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THE CRUCIBLE
ARTHUR MILLER
STUDY MANUAL
Downloaded by TARRYN BANNAU
, The Crucible
Arthur Miller
CONTEXT
Early in the year 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a collection of girls
fell ill, falling victim to hallucinations and seizures. In extremely religious Puritan New
England, frightening or surprising occurrences were often attributed to the devil or his
cohorts. The unfathomable sickness spurred fears of witchcraft, and it was not long
before the girls, and then many other residents of Salem, began to accuse other
villagers of consorting with devils and casting spells. Old grudges and jealousies
spilled out into the open, fuelling the atmosphere of hysteria. The Massachusetts
government and judicial system, heavily influenced by religion, rolled into action.
Within a few weeks, dozens of people were in jail on charges of witchcraft. By the time
the fever had run its course, in late August 1692, nineteen people (and two dogs) had
been convicted and hanged for witchcraft.
More than two centuries later, Arthur Miller was born in New York City on October 17,
1915. His career as a playwright began while he was a student at the University of
Michigan. Several of his early works won prizes, and during his senior year, the Federal
Theatre Project in Detroit performed one of his works. He produced his first great
success, All My Sons, in 1947. Two years later, in 1949, Miller wrote Death of a Salesman,
which won the Pulitzer Prize and transformed Miller into a national sensation. Many
critics described Death of a Salesman as the first great American tragedy, and Miller
gained an associated eminence as a man who understood the deep essence of the
United States.
Drawing on research on the witch trials he had conducted while an undergraduate,
Miller composed The Crucible in the early 1950s. Miller wrote the play during the brief
ascendancy of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a demagogue whose vitriolic anti-
Communism proved the spark needed to propel the United States into a dramatic and
fractious anti-Communist fervour during these first tense years of the Cold War with
the Soviet Union. Led by McCarthy, special congressional committees conducted
highly controversial investigations intended to root out Communist sympathizers in
the United States. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were
encouraged to confess and to identify other Red sympathizers as means of escaping
punishment. The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations. As people began to
realize that they might be condemned as Communists regardless of their innocence,
many “cooperated,” attempting to save themselves through false confessions,
creating the image that the United States was overrun with Communists and
perpetuating the hysteria. The liberal entertainment industry, in which Miller worked,
was one of the chief targets of these “witch hunts,” as their opponents termed them.
Some cooperated; others, like Miller, refused to give in to questioning. Those who
were revealed, falsely or legitimately, as Communists, and those who refused to
incriminate their friends, saw their careers suffer, as they were blacklisted from
potential jobs for many years afterward.
At the time of its first performance, in January of 1953, critics and cast alike perceived
The Crucible as a direct attack on McCarthyism (the policy of sniffing out Communists).
Its comparatively short run, compared with those of Miller's other works, was blamed
on anti-Communist fervour. When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of spying
for the Soviets and executed, the cast and audience of Miller's play observed a
moment of silence. Still, there are difficulties with interpreting The Crucible as a strict
allegorical treatment of 1950s McCarthyism. For one thing, there were, as far as one
can tell, no actual witches or devil-worshipers in Salem. However, there were certainly
Communists in 1950s America, and many of those who were lionized as victims of
McCarthyism at the time, such as the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss (a former State
Department official), were later found to have been in the pay of the Soviet Union.
The Crucible Study Guide Page 2
,Miller's Communist friends, then, were often less innocent than the victims of the
Salem witch trials, like the stalwart Rebecca Nurse or the tragic John Proctor.
If Miller took unknowing liberties with the facts of his own era, he also played fast and
loose with the historical record. The general outline of events in The Crucible
corresponds to what happened
The Crucible Study Guide Page 3
, in Salem of 1692, but Miller's characters are often composites. Furthermore, his
central plot device – the affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor – has no
grounding in fact (Proctor was over sixty at the time of the trials, while Abigail was
only eleven). Thus, Miller's decision to set sexual jealousy at the root of the hysteria
constitutes a dramatic contrivance.
In an odd way, then, The Crucible is best read outside its historical context – not as a
perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, but
as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance and hysteria can intersect and
tear a community apart. In John Proctor, Miller gives the reader a marvellous tragic
hero for any time – a flawed figure who finds his moral centre just as everything is
falling to pieces around him.
PLOT OVERVIEW
In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes
dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught
by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris's daughter Betty, falls
into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumours of witchcraft
fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions
Abigail Williams, the girls' ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest.
Abigail, who is Parris's niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond “dancing.”
While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to
some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local
farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the
town, while working in Proctor's home the previous year she engaged in an affair with
him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but
he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls.
Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers
in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between
Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon
ensues. This dispute centres on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault
lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and
examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls' activities in
the forest, grows suspicious of her behaviour, and demands to speak to Tituba. After
Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with
the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil.
Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and
cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd
is thrown into an uproar.
A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor
discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been
accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud;
he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harbouring feelings for her.
Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail's circle, returns from Salem with news
that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the
accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument,
only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles
Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have
been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they
have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and
expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds.
The Crucible Study Guide Page 4
THE CRUCIBLE
ARTHUR MILLER
STUDY MANUAL
Downloaded by TARRYN BANNAU
, The Crucible
Arthur Miller
CONTEXT
Early in the year 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a collection of girls
fell ill, falling victim to hallucinations and seizures. In extremely religious Puritan New
England, frightening or surprising occurrences were often attributed to the devil or his
cohorts. The unfathomable sickness spurred fears of witchcraft, and it was not long
before the girls, and then many other residents of Salem, began to accuse other
villagers of consorting with devils and casting spells. Old grudges and jealousies
spilled out into the open, fuelling the atmosphere of hysteria. The Massachusetts
government and judicial system, heavily influenced by religion, rolled into action.
Within a few weeks, dozens of people were in jail on charges of witchcraft. By the time
the fever had run its course, in late August 1692, nineteen people (and two dogs) had
been convicted and hanged for witchcraft.
More than two centuries later, Arthur Miller was born in New York City on October 17,
1915. His career as a playwright began while he was a student at the University of
Michigan. Several of his early works won prizes, and during his senior year, the Federal
Theatre Project in Detroit performed one of his works. He produced his first great
success, All My Sons, in 1947. Two years later, in 1949, Miller wrote Death of a Salesman,
which won the Pulitzer Prize and transformed Miller into a national sensation. Many
critics described Death of a Salesman as the first great American tragedy, and Miller
gained an associated eminence as a man who understood the deep essence of the
United States.
Drawing on research on the witch trials he had conducted while an undergraduate,
Miller composed The Crucible in the early 1950s. Miller wrote the play during the brief
ascendancy of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a demagogue whose vitriolic anti-
Communism proved the spark needed to propel the United States into a dramatic and
fractious anti-Communist fervour during these first tense years of the Cold War with
the Soviet Union. Led by McCarthy, special congressional committees conducted
highly controversial investigations intended to root out Communist sympathizers in
the United States. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were
encouraged to confess and to identify other Red sympathizers as means of escaping
punishment. The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations. As people began to
realize that they might be condemned as Communists regardless of their innocence,
many “cooperated,” attempting to save themselves through false confessions,
creating the image that the United States was overrun with Communists and
perpetuating the hysteria. The liberal entertainment industry, in which Miller worked,
was one of the chief targets of these “witch hunts,” as their opponents termed them.
Some cooperated; others, like Miller, refused to give in to questioning. Those who
were revealed, falsely or legitimately, as Communists, and those who refused to
incriminate their friends, saw their careers suffer, as they were blacklisted from
potential jobs for many years afterward.
At the time of its first performance, in January of 1953, critics and cast alike perceived
The Crucible as a direct attack on McCarthyism (the policy of sniffing out Communists).
Its comparatively short run, compared with those of Miller's other works, was blamed
on anti-Communist fervour. When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were accused of spying
for the Soviets and executed, the cast and audience of Miller's play observed a
moment of silence. Still, there are difficulties with interpreting The Crucible as a strict
allegorical treatment of 1950s McCarthyism. For one thing, there were, as far as one
can tell, no actual witches or devil-worshipers in Salem. However, there were certainly
Communists in 1950s America, and many of those who were lionized as victims of
McCarthyism at the time, such as the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss (a former State
Department official), were later found to have been in the pay of the Soviet Union.
The Crucible Study Guide Page 2
,Miller's Communist friends, then, were often less innocent than the victims of the
Salem witch trials, like the stalwart Rebecca Nurse or the tragic John Proctor.
If Miller took unknowing liberties with the facts of his own era, he also played fast and
loose with the historical record. The general outline of events in The Crucible
corresponds to what happened
The Crucible Study Guide Page 3
, in Salem of 1692, but Miller's characters are often composites. Furthermore, his
central plot device – the affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor – has no
grounding in fact (Proctor was over sixty at the time of the trials, while Abigail was
only eleven). Thus, Miller's decision to set sexual jealousy at the root of the hysteria
constitutes a dramatic contrivance.
In an odd way, then, The Crucible is best read outside its historical context – not as a
perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, but
as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance and hysteria can intersect and
tear a community apart. In John Proctor, Miller gives the reader a marvellous tragic
hero for any time – a flawed figure who finds his moral centre just as everything is
falling to pieces around him.
PLOT OVERVIEW
In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes
dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught
by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris's daughter Betty, falls
into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumours of witchcraft
fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions
Abigail Williams, the girls' ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest.
Abigail, who is Parris's niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond “dancing.”
While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to
some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local
farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the
town, while working in Proctor's home the previous year she engaged in an affair with
him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but
he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls.
Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers
in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between
Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon
ensues. This dispute centres on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault
lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and
examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls' activities in
the forest, grows suspicious of her behaviour, and demands to speak to Tituba. After
Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with
the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil.
Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and
cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd
is thrown into an uproar.
A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor
discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been
accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud;
he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harbouring feelings for her.
Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail's circle, returns from Salem with news
that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the
accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument,
only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles
Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have
been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they
have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and
expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds.
The Crucible Study Guide Page 4
