How does Miller handle the theme of Justice in 'The Crucible' and what message does he impart to his audience?

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How does Miller handle the theme of Justice in ‘The Crucible’ and what message does he impart to his audience?

The crucible was set in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is based on true facts about events that actually took place. It is about a small secluded town that relies strongly on their religion to keep them feeling safe. Their enemy is the devil and they are always scared of the devil and constantly looking for signs that the devil is there.

“We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.”

The fear of the devil gets so strong the town’s justice system take strong actions to keep everyone safe. The paradox between justice and freedom is very unbalanced. The justice and courts are so strict none of the Salem people have their own personal freedom.

Miller is questioning the fairness of the justice in Salem and that of the justice system in the US in the 50’s at the time he wrote the play. This is called an allegory. In the 50’s McCarthyism was the suppression of communism. Anyone accused of being a communist would be put into prison. Anyone who criticized the government was brought before the court and asked to name people they had seen at communist meetings. Arthur Miller did not agree with the system and wanted to get his views across. If he wrote a play about Senator McCarthy and his justice systems faults then he would have been arrested and the play would not have been shown. He made the play about the witchcraft in Salem to cover up his true meaning whilst being a polemic teaching people of the corruption in the justice system.

The characters in Salem all represent people from the US in the 50’s. The Judges represent the Senators. Miller makes them disliked by the audience by showing the unfairness of their justice and how they lose sight of what should be a punishable crime.

“this is a court of law. The law, based upon the Bible, and the Bible, writ by Almighty God,”

They consider God to be the most important thing. The Salem judges think that if someone is religious then they are good people. This is not always correct, one lady could not remember her prayers and they thought she was a bad person. The audience realizes that remembering something has nothing to do with whether they are good or bad. This is similar to the US in the 50’s because they would have decided someone worthy of prison if they were suspected of being a communist sympathizer Miller was trying to put across the message to people to get them to think about what their evidence really means and if what people are convicted over is actually meaningless.

Miller himself felt how unjust the system could be. In the US he was accused of being a communist. He represented himself in the play as the character of John Proctor. Proctor saw through the Justice system and was accused of plotting against it.

“There lurks nowhere in your heart, nor hidden in your spirit any desire to undermine this court?”

This shows by not allowing people to speak their thoughts no criticism could be accepted. If people cannot put forward their argument then it is not possible to conduct a fair trial. Like the US senators if no one was able to speak against them then they could carry out unfair justice because what they said would have gone unquestioned. Miller wanted to show how the courts were repressing people and being biased towards the prosecution. He was also showing people how paranoid both the justice systems became. In the crucible he wanted to show how easy it was for someone to be accused and hung, it would have just as easy to get someone thrown into jail for communism in the US.

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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 ...

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