The protagonist in ‘The Crucible’ is John Proctor. It is an unusual choice as there is nothing apparently special to him. This is the actual reason why Miller chose John. He wanted to make a common man the Hero of his tragedy. In Miller’s essay ‘Tragedy and the Common Man” he explains how few tragedies are written because people do not want to read about what happens to kings and saints but how it relates to them and how events or situations effect common people.
“I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were.”
Miller gives a good example in ‘The Crucible’ with John, showing how anyone can be a hero.
“I think it is honest, I think so; I am no saint. (As though she has denied this he calls angrily at her.) Let Rebecca go like a saint; for me it is fraud!”
John can still be a hero even though he is a simple man and has few heroic qualities. The events still affect him and his story can be equally tragic to that of a kings. One flaw of the Justice system is made apparent. They are not paying attention to how their actions are affecting the common people of Salem, they worry over the appearance of the court and if they are sticking strictly to “the law” only.
In the majority of tragedies the Hero is fighting a battle. Miller’s view was that the tragedies that invoked feelings within people, was when someone willing to lay down his/her life in attempt to gain his/her rightful place in society.
“The quality in such plays that does shake us, however, derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world … In fact, it is the common man who knows this fear best.”
In the crucible Proctor is fighting for his right to have his freedom and to be respected. Unlike Shakespeare’s play Macbeth where Macbeth is fighting for his right to be the king of England, Proctor is only fighting for his right to be a respected member of society. This comparison demonstrates how tragedy can apply to the common man as easily as to a King. In his essay Miller also says how the story of Oedipus and Orestes were royal but how Oedipus’s situation applies to everyone in similar emotional circumstances. The crucible would not have been a good tragedy if it was about the Judges, or anyone of importance. Its effectiveness is that the audience can see how the justice affects the common man and can therefore sympathize more strongly; as it is easier to imagine themselves in that position.
Proctor is a dynamic character because he can be seen to progress throughout the play. At the start of the play it is unclear to the audience that he is the Protagonist. He at first seems strict and a little cold not showing any signs that he is going to be the hero of the play. He does not like the people of Salem and tries to keep to himself and out of their way.
“I have not left my farm this seven month”
When his wife Elizabeth is accused he is forced to deal with the people of Salem and their court. This event starts to change Proctor.
John starts to change and it becomes clearer that the play is about him and his fight for Justice and the truth.
“How do you call Heaven! Whore! Whore!”
John accuses Abigail with a “roaring voice” here he admits his wrongs. He is now seen
as the Hero because the audience has seen his flaw. All Hero’s have a fatal flaw and John’s is his integrity. He admits this crime that is not just thought wrong by the court, but also himself. He is doing a heroic act in the hope of achieving Justice. The audience starts to sympathize with him and have a deep respect for his honesty.
Proctor cannot stand to hear and see the lies. He has the strong belief that if people are truthful then justice will be fair. At the beginning he was hiding the truth away.
“I have set myself entirely in your hands. I know you must see it now.”
He has been completely honest and risks losing his respect in the trust that the truth will been shown about Abby’s pretences. His trust is misplaced and the court believes Abby. Now John has been put into these tragic circumstances his heroic qualities are more obvious. Proctor is put into prison because in the Salem justice system it is easy to prosecute, but the defense has almost no chance, due to the biased Judges and the paranoid fear of the devil.
His faith in the truth throughout they play is lost in act four. He realizes the corruptness of the Justice and loses his faith in humanity. The audience feels angry as the system has almost defeated the hero in forcing him to lose his integrity by signing a confession.
“He will confess! Proctor will confess!”
For the Judges this means people will not lose faith in their justice for Proctor he feels like he is committing a huge sin.
At the end of the play Proctor becomes the true Hero when he cannot completely lose his integrity by having the town know that he condemned his friends. Proctor is questioning who he is being judged by as he realizes that the courts justice is very different to God’s justice.
“HALE: Man you will hang! You cannot!
PROCTOR: I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor.”
Proctor restores the audience’s faith in humanity by doing the right thing. He is now a good person and he see himself as one; this makes the audience see him as a hero as he is now a good man. The audience also feels angry that the Justice system has won.
The antagonist of the Crucible is Abigail Williams. Abby at first appears to be the protagonist until her true nature is shown. Abby commits terrible sins and lies to have innocent people hanged. She is a shocking character the audience are shown a little of her background.
“You know I can do it: I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night”
Abby was made heartless from the things she has been through. The horrific things she has seen including people dying have made her careless about life and death. This is what gives her the ability to carry out actions that result in a great number of deaths. She could almost control the whole Justice system and the audience blame Abby for most of the injustices.
Abby’s main persecutions are aimed at the Proctor’s. At the beginning it is Mary that accuses her of drinking blood to kill Elizabeth. This is because of her affair with John. She hates Elizabeth because she thinks she is the only thing in the way of her and John.
“She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me!”
Abby want to remain to appear innocent in the village and does not like the idea that Elizabeth could tell people things to make them despise Abby. She blames Elizabeth for sending her away.
Abby also persecutes John for turning her away.
“I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again”
Abby likes to get what she wants and is very angry that John will refuse her and push her away. She then wants to punish him for it.
Abby is very effective as an antagonist because she has a number of abilities that enable her to manipulate, persecute and deceive people with a frightening ease. Miller chose to raise her age. Abby was actually only 12 years old. This would have made her very disturbing to the audience and they would have had a greater dislike for John. Miller has used her looks to help her be effective.
“a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling.”
She can manipulate people with her looks and she can be very false to her benefit. This means she is good at tricking people, an ability she uses throughout the play to use the justice system to get what she wants.
Salem is a very quiet town the characters in it are reserved and religious people. Abby has incredible passion and strong emotions.
“he takes a step to go, and she spring into his path.
Give me a word John, A soft word. (her concentrated desire destroys his smile)”
Abby can use this passion to rule people. When the other people of Salem see her so passionate they find it hard to argue against her. This is how she managed to get so many people to believe her lies because she could deliver them with such passion they were incredibly convincing. The courts were convinced and hanged people on no more evidence than Abby’s pretending they sent heir spirit out. The justice was easily led and Abby took full advantage of this.
Abby is also incredibly cunning and finds it easy to set Elizabeth up for witchcraft. When she decides this is what she wants to do.
“Ask Abby, Abby sat beside me when I made it.”
The poppet that Mary gave to Elizabeth had a needle in it exactly where Abby herself had been stabbed by a needle and accused Elizabeth of sending out her spirit. She is full of ideas and is very scheming. The Justice system is ready to accuse people of witchcraft and Abby found it easy to set Elizabeth up because they would punish people before they looked into the evidence.
Abby can manipulate a lot of people she manipulates her friends as she is the leader to the group. She uses the other girls’ fear of her to make them turn on anyone who turns on her.
“PROCTOR: Mary, remember the angel Raphael – do that which is good and-
ABBY: (pointing upward) The wings! Her wings are spreading! Mary, please, don’t, don’t,-!”
Abby tries lots of techniques to manipulate Mary mainly by scaring her and making Mary more scared of Abby than she would be of Proctor or of killing people or even of God.
Abby’s power of manipulation stretches even to the judges. When she herself is accused she does not hesitate to directly challenge them which is more then any of the adults in Salem have managed to do.
“(in an open threat): Let you beware Mr Danforth. Think you be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits?”
She is very powerful to be able to threaten the judges openly and this works to shock them into believing her stories. By controlling the Judges she can control the Justice and turn them on whomever she chooses.
Although to the audience Abby is the main persecutor and is very controlling towards the other people she is not the only person behind the injustice in Salem. The Putnams play a large part when they are accusing people so that he can buy their land.
“His vindictive nature was demonstrated long before the witchcraft began”
Thomas Putnam was not interested in justice but in revenge and using it to benefit himself. Tituba was partly to blame for when she was in trouble she very quickly started to blame other people and carried on which was helping to convince people that Abby was telling the truth about the witchcraft. A lot of the blame is also on the judges. It was them that sentenced all the witches and it was them that carried out the injustice. Even when they think it might not be true they fight to keep people believing that it is.
Miller uses an omniscient narrator frequently in the Crucible. The Narrator describes the characters before the audience meets them so that the audience will understand their background and so that Miller can put across his opinions on them.
“It was also in my opinion one of the things that a John Proctor would rebel against”
Miller used these sections of speech to put across his opinion about the play and share his views on the unfairness of the justice system.
There are many examples of irony in the crucible. There is verbal irony when John forgets the commandment.
“Adultery John”
This is verbal irony because it is the one that he has committed. This is also dramatic irony because the audience knows that he has forgotten the one he committed, but Hale is unaware. This shows how the justice depends too much on religion. John test to see if he was a good person was to remember 10 commandments. The audience can see this has no relevance to weather he is a good man or not.
There is dramatic irony again when Danforth says
“do you doubt my justice”
The audience know that the justice system is completely unfair and unjust but he is saying that it is a sin to even question weather it is being just. When Danforth says “my” justice it is once again showing that there is a difference between the judge’s justice and God’s justice.
Miller ends the play with a small passage entitled ‘echoes down the corridor’ This is information to the audience about what is happening now. It shows that there was some justice in the end. When John is calling Abby a whore and no one believes him the audience feel there is no justice.
“Abigail turned up later as a prostitute in Boston”
To make people feel there is justice as Abby got what she deserved and people finally saw through her and she revealed the truth to what she really was.
Miller states that Paris was voted out of office. This was also what happened to Senator McCarthy they both were causing injustice and in the end were both expelled. This means that they have got their justice.
The audience is most concerned if John gets his justice. He does because the audience can all see that he is a good man and he becomes a hero to anyone watching the play. The characters in the play don’t celebrate him as a hero but from everyone watching he is praised. This means his message of following your own sense of right and wrong is received my hundreds of people. This is how John gets his justice and how miller restores people’s faith in the goodness of humanity.