The title of this play, ‘The Crucible’ has a specific meaning because a crucible is used as a melting pot for metal alloys and in Miller’s play he draws parallels between the different social and cultural fusion in a 17th century community and the mixing of different metals to strengthen a structure. As the principle characters in the play enter into conflicts, struggle to understand one another and beguile with their lies and lack of fidelity, we could see the similarity between a red hot crucible as all tensions come to the surface. There is a link between the crucible and the witches’ cauldron and witchcraft is a significant theme in the play. The title also relates to the death of John Proctor at the end of the play and his betrayal of conscious, suggesting to us that he too needed purifying like the metals heated in the crucible to purify it. This immediately appeals to our inquisitive nature and we are naturally intrigued by superstitious acts.
Miller communicates to us through the play how a group of girls manipulate a theocratic society into believing that friends, family or neighbours were practising the art of witchcraft. A character called Abigail and some friends were discovered dancing in the forest. In order to divert attention form themselves the girls seized the opportunity to make their own accusations of witchcraft leading to the death of several characters. Miller's inspiration came from his personal experience in the McCarthy Era in which he was accused of being a communist.
Miller uses the theme of jealousy and presents it through Abigail Williams as she is clearly very jealous of Elizabeth Proctor. She wants to get rid of her so that she can have John Proctor to herself. Abigail is obsessed with him and will do anything in her power to get him, even if it means that Goody Proctor is killed. When the girls were dancing in the forest, Abigail drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor, this shows how much she will try in order to kill her.
The main theme of this play is witchcraft, this engages the audience and adds curiousity. Mr Putnam is curious why seven of his children dies at birth and if it may be linked to witchcraft. Abigail uses the art of manipulation to force the other girls into following her. She blackmails them into doing as she say by saying:
“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.”
She wants to be the leader and relishes the power that comes with it. She and the other girls create lies so that people in the town are accused of witchcraft so they will be arrested and hanged. It is as if the girls are deciding who will live and who will die. The people being accused of being witches are getting arrested for it; this is making the people lie in order to avoid death. If people confessed to witchcraft, even if they didn’t practice it, their life would be spared.
Corruption and discrimination is shown in the play and also the misuse of power and influence. Parris uses his power as the Reverend if Salem to his advantage. He is a widower with no interest in children, this means he doesn’t really know or care about children and is a firm believer that children should be seen but not heard. The true nature of Parris is that he is more worried about himself not his daughter and this is shown when he says:
“Now look you, child, your punishment will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it”
He was paranoid and controlling, this was shown by the fact he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door with out first asking for his permission. Also he thought that he was being persecuted wherever he went. As Reverend he was suppose to teach the word of God and make sure the rules of a Quaker town were kept, however, he spent the church money on gold statues and candlesticks instead of spending it on things that would be worthwhile. This makes him a hypocrite as he is telling the villagers to do one thing while he is doing the other.
We also see racial discrimination against Tituba,
“I know not – she spoke Barbados”
This is a theme that can still be seen in the world today and because she has a different appearance and she speaks differently then she is made a target for Abigail’s accusations. Abigail shows that she is racist throughout the play.
