All these themes are valid for all times and places. Other themes, which make the play relevant to modern audiences, include the individual’s conscience, religion, injustice, political tyranny, situations where innocent people are unfairly accused, the honesty of a man in the face of guilt, authority being questioned, fear and love. In every society you will find problems of conscience for people like John, who want to keep their name. He found himself in conflict with the court, which made him feel scared, especially because the court where sure they new the truth. Many of Millers audiences could relate to this affliction in one way or another, which is one reason why “The Crucible” is one of Millers most performed plays over the world.
Proctor is honest, upright and blunt-spoken and this has to be shown through the actor deliverance of lines and posture. He is a sharp, highly intelligent man who can easily detect foolishness in others and expose it. This can be shown through the actor delivering the lines quickly and to the point. At the same time though, Proctor questions his moral sense. After his affair with Abigail, he questions whether or not he is a moral man even though the affair was the only major flaw attributed to Proctor, who is in other respects honourable and ethical. It is a sign of his morality that he does not feel himself adequate to place himself as a martyr for the cause of justice when he is given the choice to save himself at the end of the play.
Whenever playing the part of Proctor you would have to get across to the audience that he is obviously outspoken and blunt in his view of witchcraft, but he chooses to downplay the significance of Abigail’s accusations. He has a tendency to remain apart from the rest of Salem, which is shown through his decision not to attend church, his rows with Parris and his facing up to the officials of the court. When acting therefore, a strong independence of character has to be shown. His tendency to remain apart from the group could be shown by the actor placing himself far away from the rest of the characters on the stage, except for Elizabeth who he truly loves and wants to please. There are individuals nowadays who, just like John, also remain far apart from today’s society. These people are looked upon as being strange and odd as they question original ideas and produce their own. For example, people who think that abortions are wrong as seen as strange and peculiar. Some think it is wrong for people to have opinions for themselves and that they should stick to the rules but I think it is people like John, who stand out and get listened to, that keep our communities strong.
Another side of Proctor, which would be difficult to portray on stage, is one of his greatest strengths: his manliness. I would consider this as being a challenge because although it is one of his strengths, it is also one of his weaknesses as it leads him to his affair with Abigail. The guilt he feels over this act of betrayal prevents him from speaking out soon enough and contributes to his eventual imprisonment and death. Hence, he dies a death engendered by his own strength, which gains in significance due to the weakness of others. Guilt is an emotion which most of us feel today and often affects decisions we have to make, just like the conflicts, which Proctor had to overcome. We can tell Proctor is a good man as he does what his conscience told him to do – tear up the confession, which leads to his death.
We also see Elizabeth’s actions when guilt overcomes her too. In act three she lies because she feels partly responsible for Johns looking elsewhere for love. Elizabeth is a woman who never lies but she is prepared to lie to defend Proctor because her love for him and her guilt over not treating him as well as she could. This is a good comparison on how guilt can make you react in different situations. When acting the part of Elizabeth a difference of attitude would have to be shown between act two and three. Is act two she is very suspicious of Proctor and it is obvious that she doesn’t trust him which could be shown in her finding it hard to make eye contact with him and not being very affectionate towards him. In act three she feels so sorry about the way she had acted before and it is clear that she loves her husband very much.
