The opening scene starts off with the atmosphere surrounded by fear. Reverend Parris is a very weak and self-centred person in the story many people despise him, for example John Procter and Mr Putnam. However, Parris is respected in the village as a Reverend because the church was very important and influential in those days, and the beliefs in witchcraft well known. Laws were based from influence from the Bible, and the Church used them to control every aspect of people’s lives. If people in those times had other ways of believing in the Christian faith it would be considered offensive to religion. Like most people in the seventeenth century, people believed in witches. The thought of witchcraft existed long before the Christian time. In the olden times magic was seen be part of religion however, the early Christians saw this as magic (witchcraft). During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands were put to death for witchcraft. When medicine and science were at such an early stage, disease and sudden death were believed to have been a result from a spell cast by a witch. Those thought of to be witches could either have been male or female, all different ages and social ranks however most of them were elderly women.
Reverend Parris for example is fearful of his reputation being ruined due to the acts of his daughter and niece in the forest. He doesn’t want his enemies to use the fact that his daughter, Betty, maybe a witch and lose position as a reverend.
“My ministry at stake, my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life.” He explains this to Abigail, his niece, while talking about Betty.
In these times especially, because of what they are suspected of, Abigail, Betty and Mary Warren are all really scared of what might happen to them…DEATH! The hysteria also begins when Betty is lying on the bed. All the adults have left the room leaving just Abigail and unconscious Betty. Then Mary Warren enters the room, really panicking.
“The whole country’s talkin witchcraft! They’ll be callin us witches, Abby!” Shouts Mary.
This shows to the audience how they are really feeling and the tension in the community about what happened that night and suddenly Betty wakes up running towards the window calling for her mother, then Abigail calls her back. Suddenly Betty accuses Abigail of lying,
“You drank blood Abby you didn’t tell him that! …You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife” Cries Betty
This shows that Betty was pretending to be unconscious some of the times because she had heard the conversation Abigail was having with Reverend Parris. It also shows if this is true, Abigail’s obsession and jealousy towards John Proctors wife. The remark about the Proctors prompts a violent response and Abigail slap’s Betty across the face. Abigail then forces them to stick to her side of the story and threatens them.
“Let either of you breath 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.”
In the meantime Betty collapses back onto her bed. From this scene you can tell that something isn’t right about Abigail. She has some sort of power over the other girls and is only looking out for herself. Abigail puts the blame onto Tituba and scares Betty and Mary Warren to stick to her version of the story that Tituba is accused of talking to the Devil. Tituba is a black slave from Barbados. During the time of the play, race and colour was an issue so accusing Tituba would most likely be believable. Most importantly people would want to believe this story rather than the truth as she is from a foreign country with beliefs that were different from the community. She has a low social rank so there was nobody to argue her case, as it is in times of panic people find it easier to pick on those who are unable to defend themselves.
Rumours and fear of witchcraft
Abigail Williams is an orphan as are most of the Salem girls. Their child hood has been depressing and gloomy, which is meant to be the way for strict Puritan discipline. Although teenagers, they are treated and told and made to think that they are only a child. With this information they have no choice but to keep control of their developing sexuality. They are made to work as an adult but are forbidden to act like or have freedom like them. However, to boys it was a different story and boys were able to be free and were able to do things and express their feelings, where as a girl was not. With all their mixed feelings and emotions that are trapped inside they decide to take it to the forest and take out their feeling from there. From this, I think that what happened in the forest was not witchcraft at all and was only a group of girls expressing their feelings as they couldn’t openly. So all they perhaps were actually doing was playing spiritual games in the forest. Abigail is the most frightened because she is scared of getting found out. Even though the others are too you get the feeling that they want to tell the truth but Abigail is stopping them from doing this by threatening them because she is scared.
Mrs Putnam who isn’t a good character decides to stir up trouble with her husband. She has one daughter Ruth who has been acting very strangely. She had in the past seven children who died soon after birth. She is suspicious of their deaths and has heard that Tituba can talk to the dead so she sends Ruth to ask what has happened to her children. Miller again has created fear in Mrs Putnam that she may lose her only daughter and also created tension between the characters.
Miller, by writing the forest scene with the girls is showing the unhappiness of the girls in Salem and their rebellion towards the society in which they live. He is also portraying the insecurities and ignorance of the adults who are ready to accept the girl’s accusations. The scene creates a lot of fear, tension and hysteria because all the girls want to tell the truth and escape punishment but Abigail wants to tell part of what happened and nothing else. The girls all fear Abigail because of the things she says to them and forcefully using physical acts upon them. In Act 1 several different circumstances combine to make the situation (night in the forest) worse; Mr Hale is eager to try out his skills; Mrs Putnam has never stopped grieving for her dead babies, and uses the crisis to find a scapegoat. At the end of Act 1 the adults have given in to their fear that the Devil and his witches are trying to destroy Salem. The only two strong enough to disagree, John Procter and Rebecca have left the stage. Also, we see Abigail whipping Betty into a state of hysteria as she begins a fight to save her own skin and later to destroy Elizabeth Proctor.
To the audience a lot of storylines are happening and there are various perspectives to the story, which builds the hysteria, so much you think to yourself, could there really be evil forces? Did the girls talk to the Devil? Are any of them witches? So to the audience the fear and hysteria has such a big effect on the way the audience think and feel for various characters.
All the characters in the story have their parts on building up the atmosphere. Abigail has the biggest impact because holds some sort of power over all the other girls and they all fear her, so the fear and hysteria comes from her actions and her friends; Betty, Tituba and Mary. She has courage, intelligence and a charismatic personality but uses these gifts in destructive ways. She causes a harmful influence on the terrified villagers; she has a big impact on creating the hysteria and fear in the play. Reverend Samuel Parris is also a person who creates this setting of fear and hysteria. He is like a servant towards the people who are rich and so on but very brutal to anyone unable to defend for themselves. This explains why Betty loses her consciousness when he finds her in the forest. When the blame is safety diverted to Tituba Mr Parris becomes an enthusiastic witch hunter and changes his views on Mr Hale. Mrs Putnam, as well hasn’t got much positive to say about her. She takes the rumours of witchcraft as a chance to find a scapegoat for the loss of her children, however our sympathy to this changes when we find out that she has sent her daughter to talk to spirits. Both Putnam’s make use of Parris to stir up the witch-hunt. He is responsible for many of the accusations of witchcraft, and takes advantage of this to gain more land off of people.
Mr Parris is desperately trying to find someone to put the blame onto and since Tituba was the first to be accused, she is pressurised by him, Mr Hale and Abigail at the same time. You really feel for Tituba in this scene because all of the people seem to join up against her and scrutinise her until she either is at the point of confessing or accusing someone. However until that point is illustrated, Mr Hale and Mr Paris’s interrogation against Tituba has great deal of hysteria, tension and fear. So her own friend Abigail accuses Tituba of talking to the Devil. She obviously disagrees to this not making it any better for herself.
“She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me dream corruptions.” Says Abigail to them (Mr Hale and Mr Paris).
Every time Abigail accuses Tituba, someone has something to say Like Mrs Putnam or Mr Parris, to really make her look guilty. This forms an atmosphere of tension because the more and more she is questioned she is getting herself deeper into trouble, which means closer to death. She is really afraid and falls to her feet sobbing in terror after Putnam says she should be hanged.
“No, No, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.” Tituba says using her own name.
Later on in the conversation, she gives up and tells them that she saw several people with the Devil. From then is where she starts to name peoples names and then Abigail also begins to name them too. The scene then ends with them naming a load of innocent people. They mention these people hoping that these are the names Mr Hale and Mr Paris want to hear.
Act 2 (The Arrests)
The second scene I have chosen to analyse is act two (the arrests). A fortnight later the witch-hunt is in full cry. John has tried to keep away from what is going on by working on his farm. His wife Elizabeth has heard alarming details form their servant Mary Warren who was one of the girls in the forest. Now the girls go into hysterical fits and anyone whom they point at is charged with witchcraft. Elizabeth begs John to repeat what Mary has said to him in the courts and to make Abigail realize that their affair is over. She knows Abigail wants to accuse her and take her place. John doesn’t want to speak up. Elizabeth says he is hanging back because he is still attracted to Abigail. On her return from the village, Mary mentions that Elizabeth’s name has come up in court. John’s friends, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse (Rebecca Nurses husband), explain that both their wives have been charged and arrested. Then a few minutes’ later two court officials arrive with a warrant to arrest Elizabeth. Abigail claims that Elizabeth has sent her spirit out to stab her in the belly. Elizabeth lets herself be taken away leaving John threatening Mary that he will make her tell the truth to the judges.
In this scene there is a lot of tension due to the fact that Abigail, Betty and Tituba have all told lies about other people to get themselves out of punishment. Because of this many people get arrested, many hanged and families are pulled apart.
When the villagers of Salem start to find out that many people are getting arrested caused by the fake allegations made towards them, the ones waiting around hoping their names is not mentioned creates the tension and fear towards them. Just like Elizabeth, when Abigail and John Procter had the affair, Elizabeth had blamed Abigail but not John. She thought John as a good man and Abigail a whore. So to this she has great hate towards Abigail, and Abigail towards Elizabeth. So Elizabeth is really tense fearing her name will come up in court. In Act two she really shows her fear to John about being arrested.
“She will cry me out until they take me, she wants me dead John, you know it!” She shouts.
This shows how she is feeling, although throughout the play she portrays a strong character. Then soon, later on, the two (John Procter and Elizabeth) are questioned by Mr Hale because he is unsatisfied with their attendance in church. In this part of Act two, pressure and fear are high because they are really nervous about what may come and what will be asked of them. They are asked the Ten Commandments and you can tell that tension and fear is high because it has written that he begins to sweat. They struggle when John repeats the same commandment. Then from there Elizabeth helps him out.
“Aye. You see sir between the two of us we do know them all.” Says John Procter
This shows the tension is released. Until, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse tell John that their wives are arrested not too long after people arrive with a warrant to arrest Elizabeth. Fear and tension is built up here because of the fact that Abigail has accused Elizabeth of sending her spirits to stab her in the belly, which is not true. So she is scared of facing death and fears what could happen but she hides this. Oh
“Oh, John, bring me soon!” She says, as she is about to leave.
The scene ends when Procter realizes that the girls false accusations are getting too serious know that Elizabeth could be hanged and forces Mary to tell the courts that they were just playing and that’s all, but she begs him not to because she fears that Abigail will “curse” her.
“I cannot charge murder on Abigail…she’ll kill me for sayin’ that!” Betty is really scared and begs him, sobbing on the floor, as the scene ends.
Mary is terrified the moment she steps inside the court, but she copes well under the questioning of the people of Salem. She is encouraged by Procter to tell the truth to the courts about the girls being all frauds even when Judge Hathorne bullies her. However she begins to get weak when all the girls turn on her under the influence of Abigail. From there she is caught up in hysteria and begins to fall apart.
Conclusion
Arthur Miller created an atmosphere of tension, fear and hysteria throughout the play. I feel this was due to the witch-craft issue that went on and the 1950s anti-communist trials in USA that also inspired Miller. ‘The Crucible’ was written to show people that society in those days was ignorant towards things they didn’t know and understand (things they fear) and in ‘The Crucible’ witch-craft was the case.
The play to me showed fear well because of the witch-craft history that Miller decided to useby using this would make readers feel already tense knowing the play is some how to do with witches.
The meaning of the crucible is the melting pot for metals. This can somehow relate to the story by firstly referring to the pot as a cauldron. Also, the melting point could mean the boiling point of people and how far society is wiling to go. Miller most defiantly delivered that across to readers and you know why Miller named it ‘The Crucible’. ‘The Crucible’ is sometimes quite hard to understand as it was written long ago and the language is different to now, however the way people act and the facial expression that is well described, defiantly help the play to build up the anxiety and fear.
“Bless him. Bless him. (She is rocking on her knees sobbing in terror)
The book to me wasn’t interesting. This is because Miller wasn’t convincing about witch-craft and witch-craft doesn’t relate to anything in modern times. Nothing really appealed t me, however, the deep meaning of the play, which was to show how the lack of understanding and knowledge of something resorts to violence and how it influences people, was shown very well.