As Francis Nurse, the wife of accused Rebecca Nurse joins Giles in accusing Rebecca Nurse of being innocent but he also causes quite a stir when he announces that the girls who have been supposedly seeing many of the villagers spirits and accusing them of witchcraft to the highest court of lying and that they are frauds.
“We have proof of it. They are all deceiving you.” Having the ego he has, Danforth takes this quite seriously as a lot of work and evidence is needed to convince Danforth that he is wrong about something, especially about a topic in which he has sentenced numerous people to death.
And, as seen in his reply, he does not take the comment by Francis very nicely. “Do you know who I am, Mr Nurse?” Danforth then carries on to go through all the death warrants he has signed and how many people are in jail upon signature, trying to make himself seem very powerful and good at his job, in the possibility that Francis might drop the accusation that Danforth and the rest of his court have been deceived by a bunch of young girls.
With the entrance of Proctor and Mary Warren at his side, Paris is yet again beckoned to voice his opinion. Being shocked that Mary Warren, one of his niece’s very good friends, has come into the court after not showing up with the rest of the ‘affected’ girls because of illness.
“Beware this man, Your Excellency, this man is mischief.” From this, it is extremely clear that he has his opinions which he tries very hard to get through to the judges as that they will agree with him.
The key sign to see of Proctor is to see the way he deals with Mary Warren. When Danforth asks Mary what she has to tell to the court and Mary doesn’t answer immediately, Proctor butts in, claiming that she has never seen any spirits. The speed at which he answers for Mary and the way he so greedily interrupted Mary before she said anything shows that Proctor seems very nervous, or even eager to get something through to the judges via Mary.
When Danforth asks another question about how Mary came about lying about the spirits she saw, she answers very quietly in a frail, slow and nervous voice, even making Danforth ask her to repeat her reply because he couldn’t hear it the first time. This unconvincing tone of voice that Mary speaks portrays that she is very nervous and even not very sure about what she is doing and what she is trying to say.
The next part, the reaction to what Mary says, shocks many, and puts the situation into a different aspect. Danforth is baffled that the all the girls have been lying to him, while Paris is extremely nervous and in a state. He tries to cover up Mary’s statement saying to the judges that he can not possible allow such lies to be spread through the court.
Before the court hearing carries on, Danforth tries to intimidate in a vain attempt to get him to drop the accusations. “We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment.” The fact that Danforth says this suggests that he might know that Proctor is not telling the entire truth and is using Mary to his advantage.
When Proctor decides to carry on, some members of the court gang up on Proctor, pointing out his weaknesses and untrustworthiness to Danforth, claiming that he damned the court and that he ploughs on Sunday, the holy day.
When Proctor first made his accusations that the girls were lying and pretending, he said that he was doing it to free his innocent wife. Danforth then tells Proctor that his wife claims that she is having a baby, and since the baby has not done anything wrong, Goody Proctor can not be harmed until she has delivered the baby. With this, Danforth offers Proctor the option of dropping the case because his wife is already saved, at least for the time being. But Proctor does not choose to, therefore contradicting his previous statement of wanting to free his innocent wife because now he wants to free the innocent wives of his friends.
When Proctor gives Danforth a list of names who have signed, saying that they think Goody Proctor, Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey are innocent and that in all the time they have known the women they have never seen anything to suspect them of with craft or being connected in any way to the devil. Parris immediately says that all the people who signed should be arrested and questioned but Francis is very against that because he gave his word that none of the people would be harmed. Parris also says that it is an attack against the court but Hale, barely containing himself, disagrees. “Is every defence an attack against the court?” Here is another sign of Hale picking the side of Proctor, Giles and Francis rather then sticking loyally with the court to which he usually stands by.
Key part in seeing how the court really works in Salem is after Giles submits an accusation against Putnam that he made his daughter cry witch against his wife because he wants Giles’ land. When Danforth asks for the name of the supposedly honest man who heard Putnam talk to his daughter about accusing Martha Corey, Giles says he can not give him the name because that innocent will then go to jail.
“You know well why not! He’ll lay in jail if I give his name!” This glitch in the justice system shows how just from saying that someone is guilty of something you will be put in jail for saying it. This is because Putnam, who is higher in the ranking system of the town and has a connection to the court, so therefore will be protected by the court and his accuser will then probably be put in jail.
When Giles continues to refuse the name of the man who heard Putnam commit the crime, Giles is arrested for with-holding evidence and contempt of the court which is ridiculous because he is just trying to protect an innocent man who is trying to stay out of trouble and does not have the confidence to face the court. Hale knows this and tries to tell the judge but Danforth sticks by the books and demands the name of the man, which is not delivered.
Hale’s switched allegiance away from the court is confirmed and Danforth also realizes it, taking offence from it. “In God’s name sir, stop her; send him home and let him come back again with a lawyer-” but Danforth butts in: “Mr Hale, you surely do not doubt my justice…Mr Hale, believe me; for a man of such terrible learning you are most bewildered.” Again Danforth shows how protective he is of his court and how he believes that he is never wrong and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong, or in Mr Hale’s case, bewildered.
In questioning Mary, Danforth uses very abrasive methods which clearly intimidate her. He tells her that whether she was lying or if she is lying now, she will go to jail for perjury. Danforth tries to test Mary by making her pretend that there is a spirit in the room and faint, because that is what her and the other girls have been doing the entire time; pretending to faint without seeing any spirits. But Mary can not do it, claiming that she could do it before because she heard the other girls screaming so she ‘thought’ she saw them, but really didn’t.
Then out of thin air, the girls start to go very cold, claiming that there is a cold wind running through the room, a shadow wind sent by Mary. This action shows how ruthless they are in their accusations because they so easily turned on Mary, even though they were very good friends with her until very recently.
As the girls reach the height of their act by screaming in agony over the supposed spirit above them, Proctor hollers at the top of his voice that she should not dare to call heaven because she is a whore. This gets clearly notice by Danforth and he demands an explanation. He then carries on to admit that he has known here. We know that this must not be a lie because no sane man would ever give up his name in such a way. Proctor also knows that if he has ruined his name he has to use it to find justice in the court, so he pleads with Danforth that no man would ever give up his good name. “My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad…She think’s to dance with me on my wife’s grave!…It is a whore’s vengeance.” Proctor then carries on, “My wife is innocent, except she knew a whore when she saw one!”
This statement form Proctor means that his wife knew that he was having an affair with Abigail so therefore she threw her out of the house because she did not want her near John. And now Abigail is still in love with him so she wants to kill his wife so that she can have him to herself.
With this, Danforth summons for Elizabeth, knowing that Proctor has claimed that she has never lied, but before she enters, he makes John and Abigail turn and face him while Elizabeth stands behind them so that she can not see either of their faces.
“You will look in my eyes only and not at your husband. The answer is in your memory and you need no help to give it to me. Why did you dismiss Abigail Williams?” Elizabeth then says that she dismissed Abigail because she dissatisfied her and that when she was sick her husband started to turn from her and she thought that John fancied Abigail, so she sent her out.
“Look at me! To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher?” This moment or section in the scene is easily the climax for a number of reasons. Firstly, Danforth is very animated, holding Elizabeth’s face, waiting eagerly to get the answer out of her. While Elizabeth is struggling to hold herself together because she is very intimidated by Danforth but is extremely troubled by the fact that if she answers yes, she will give up her husband’s good name. Dramatic irony is also used extremely well here, because the audience know that Proctor has already admitted the crime and that if Elizabeth admits he did it too, then it will be proof enough to not believe Abigail for anything she has said against Elizabeth.
As the audience and the entire court room hang on the edge waiting for Elizabeth to answer, every one except Abigail and the other girls are incredibly disappointed when she answers that John never committed lechery. As Elizabeth is hastily remove form the room to go back to prison, John cries out after her in desperation, “Elizabeth, I have confessed it!” Although the audience is saddened that by Elizabeth telling a lie she has damned her husband, they are also proud of Elizabeth because she told a lie for the first time and she did it because she thought that it would save the life of her husband, which, ironically, it ended up preventing him from getting the truth through to the court and the real criminals from being punished.
While Elizabeth is slowly escorted from the room, Hale makes a desperate plea to Danforth for him to allow justice to be found in the court. “Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell: I beg you, stop now before another is condemned! I may shut my conscience to it no more – private vengeance is working through this testimony! From the beginning this man has struck me true. By my oath to Heaven, I believe him now, and pray you call back his wife before we -.” But this is discarded by Danforth, who plainly says that she never said anything about John committing lechery.
And as Hale tries to reply to him about how Abigail has always been untrustworthy, he is interrupted by the girls, lead by Abigail, who carry on their act, claiming that they see a yellow bird on the rafters, a bird sent by Mary’s spirit for vengeance which will tear their faces off. The girls do a very good job of making Mary panic and fret because they start to mimic everything she says while transfixed by the ‘bird’ up on the rafter as if Mary’s spirit is controlling them. Then Mary loses all control of herself and she breaks down into sobs as she is completely confounded because the girls are making every so realistic and Mary just can’t take the pressure.
Proctor, as when Mary first arrived in the court, is trying to ensure that she does carry on denying seeing any spirits so when he senses that she is losing confidence in her denial he jumps in and tries to intimidate her like before, saying that “God damns all liars.” Proctor can not contain himself and grabs Mary to try and get her to deny having anything to do with the devil and that the other girls are lying, but that is the last straw for Mary, as she can’t take any more of the screaming and panicking.
“You’re the Devil’s man,” she says to Proctor. “He come at me by night and every day to sign, to sign, to–” Parris, with his persistence manages to put the words in Mary’s mouth by saying that Proctor had the Devil’s book for her to sign.
She then continues to say how he would come to her in her sleep with eyes like coal and fingers which clawed her neck, urging her to go with Proctor and overthrow the court. Abigail also masters a marvellous turnaround by welcoming Mary into her open arms as though only moments earlier she hadn’t been about to get killed by Mary’s evil spirit in the form of a bird.
When Danforth asks whether or not Proctor denies the accusation that he is in contact with the Devil, he goes on a crazy rampage about how the fire is burning and says that Danforth and the other judges have black hearts who know that this entire ordeal is a fraud.
Laughing insanely, “A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud – God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!”
This insane outburst coming from Proctor, a perfectly innocent man just shows what kind of toll the trial and knowing that his wife will be killed because a girl he once slept with wants him to herself, has on a man even as strong minded as Proctor. He now knows that he is fighting a battle that can not be one because his wife lied for the first time ever to protect his name out of love.
But what truly shows where the court really stands among everyone except the judges and the enemies of the accused, is when Hale walks out on the court, stating that he doesn’t want anything to do with the court. “I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!”
And what almost summarizes the scene is Proctor’s last comment before being led to jail. “You are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!”
Arthur Miller manages to write about the near impossible implications that many of the people in Salem face in the court. For instance, if you are part of the court or have a high place in society, you are virtually free from getting sentenced. Also, the business of naming names. The girls were told that if they didn’t tell the court who was with the Devil then they would go into jail, but, by giving names of people who are connected with the Devil, they are pardoned from punishment.
Miller easy conveys the trouble problem of this in the situation, partly helped by his own experience. Miller was once rightly accused of attending communist meetings, which in the U.S. at the time, was against the law. Although attend was all he did he had to go into court with his back against the wall. In court he was intimidated by the judges and was offered a possibility of reducing his jail time or erasing it all together. He was told that if he gave in the names of other people who also attended communist meetings he would get off lighter.
But, Miller, being the honest and caring man he is, decided to not give the names of others who attended the meetings, but instead decided to take full force of his punishment. This is extremely similar to the situation that Giles Corey managed to get himself into in. He knew that he couldn’t give the name of the person who overheard Putnam telling his daughter to accuse Martha Corey because he knew that the man would most likely end up in jail because Putnam was in a higher social class, therefore better protected from the law.
Because h did not give in the name he was arrested and later executed after being crushed to death by slabs of stone which were being used as a torture method to get the name from Giles. But he was loyal to the man and got his own life taken instead.
Although Miller might not have had to pay with his death, he still received a jail sentence rather then getting it shortened or maybe even erased. He also knows how it feels to be used because the judges knew he couldn’t get out of the situation he was in so decided to pressure him for the names.
The Crucible was a great example of the former corruption of major justice systems which now has the saying for any trial, ‘Innocent Until Proven Guilty’, instead of the other way round.
