There is little symbolism within The Crucible, but the play is symbolic of the Marxism paranoia that spread through America in the 1950s. There are similar points between House Un-American Activities Committee's getting rid of suspected communists during this time and the seventeenth-century witch-hunt that Miller portrays in The Crucible. As with the ‘witches’ of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess their crimes and to "name names," identifying others who were involved in the same things. As far as is known there were no witches in Salem at this time, although there were Communists in 1950s America. McCarthyism extremes wronged many people in the time the crucible was set, this parallel was felt strongly in Miller's own time.
Reputation was important in Salem. As the play begins, Parris worry’s that Abigail's more and more dubious actions and the hints of witchcraft surrounding Betty’s loss of consciousness, will threaten his reputation and force him from the village. Meanwhile, the main character, , seeks to keep his name in the village form being blackened. Early in the play, he has a chance to stop the girls' accusations, but his want to protect his reputation keeps him from testifying against Abigail. At the end of the play Proctor's wish to keep his name untarnished leads him to make the choice not to make a false confession and to go to his death without signing his name to an untrue statement. "I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" he cries to Danforth in Act IV. By refusing to give up his name, he redeems himself for his earlier failure and dies with honesty.
For my coursework I chose to do the beginning of Act 1. As the play opens, kneels, praying in front of Betty’s bed. Parris is a strict man suffering from paranoia. lies in a motionless, unresponsive way. Parris has sent for of Beverly, a specialist on witchcraft, to decide whether Betty is bewitched. Parris shouts at his niece, , because he discovered her, Betty, and several other girls dancing in the forest in the middle of the night with his slave, . Tituba was chanting and waving her arms, dancing, over a fire and Parris thought he spotted someone running naked through the trees. The word that Betty is the victim of witchcraft is spreading in Salem, and a crowd has gathered outside Parris's house.
Abigail denied that she and the girls engaged in witchcraft. She testifies that Betty simply fainted from shock when her father caught them dancing. Parris is worrying that his enemies will use this to drive him out of his job. , a local woman who once employed Abigail at her home but fired her, due to her affair with Elizabeth’s husband, had stopped attending church regularly. There are rumours that Elizabeth does not want to sit that close to Abigail. Abigail denies any unlawful activities and declares that Elizabeth hates her because she would not work like a slave. Parris asks why no other family has hired Abigail if Elizabeth is a liar.
Mrs. Putnam had seven babies that each died within hours of their birth. Certain that someone used witchcraft to murder them, she sent Ruth, her daughter to Tituba to contact the spirits of her dead children in order to discover who the murderer was. Parris shouts at Abigail again and declares that she and the girls were practicing witchcraft. Putnam advises announce that he has discovered witchcraft before somebody else does. and enter the room. Mrs. Putnam informs that their own daughter is as lifeless as Betty, and she claims that someone saw Betty flying over a neighbour’s barn. Parris agrees to meet the crowd and lead them in a prayer, but he refuses to mention witchcraft until he gets Reverend Hale's opinion.
Once they are alone, Abigail informs Mercy on the situation. , the servant for the Proctor family, enters the room in an anxious state. Betty sits up suddenly and cries for her mother, but her mother is dead. Abigail tells the girls that she has told Parris everything about their activities in the woods, but Betty cries that Abigail did not tell Parris about drinking blood as a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor, 's wife. She worries that they will all be considered witches; Abigail hit Betty and warns the other girls to confess only that they danced and that Tituba conjured Ruth's dead sisters. She makes threats to kill them if they say a word about the other things that they did. She shakes Betty, but Betty has returned to her unresponsive state.
On the surface, Parris appears to be an anxious, worried father. Though, if we look at his language, we find that he is mainly worried about his reputation, not the welfare of his daughter and her friends. He fears that Abigail, Betty, and the other girls were engaging in witchcraft when he caught them dancing, and his first concern is not the girls in themselves but the trouble that the scandal will cause him.
The characters in The Crucible are either developing, as are John, Elizabeth and Hale, or they are representative. Parris, Putnam and Giles Corey represent the struggles between each other and for land, social respect and power which were present in Salem. For a priest, the former businessman Parris is too concerned about material issues and his reputation, while Giles Corey has conflicts with almost everyone in the village. But in contrast to most of the other villagers he is open and direct. Rebecca is the "good soul" of the village, and seems to be the only flawless character in the whole play. Danforth and especially Hathorne symbolise authority.
Structurally, every scene has its own story and the story could be understood without the previous acts. The first and second are explanations, the third is action-oriented and provides the strongest climax, while the fourth the conclusion, and also a tragedy in itself. As every act before it has its own climax (the accusations, the arrest of Elizabeth, the show played by the girls to break Mary Warren, the struggle in Proctor whether to give away his confession). Every act starts very slowly and without much action and provides a description (the situation of the Proctor’s, the ongoing of the trials, the situation of the jailed Proctor’s) in itself, then getting more intense.