Prior to this, everyone thought that this was all down to mass hysteria, but surely ergot isn’t just to blame, it may have been that that started the events off, causing them to dance in the forest, but surely we cannot blame a middle-age form of LSD on all of their actions for the 10 months following that.
I believe that a more plausible explanation would be that in the world of Salem, in which the existence and powers of demons and devils were rarely questioned, unexplainable events were often attributed to witchcraft. So if the children made the townsfolk believe that they were being attacked by witches, the town would naturally believe “the victim”. After all, witchcraft is an invisible crime, and we don’t expect the witches to confess to witchery, so we must expect the victims to tell us.
So were these events down to clinical hysteria? Or, were they in fact down to jealousy and greed. Well it would seem so, that the girls were accusing the women of the town for things that they wanted, like Abigail accusing Goody Proctor so she could have John. (Whom she previously had an affair with.)
I believe that no one cause is solely to blame for those events, I think that the ergot started the situation off with the dancing, with the accusations firing about this lead to mass hysteria which was fuelled by jealously and greed.
In the first act we already have the fear of witchery which is already spreading, “That is a notorious sign of witchcraft afoot,” (20, Act 1) with Abigail’s cousin Betty apparently unconscious in bed. It also gives us the background to what’s happened in Salem, disputes over land, and upset about the new Reverend. It is in this act, that we meet most of the main characters.
In the second act, we learn of the difficulties between John and Elizabeth because of Abigail. There is a lot of tension within this scene because of the worry about Elizabeth, and then she’s arrested. This act is different from the other acts because there are only a few characters on stage at any one time, always Elizabeth and John, but it feels as if Abigail is there because she still love John and is making life difficult for them.
The third act is in the courthouse, and we learn are shown the unreason situation that the accused are put in with the life or death struggle between reason and superstition. We think that reason will prevail only to have our hopes destroyed. Central to this scene is John’s confession of adultery, we feel that this is enough to make the forces of truth and reason prevail, as we feel that this brings about the demise of Abigail. However when Elizabeth is questioned, she denies knowledge of John’s adultery, “Is your husband a lecher!… No, sir.” (91 Act 3) and this brings about the ruin of John’s case. Mary Warren tries to recant, but her week persona is battered by that or Abigail’s and the force of the pretence of the girls. Mary Warren causes John to be arrested.
The forth and final act sees John become noble and heroic as he chooses to die rather that loose his pride and dignity by confessing to something he didn’t do which would lose him his name, “leave me my name!” (115, Act 4) Irony come in as Hale tried to persuade John to confess to save being hanged, John then confesses, then recants. In this act the bond between John and Elizabeth grows very strong, and she finally forgives him for his affair.
Arthur Miller wrote this play so it would be paralleled with the Un-American Activities movement of the 1950s. This was called McCarthyism, for Senator McCarthy was trying to find all Communists in the country, and this was known as Un-American Activities. For the Americans believe that everybody has a right to do what they want, and when they want it in their own life, Communism totally rivalled that. This was the time of the Cold War, in which the USA and USSR were utter enemies, mainly due to the system that they ran their countries. If you were accused of being a communist, you had to confess and tell the government of other people who you knew were communist and you had to give everything in you life to the government, so that they would believe that you were not communist. This was McCarthyism, witch-hunts for communists.
There is a clear parallel between this and the events in The Crucible, the ministers are trying to find people in their puritan society who are witches, just because people say so, “I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!” (40, Act 1) It is these random accusations that really start all these events. Then people have to try and convince the High Court that they are innocent, even though they all are anyway. So Arthur Miller, who was accused of Un-American Activities himself, wrote this play to show people what was going on in the USA at the time, and make people realise that what was going on in the country was wrong.
There are also parallels between this and what is going on in the world today. Two years after the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, the Americans are going on witch hunts trying to find terrorists all around the world, just because they live in the wrong part of the world, or they are of the wrong religion, or they know someone who knows someone who knows someone who might be connected with terrorism; utter madness. This is what is going on in the Crucible, and that is how Arthur Miller protested to Senator McCarthy’s Anti-American witch-hunts.
Arthur Miller uses many techniques to create tension in The Crucible. I am now going to go through Act 2 discussing all of the different techniques he uses.
At the beginning of Act 2, we have a long paragraph of stage directions, this is obviously is not written for performing art groups who are performing this play, this is written specifically for English Literature students to use and talk about, which is what I shall do.
We are told that we are in Proctors’ house over a week later after the accusations from the girls first started firing about. We don’t find this out until later, but a lot has happened in this time, there have been a lot of accusations, and a lot of charges.
We are told that Goody Proctor is singing to the children in a otherwise quiet household. This would be a very maternal and beautiful picture to see, to see Elizabeth singing to them, it would be just as beautiful to here. Everything is peaceful and calm.
John enters and is holding a gun, the peacefulness is instantly broken, and the tension instantly climaxes when we see him coming in with a gun. So before any words are spoken, and before any actions are made, we already know that John Proctor will be a central character, and that he is effectively a disturber of the peace. He puts the gun down and the tension goes down. He then has a sip of the stew in the fireplace. It doesn’t taste right to him, so he seasons it. He doesn’t tell Elizabeth he did so, or that it did not taste nice.
He then goes to the basin, and starts to wash his hands, turning his back to the living room and Elizabeth when she walks in. We don’t notice this, but this is because John is separated from her, he is distant from her, because he has done wrong.
At the beginning of the Act Elizabeth and John talk a lot about the weather, nature and the fields of their farm, “I think we’ll see green fields soon” (42, Act 2). They are talking about things distant from their home life to avoid talking about their home life, they are deliberately avoiding confrontation.
It is at the beginning of Act 2, that John and Elizabeth talk about the problems between them, we realise the full extent of the damage that has been done. Elizabeth is till not sure of John, “Then, it is not as you told me. (44, Act 2) She is always wary of John and is always suspicious of what he does. They have a big argument over the situation between themselves, “You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’.” (45, Act 2) John fins Elizabeth’s suspicion of him most frustrating because he knows he has left Abigail now. They talk about everything that has happened, and how they both are feeling. It is in this scene that we find out all the important pieces of information we need to piece together the plot of this story.
Act 2 is really an informative act, where we find out everything we need/want to know. In this act very little actually happens, and it is really based around 4 characters, John and Elizabeth Proctor, Reverend Hale and Mary Warren
Arthur Miller uses Elizabeth’s suspicion of John, the suspicion that he is still having an affair with Abigail, to create tension. Elizabeth asks questions of John, and this aggravates him, “I’ll not have your suspicion any more” (44, Act 2) this creates the tension between the two of them.
He combines this with John’s guilt of what he has done to create tension. It is this guilt however that brings out the anger in him. John is always trying to please Elizabeth, “I mean to please you Elizabeth” (42, Act 2) but he knows he can’t all the while she is suspicious of him, and when she is suspicious she will ask questions, and when she asks questions he is going to get angry.
Miller throughout the play uses the amount of people accused/charged to create tension, “I am given sixteen warrant tonight” (60, Act 2) It is as though there is a large intake of breath when the amount of people charged is said. Throughout the play we are told about the amount of people that are charged, and as the number steadily increases we start to get a picture of how this mass hysteria, greed and jealousy is starting to take a hold of the girls. It is like a snowball rolling down a hill, it is steadily getting bigger, until it hits the bottom at the end of the play and explodes.
The most amount of tension in Act 2 is at the end when Elizabeth is taken away, and John frantically tries to save her and vows that he’ll set her free, “”I will fall like an ocean on the court! Fear nothing, Elizabeth.” (63, Act 2) It must be at this point that Elizabeth starts believing in John again. All of this happens after John tells Reverend Hale that he knows that the girls are pretending to see witches and that this is all a big cover up. Hale is the first minister of the church, and the first outsider, to be told how they know what is really happening in Salem, and what the alternative motives are for what the girls are doing.
It is John’s guilt that is central throughout the play. He knows that everything that has happened is down to him, and he has to learn to accept that. It is his actions because of his guilt that make all of these events happen, it isn’t until late in Act 3 that he finally comes to terms with what is happening, and the it is at least partly his fault.
In conclusion this is a play about real life events that happened in Salem in 1692 that can be paralleled with modern day events. This play helps us to realise the corruption in the world, by showing it to us in its simplest form. This play is a protest to some of the ways of society, and makes us realise everything that is bad in the world. He does all this by giving us information in the written word. He uses many techniques to do this, how can you be anything other than impressed with this play!
