mary Warren that she 'will not go to court again' because he knows that she is lying to the court and providing them with false evidence. By forbidding her to go to court, Proctor is trying to show that he cares about the innocent people that are accused of witchcraft. When Elizabeth is taken away, Proctor says to Mary Warren 'You're coming to the court with me, Mary. You will tell it in court.'. He then says 'My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will never die for me!' Proctor knows why Abigail accused Elizabeth and is now not worried about the consequences of telling the truth, as long as it saves his wife. He regrets having the affair with Abigail and is determined not to let his sins kill his wife. This is why he tells the court the truth and even tells them about his affair. At this point in the play he is very moral and is prepared to tell the court the whole truth to save the innocent people. When he is accused of being the Devil's man he will not lie and confess. This shows that he has high moral standards and resists corruption. At the end of the play he decides to confess so that he can save his life, but when he is told that his confession must be made public, he rips it up. He now admits that the document was a lie. At the very end he shows that he can act on his morals and will not accept the temptation of the easy way out. Throughout the whole play, Proctor has a trial of moral conscience. He knows that he has sinned and that one more sin to save his life would not make a big difference. Despite this he decides to tell the truth and take the consequences. His character is very different to the characters of Abigail and Danforth and this contrast exaggerates the immorality of Abigail and Danforth.
Elizabeth Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey are all characters with many moral values and who will not go against these values. The only time that Elizabeth goes against her values is when she lies to save Proctor. She is very worried about lying and only does to save her husband. Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey both die because they do not give in to temptation of lying. Elizabeth Proctor would also have been hung if she had not been pregnant. The morality of these three characters accentuates the immorality of the other characters in the play.
At the beginning Reverend Hale believes that Abigail is telling the truth, and believes that the court is doing the right thing and eliminating evil in Salem. Later on in the play he begins to realise that the girls are lying. He acts morally when he realises this and turns against the court, even though he helped to punish innocent people. He is not afraid to stand by the truth and what he knows is right even if it diminishes his standing. This shows him as a moral character.
Arthur Miller uses the juxtaposition of the scenes to show the difference between false and true justice and the different moral values. The first few scenes show Abigail lying to get herself out of trouble. When the truth comes out in a subsequent scene, the audience can see that Abigail is immoral and lies to get herself out of trouble. At the end of Act 1, Abigail, Betty and Tituba blame a number of people and say that they saw them with the Devil. At the beginning of Act 2, John and Elizabeth Proctor are talking about the witch trials and John's affair with Abigail. In this scene, Proctor shows his moral views, which are very different to the moral views of the people at the end of Act 1. This contrast prompts the comparison between Abigail's immoral actions and Proctor's moral views. At the end of Act Two, Proctor says ‘My wife will never die for me!’ and at the beginning of Act Three, Martha Corey is at her trial and is accused of being a witch. These two contrasting scenes exaggerate the false justice happening at the trial. Proctor is very moral and is determined to do the right thing, whereas the judge in the trial acts immorally. In the middle of Act Four, Elizabeth and John Proctor talk to each other alone for the last time. They talk about whether or not John should confess. In this scene both Elizabeth and John maintain their high principles, but in the next scene John signs the confession. This highlights how John is being immoral in signing the confession. He then rips up the confession and admits that it was a lie. This contrast shows how immoral he was going to be, and how moral he is at the end, even though it results in death.
The lighting helps to show the morality of the characters. At the beginning, it is dark in the bedroom and Abigail lies to Parris and goes on to name names. The darkness shows immorality and how the immorality starts. In Act Two the Proctor’s house is dark and this is where the unhappy truth is revealed about the accused people. In Act Three the room is ‘solemn, even foreboding’. Many people have been sentenced to death and hung. More moral people are sentenced and accused of witchcraft in this Act, and the setting suggests this. Proctor tries and fails to tell the court the truth, and so it is important that the lighting is used to suggest something wrong and immoral will happen. Act four is the darkest Act. This is because John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse are going to be hung. This Act shows the trial of moral conscience that John Proctor has to go through.
The people of Salem are strong Puritans. The language used in the play shows how important religion is to the people of Salem. Elizabeth Proctor says ‘where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel.’ This metaphor shows how important religion is to the characters in the play because they are using biblical references in every day conversation. It is important that people in Salem are so religious because it means that if someone goes against the religion the consequences would be disastrous. When Hale asks Proctor to recite his commandments and he does not know one of them, he says ‘Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small.’ This emphasizes the importance of religion because it is so bad that John Proctor cannot recite all of his commandments. Strict Puritans should have very high morals and act on them, but in ‘The Crucible’ many people are misled into thinking that they are being moral and justice is being done, but the truth is that Abigail is lying. The law is very strongly against witchcraft and there is a death penalty for people who are witches. If someone confesses to witchcraft and repents for their sins, they are pardoned. This prompts false confessions, which is immoral and results in, many innocent people being killed.
When he wrote ‘The Crucible’, Arthur Miller was trying to make his audiences understand that it was not only during the time of the witch trials that people were treated unfairly, but also in the time that they were living and times to come. He was trying to persuade people to think before they accuse someone and not always to believe people who blame other people. His different ways of showing justice and morality put his point of view across effectively because the audience’s last impression of the play is that people were unfairly treated. The unhappy ending reinforces the unfair treatment of innocent people and this encourages the audience to think about the way justice should be done.
