The Crucible

ARTHUR MILLER

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
Intolerance

The Crucible is set in a theocratic society, in which the church and the state are one, and the religion is
a strict, austere form of Protestantism known as Puritanism !ecause of the theocratic nature of the
society, moral laws and state laws are one and the same" sin and the status of an indi#idual$s soul are
matters of %u&lic concern There is no room for de#iation from social norms, since any indi#idual whose
%ri#ate life doesn$t conform to the esta&lished moral laws re%resents a threat not only to the %u&lic good
&ut also to the rule of 'od and true religion In (alem, e#erything and e#eryone &elongs to either 'od or
the )e#il* dissent is not merely unlawful, it is associated with satanic acti#ity This dichotomy functions
as the underlying logic &ehind the witch trials As )anforth says in Act III, +a %erson is either with this
court or he must &e counted against it, The witch trials are the ultimate e-%ression of intolerance .and
hanging witches is the ultimate means of restoring the community$s %urity/* the trials &rand all social
de#iants with the taint of de#il0worshi% and thus necessitate their elimination from the community

Hysteria

Another critical theme in The Crucible is the role that hysteria can %lay in tearing a%art a community
Hysteria su%%lants logic and ena&les %eo%le to &elie#e that their neigh&ours, whom they ha#e always
considered u%standing %eo%le, are committing a&surd and un&elie#a&le crimes1communing with the
de#il, killing &a&ies, and so on In The Crucible, the townsfolk acce%t and &ecome acti#e in the
hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious %iety &ut also &ecause it gi#es them a chance to
e-%ress re%ressed sentiments and to act on long0held grudges The most o&#ious case is A&igail, who
uses the situation to accuse Eli2a&eth Proctor of witchcraft and ha#e her sent to 3ail !ut others thri#e on
the hysteria as well" Re#erend Parris strengthens his %osition within the #illage, al&eit tem%orarily, &y
making sca%egoats of %eo%le like Proctor who 4uestion his authority The wealthy, am&itious Thomas
Putnam gains re#enge on 5rancis 6urse &y getting Re&ecca, 5rancis$s #irtuous wife, con#icted of the
su%ernatural murders of Ann Putnam$s &a&ies In the end, hysteria can thri#e only &ecause %eo%le
&enefit from it It sus%ends the rules of daily life and allows the acting out of e#ery dark desire and
hateful urge under the co#er of righteousness

Reputation

Re%utation is tremendously im%ortant in theocratic (alem, where %u&lic and %ri#ate moralities are one
and the same In an en#ironment where re%utation %lays such an im%ortant role, the fear of guilt &y
association &ecomes %articularly %ernicious 5ocused on maintaining %u&lic re%utation, the townsfolk of
(alem must fear that the sins of their friends and associates will taint their names 7arious characters
&ase their actions on the desire to %rotect their res%ecti#e re%utations As the %lay &egins, Parris fears
that A&igail$s increasingly 4uestiona&le actions, and the hints of witchcraft surrounding his daughter$s
coma, will threaten his re%utation and force him from the %ul%it Meanwhile, the %rotagonist, 8ohn
Proctor, also seeks to kee% his good name from &eing tarnished Early in the %lay, he has a chance to
%ut a sto% to the girls$ accusations, &ut his desire to %reser#e his re%utation kee%s him from testifying
against A&igail At the end of the %lay, howe#er, Proctor$s desire to kee% his good name leads him to
make the heroic choice not to make a false confession and to go to his death without signing his name
to an untrue statement +I ha#e gi#en you my soul* lea#e me my name9, he cries to )anforth in Act I7 !y
refusing to relin4uish his name, he redeems himself for his earlier failure and dies with integrity

Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop
and inform the text's major themes.
Empowerment

The witch trials em%ower se#eral characters in the %lay who are %re#iously marginali2ed in (alem
society In general, women occu%y the lowest rung of male0dominated (alem and ha#e few o%tions in
life They work as ser#ants for townsmen until they are old enough to &e married off and ha#e children
of their own In addition to &eing thus restricted, A&igail is also sla#e to 8ohn Proctor$s se-ual whims:he
stri%s away her innocence when he commits adultery with her, and he arouses her s%iteful 3ealousy
when he terminates their affair !ecause the Puritans$ greatest fear is the defiance of 'od, A&igail$s
accusations of witchcraft and de#il0worshi% immediately command the attention of the court !y aligning
herself, in the eyes of others, with 'od$s will, she gains %ower o#er society, as do the other girls in her
%ack, and her word &ecomes #irtually unassaila&le, as do theirs Titu&a, whose status is lower than that
of anyone else in the %lay &y #irtue of the fact that she is &lack, manages similarly to deflect &lame from
herself &y accusing others

Accusations, Confessions, and Legal roceedings

The witch trials are central to the action of The Crucible, and dramatic accusations and confessions fill
the %lay e#en &eyond the confines of the courtroom In the first act, e#en &efore the hysteria &egins, we
see Parris accuse A&igail of dishonouring him, and he then makes a series of accusations against his
%arishioners 'iles ;orey and Proctor res%ond in kind, and Putnam soon 3oins in, creating a chorus of
indictments e#en &efore Hale arri#es The entire witch trial system thri#es on accusations, the only way
that witches can &e identified, and confessions, which %ro#ide the %roof of the 3ustice of the court
%roceedings Proctor attem%ts to &reak this cycle with a confession of his own, when he admits to the
affair with A&igail, &ut this confession is trum%ed &y the accusation of witchcraft against him, which in
turn demands a confession Proctor$s courageous decision, at the close of the %lay, to die rather than
confess to a sin that he did not commit, finally &reaks the cycle The court colla%ses shortly afterward,
undone &y the refusal of its #ictims to %ro%agate lies

!ymbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colours used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
The "itch Trials and McCarthyism

There is little sym&olism within The Crucible, &ut, in its entirety, the %lay can &e seen as sym&olic of the
%aranoia a&out communism that %er#aded America in the <=>?s (e#eral %arallels e-ist &etween the
House Un0American Acti#ities ;ommittee$s rooting out of sus%ected communists during this time and
the se#enteenth0century witch0hunt that Miller de%icts in The Crucible, including the narrow0
mindedness, e-cessi#e 2eal and disregard for the indi#iduals that characteri2e the go#ernment$s effort
to stam% out a %ercei#ed social ill 5urther, as with the alleged witches of (alem, sus%ected ;ommunists
were encouraged to confess their crimes and to +name names,, identifying others sym%athetic to their
radical cause (ome ha#e critici2ed Miller for o#ersim%lifying matters, in that while there were .as far as
we know/ no actual witches in (alem, there were certainly ;ommunists in <=>?s America Howe#er, one
can argue that Miller$s concern in The Crucible is not with whether the accused actually are witches, &ut
rather with the unwillingness of the court officials to &elie#e that they are not In light of Mc;arthyist
e-cesses, which wronged many innocents, this %arallel was felt strongly in Miller$s own time