Arthur Miller's “The Crucible”, Summaries of Logic

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Arthur Miller’s

“ The Crucible”

Themes and Symbols

Theme:

▪ Theme is defined as a main idea or an underlying meaning of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly. ▪ Major and minor themes:

• A major theme is an idea that a writer repeats in his work, making it the most significant idea in a literary work.
• A minor theme, on the other hand, refers to an idea that appears in a work briefly and gives way to another minor theme.

Conflict:

▪ Conflict, in Miller’s play, is the inevitable result of belonging in Salem’s strained moral and social dynamics. ▪ There are various types of conflict:

• Cosmic Conflict: God versus the Devil
• Internal Conflict: John Proctor
• Conflict of Ideals: Reason vs. Hysteria
• Conflict between the individual and the state
• Conflict within the community
• Conflict between husband and wife

Cosmic Conflict: God versus the Devil

• “Let you counsel among yourselves; think on your village and what may have drawn from heaven such thundering wrath upon you all.” (Hale, p. 73)
• The seventeenth-century Puritan worldview saw the battle between God and the Devil for Christian souls as a reality.
• They believed the vigilant Christian should take this conflict as a given, and make sure they took every measure to protect their own souls.
• As Miller points out, this is still not an uncommon belief today for many people, it is hugely influential in thinking about world events , and it requires careful examination as a reality-shaping idea.

Conflict of Ideals: Reason vs.

Hysteria

▪ One of the major conflicts in the play is between the reason of the human mind and the irrational fear of hysteria. ▪ Several characters try to use reason throughout the trials, yet Miller uses the reasoning of the courts to show the madness of those blinded by process.

• This absurdity is shown through Deputy Governor Danforth’s summary of the witch trials.
• He explains that because witchcraft is an invisible crime, only the witch and her victim can possibly witness the crime, and the witch would never accuse herself.

Conflict of Ideals: Reason vs.

Hysteria (cont.)

▪ Therefore, the victim’s testimony must always be accurate. ▪ As a result of this absurd reasoning, the Puritans had no way of objectively finding out the truth. ▪ This thus removes all objectivity and rational thinking. The victim is then able to make any accusations without any proof.

• This being the case a “mob mentality” can become prevalent and all are caught up in the resultant hysteria.

Conflict within the community

▪ The accusations of witchcraft provide a smokescreen behind which simmering factional interests are exploited. ▪ Citizens use the accusations of witchcraft to gain vengeance, property or status.

• Look at Reverend Parris and the Putman’s

Conflict between husband and wife

▪ The tensions between John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth are ultimately resolved in the face of the larger threat that confronts them. ▪ Both must make difficult decisions about loyalty and morality. ▪ This is resolved at the end of the play when Procter refuses to “dishonour his name”

Intolerance: (cont.)

▪ In Salem, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the devil

• dissent is not merely unlawful, it is associated with satanic activity. ▪ This dichotomy functions as the underlying logic behind the witch trials. As Danforth says in Act III,
• “…a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it.” ▪ The witch trials are the ultimate expression of intolerance (and hanging witches is the ultimate means of restoring the community’s purity)
• The trials brand all social deviants with the taint of devil-worship and thus necessitate their elimination from the community.

Hysteria:

▪ A central theme in The Crucible is the role that hysteria can play in tearing apart a community. ▪ Hysteria supplants logic and enables people to believe that their neighbours, whom they have always considered upstanding people, are committing absurd and unbelievable crimes:

• For example: communing with the devil, killing babies, and so on. ▪ In The Crucible, the townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate for the following reasons:
• Out of genuine religious piety but also because
• It gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to act on long-held grudges

Reputation:

▪ Reputation is tremendously important in theocratic Salem, where public and private moralities are one and the same.

• In an environment where reputation plays such an important role, the fear of guilt by association becomes particularly dangerous.
• The need to maintain public reputation, meant that the townsfolk of Salem must fear that the sins of their friends and associates will taint their names. ▪ Various characters base their actions on the desire to protect their own reputation.
• Parris fears that Abigail’s increasingly questionable actions, and the hints of witchcraft surrounding his daughter’s coma, will threaten his reputation and force him from the pulpit.

Reputation: (cont.)

▪ John Proctor, seeks to keep his good name from being tarnished.

• At the start he has a chance to put a stop to the girls’ accusations, but his desire to preserve his reputation stops him testifying against Abigail.
• At the end of the play Proctor’s desire to keep his good name leads him to make the choice not to make a false confession and be hanged because he would not sign his name to an untrue statement. ▪ …“I have given you my soul; leave me my name!...” he cries to Danforth (Act IV.) ▪ By refusing to relinquish his name, he redeems himself for his earlier failure and dies with integrity.

Empowerment

▪ The witch trials empower several characters in the play that are previously marginalized in Salem society in particular women: ▪ Women occupy the lowest rung of male-dominated Salem and have few options in life.

• They work as servants for townsmen until they are old enough to be married off and have children of their own.
• In addition to being thus restricted, Abigail is also slave to John Procter’s sexual whims—he strips away her innocence when he commits adultery with her, and he arouses her spiteful jealousy when he terminates their affair.
• The young girls have a sense of power in the hysteria surrounding hysteria of the unquestioned accusations.

Empowerment (cont.)

▪ Because the Puritans’ greatest fear is the defiance of God, Abigail’s accusations of witchcraft and devil-worship immediately command the attention of the court.

• In aligning herself, in the eyes of others, with God’s will, she gains power over society, as do the other girls in her pack, and her word becomes virtually unassailable, as do theirs.
• Tituba, whose status is lower than that of anyone else in the play by virtue of the fact that she is black, manages similarly to deflect blame from herself by accusing others.