The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Drama in four acts.
Bio: Arthur Miller
"One of America's most renowned playwrights, Arthur Miller has had a number of his works adapted for the screen and has also served as a screenwriter and actor on occasion. Miller, who was born in New York City on October 17, 1915, and educated at the University of Michigan, first earned international acclaim and recognition in 1949 when his play, Death of a Salesman, won three Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize. Salesman has since become one of the most popular plays in American theatre history, with numerous productions on both the stage and screen. Another of Miller's most acclaimed works, The Crucible, was adapted for the screen by Miller himself in 1996. Written in 1953 as an allegory for the Communist witch hunts that were then raging across the U.S., the play was a very resonant one for Miller, himself summoned before the House of Un-American Activities Committee in 1957 to name names (he refused, and was found guilty of contempt toward Congress)."
Plot Summary
"The story focuses upon a young farmer, his wife, and a young servant-girl who maliciously causes the wife's arrest for witchcraft. The farmer brings the girl to court to admit the lie—and it is here that the monstrous course of bigotry and deceit is terrifyingly depicted. The farmer, instead of saving his wife, finds himself also accused of witchcraft and ultimately condemned with a host of others."
John Proctor - A
local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern,
harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy.
Abigail Williams -
Reverend Parris’s niece. Abigail is smart, wily, a
good liar, and vindictive when crossed.
Reverend John Hale -
A young minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft. Reverend Hale is
called in to Salem to examine Parris’s daughter Betty. Hale is a committed
Christian and hater of witchcraft.
Elizabeth Proctor -
John Proctor’s wife. Elizabeth fired Abigail when she discovered that
her husband was having an affair with Abigail.
Reverend Parris
- The minister of Salem’s church.
Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power-hungry, yet oddly self-pitying figure.
Rebecca Nurse - Francis Nurse’s wife. Rebecca is a wise,
sensible, and upright woman.
Francis Nurse - A
wealthy, influential man in Salem.
Judge Danforth - The
deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials.
Giles Corey - An elderly but feisty farmer in Salem, famous
for his tendency to file lawsuits.
Thomas Putnam - A
wealthy, influential citizen of Salem.
Ann Putnam - Thomas Putnam’s wife.
Ruth Putnam - The Putnam's’ lone surviving child out of
eight.
Tituba - Reverend Parris’s black slave from Barbados.
Mary Warren - The servant in the Proctor household and a
member of Abigail’s group of girls. She is a timid girl, easily influenced by
those around her, who tried unsuccessfully to expose the hoax and ultimately
recanted her confession.
Betty Parris - Reverend Parris’s ten-year-old daughter.
Betty falls into a strange stupor after Parris catches her and the other girls
dancing in the forest with Tituba. Her illness and that of Ruth Putnam fuel the
first rumors of witchcraft.
Martha Corey - Giles Corey’s third wife. Martha’s reading
habits lead to her arrest and conviction for witchcraft.
Judge Hathorne - A judge who presides, along with Danforth,
over the witch trials.
Script Analysis
"In The Crucible, Arthur Miller presents a dramatized version of the true events of one fateful year in Massachusetts's history. Salem was a town torn apart by its own inner tensions and the rigid societal structure dictated by the Puritan theology. Large and small landowners were often at odds, here represented by the rivalry between Putnam and Corey. Portions of the outlying community wanted to break away from the authority of Salem, in the play symbolized by the antagonism between Proctor and Parris. Everywhere in Puritan society, the overbearing reach of religion dominated life and made itself the center of all things. These tensions, and so many more, exploded in 1692 thanks to the single spark of the first witchcraft accusation."
"This explosion of tensions was made worse by the effects of the slavish obedience to religious authority. As Danforth stated in Act III, one was either aligned with the authority or was against it. There was no middle ground, no room to criticize without breaking away. With this sort of attitude, there is also no room in society for a difference of opinion, no matter how trivial. It also becomes a society where neighbors are spying on neighbors, keeping track of everyone else's movements in order to root out the evil of nonconformity. This need to conform, to hold oneself to the proper standards, was the key factor holding Proctor back from intervening in the trials before they went too far. He was too worried about how the revelation of his affair with Abigail would look to take action against the crazed witch trials."
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