Act two plays a vital role within ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller. As Act two begins we are introduced to the Proctors, as principal characters. John Proctor has appeared in the previous Act, but his wife Elizabeth, though previously described by Abigail, we have never met. However when we do meet her we immediately see a harsh contrast between the Elizabeth earlier described and the Elizabeth now being shown to us. This is important as it allows us to see, Abigail’s for what she really is. In Act one Abigail describes Goody Proctor as “a cold snivelling woman”. Also as a liar, “she is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me!” Implying that Elizabeth is an untrustworthy gossip, and a jealous, spiteful woman. But when she is introduced in Act two she is heard singing softly to her children, “Elizabeth is heard singing softly to her children”. This tells us that Elizabeth is in fact a warm and loving person. From these quotes we begin to learn about the characters of the two women, we begin to see Elizabeth as a victim and Abigail as a liar, it is also apparent that Abigail feels a strong passion of hate towards Elizabeth. In Act two we see that this hate has arisen from jealousy. An affair, between Abigail and John spirals and escalates into the hysteria of witchcraft.
Act two allows us to see the way the affair has affected the lives of the Proctors. Though they both love each other greatly the affair has caused awkwardness between them. As they eat their dinner John tells Elizabeth that he will ‘buy George Jacobs Heifer’ to make her happy, he then remarks ‘with a grin’ as indicated by the stage directions, ‘I mean to please you, Elizabeth’. The next line belongs to Elizabeth and it reads; ‘I know it, John’. ‘It is hard to say’ is the stage direction that follows this line, and is evidence of the awkwardness that overshadows their relationship. John, experiencing guilt is desperately trying to gain back the trust of Elizabeth. He is constantly aware of her increasing loss of faith in him. Though she denies this loss of faith when confronted, her tone of speech suggests otherwise, and she later admits to keeping a cold house “It were a cold house I kept”, meaning that she had made sure the house in which they lived was rid of any form of human warmth or emotion. John’s constant need for forgiveness is what later plays a part to his eventual confession of his adultery.
Another character introduced in Act two is Mary Warren. She is extremely important to the Act as she is what makes the connection between village life and the sentencing that is happening at the courts, and with the proctor household. She is the one who tells us that there have been thirty-nine arrests. When she first arrives in Act two we find that she has defied the orders of John and Elizabeth by going to the court. When told that she must not return she rebels using the excuse “I am an official of the court”. This is a fine example of how the hysteria of witchcraft has affected the everyday life in the community of Salem. Mary is a servant within the proctor household; she is paid nine pounds a year to ‘keep the house’. She is not in a position to rebel against the word of Elizabeth or John, and under normal circumstances would not do so. We know that this is peculiar behaviour because of Elizabeth’s reply to Proctor, when asked why she had let Mary go to the court. Elizabeth says ‘She frightened all my strength away … I forbid her to go, and she raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince and says to me, ‘I must go to Salem, Goody Proctor’. It is clear to us now just how much the affair between Proctor and Abigail influences the current events and the events that are to follow.
Mary also plays another role within Act two; she portrays to us the amount of hate that Abigail holds for Elizabeth. When she reveals that she saved the life of Elizabeth in court, as her name had been mentioned among the accused. ‘I saved her life today’. She refuses to say by whom, ‘I am bound by law, I cannot tell’ but it is obvious to the reader and to Elizabeth that Abigail Williams is the accuser. This shows Abigail’s malicious hate as by accusing Elizabeth she is striving towards an eventual execution. Elizabeth who is a smart woman anticipates this intense hate long before she discovers she has been accused and she says to John referring to Abigail ‘and thinks to kill me, then to take my place’.
Another reason that proves Mary’s importance to Act two is that she illustrates to us the extremity of power that Abigail and the girls have. Throughout Act two Mary’s speech and stage directions imply a weak and feeble character. ‘With a trembling decaying voice’ ‘she has been edging towards offstage’. It is apparent that she is constantly subject to the bullying of Proctor and that she gives into his bullying one hundred percent of the time. Yet in the last few pages of Act Two, Proctor, using violence is trying to persuade Mary to testify in court against Abigail to save his wife. Despite Proctors violent advances ‘grasping her by the throat as though he would strangle her’ Mary sobs ‘I cannot, I cannot’. This shows Mary’s new changed belief that Abigail and the girls are more powerful and fearful than the man she has worked for and feared for so long. This event also marks the start of the loss of power John Proctor suffers from throughout the rest of the play.
‘The Crucible’ plays host to many themes. The theme of tyranny (when a situation or person controls how you are able to live in an unfair way) is shown mainly by Abigail’s power over the girls, and their power over the people of Salem. By confessing to witchcraft, and publicly announcing their sudden devotion to God, and desperation to do his will, they give themselves great power over society. Abigail’s word becomes unassailable as does the word of the other girls. With this power they were able to control the rest of the Salem by fear. Another way in which Tyranny is shown is Proctors initial control over Mary. As she enters the scene she is greeted by Proctor with the words ‘I’ll whip you if you dare leave this house again’. Mary is undoubtedly afraid of Proctor as he appears an extremely violent man to her. At the end of the Act Proctor uses violence yet again to get his own way, we know from Act three that she eventually does go to the court and testify.
Another theme that is apparent in Arthur Millers ‘The Crucible’ is fear. Every character in ‘The Crucible’ is subjected to fear at some point within the story line, not just those who are accused. Those who are not accused fear that the sins of their friends and associates may taint their names and cause them to be found guilty of witchcraft: A key example of this is Parris’s fear that the actions of Abigail and the rumours of witchcraft that surround his daughters coma will cost him his title as reverend. Those who are accused must face the fear, of being hung, they must also decide whether their fear of being hung, is greater than their fear of breaking one of the Ten Commandments by lying to save themselves. The different characters show their fear in various ways; the most interesting would be Proctor, whose fear is not for himself but for his wife. This differs from the fear of Francis Nurse and Giles Corey who’s wives are also accused, as Proctor is having to balance the fear of the death of his wife, with the fear, or more the realisation that the death of his wife could be on his hands as she stands accused because of the malicious jealousy aroused within in Abigail when he finished their affair. He is also under pressure as he knows that he can put a stop to the girls’ accusations and save his wife by blackening his own name and admitting his lechery with Abigail. Proctor expresses this pressure with his line to Mary, ‘My wife will never die for me! I will bring your guts into your mouth but that goodness will not die for me!’ Another character subject to fear is the wife of John Proctor, Elizabeth. Elizabeth fears for her relation with John. Though they love each other very much their relationship has been scarred by the affair between Abigail and Proctor. She like Mary is also frightened of the power that Abigail possesses. As she knows that it is enough to condemn her to death. When she is taken by Cheever and Herrick we know she is scared as John says to her ‘Fear nothing Elizabeth.’ and her next line is said (as indicated by stage direction) ‘with great fear’. Another character who is apparent to fear is Mary. From the moment she enters the scene she is subject to fear. First the fear of John as he violently question’s her and makes to whip her ‘I’ll whip the devil out of you’. Next the fear of incriminating herself or Elizabeth when Cheever and Herrick turn up at the house and she is called downstairs for questioning, and finally when she is once again being bullied by proctor to testify in court: here she is not only scared of Proctor but of what the girls and Abigail will do if she does turn on them. ‘(in terror): I cannot, they’ll turn on me’
The language throughout The Crucible is what Arthur Miller portrayed as seventeenth century. When Miller started to write The Crucible his first source of information were the actual court records in which all the court proceedings are minutely transcribed. In Millers autobiography ‘Timebends’ he says ‘I wanted to study the actual words of the interrogations, a gnarled way of speaking … and I came to love its feel like hard, burnished wood. Without planning to, I even elaborated a few of the grammatical forms myself, the double negatives especially.’ This elaboration is most definitely apparent throughout the play. Miller has cleverly managed to give us speech that is old and therefore sets the scene, without too much of a difference from modern language, that we find ourselves struggling to translate. Words such as ‘Aye’, ‘Nay’ and ‘Harlot’ though all words that are considered old fashioned and seventeenth century, are not words of which we fail to understand the meaning. The language in this play does not just set a time scene but also a religious one. The language and vocabulary featured in this play is very much based on the King James Version of the Bible. A prime example of this: when Elizabeth tells John of Mary’s visit to the courts, she describes the power of Abigail and the girls with a scene from the Old Testament. ‘Abigail brings the other girls into court and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel. The whole way through the play there are constant references to the bible and to religion. The society portrayed to us in Act two is strictly religious church and state laws are one and the same. In the puritan nature that this book describes you are either with God or with the Devil.
The Crucible links very strongly into McCarthyism, and was written at about the same time. McCarthyism, named after Joseph McCarthy, was a period of extreme anti-communism and suspicion in America. The period lasted from the 1940’s to the 1950s. During this time thousands of American citizens were accused of being communists or communist sympathisers, this lead to aggressive investigations and questioning. The main suspects were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists. Suspicions were often given credibility without conclusive or solid evidence. This led to people becoming unemployed and unable to work in their desired field ever again.
In 1956, the McCarthyism was at the beginning of its end and Arthur Miller was summoned to appear before the committee of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
The happenings of McCarthyism and the witchcraft trials that had taken place almost two centuries before became linked in the mind of Arthur Miller.
The America Citizens are represented by Puritans, and the harsh investigations representing themselves. I think that Arthur Miller chose to write ‘The Crucible’ at this time to reflect to everyone how ridiculous the things happening around them were.
‘The Crucible’ is a play that covers issues such as religion, theft, guilt and hysteria and a play that I really enjoyed reading. I thought that it portrayed its themes and hidden meanings superbly, as well as being a good read. Whilst reading this text I often came to forget that I was in fact reading a script, and so though my appreciation was more for the story line than anything else, I still believe it to be a well written play, and something that I would most definitely want to see if given the chance. Act two proved itself one of the most important Acts as it is the act that leads up to the climax of the story and ties everything together.