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By Arthur Miller

• Grew up during the 1930 ‘s and the Great Depression.

• Had a profound impact on shaping Arthur into becoming a mega-celebrity

• First play was a complete flop, pulled from Broadway after three shows.

• Went on to become a American power house in theatre:

Streetcar Named Desire

Death of a Salesman

The Crucible

Arthur Miller: History

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McCarthyism

• Senator McCarthy was facing re-election after a very uneventful term (did little to earn another appointment)

• Produced a list of 207 know communists (government officials, celebrities).

• Red Scare during the cold war of the 1950’s was enough to attract a strong supporting crowd for McCarty.

• Many citizens were accused, tried, fined, or jailed because of the false accusations of one man.

• Truth of the list fictitious nature ended McCarthy’s career as a politician.

• Showed that truth at any coast was too expensive a price to pay.

McCarthy vs. Salem Witch Hunt

• Colonial era Massachusetts 1682

• Puritan community, fleeing English religious reforms of Protestant Church

• Case of mass hysteria

• Ended the theocracy of New England

• Much of the evidence was spectral

• 19 hung, 5 die in prison during the hunt. Throughout Europe 40,000-100,000 executed for witch craft (1400-1600’s)

• Used what was considered empirical evidence to determine guilt 9touch, blemishes)

• Real cause either biological (mould infection in rye bread, or social (greed, attention seeking, spite)

Salem Witch Hunt

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• Citizens could be accused, and face terrible repercussions.

• Guilt was assumed, innocence had to earned.

• No evidence was ever introduced other than word of mouth, or the word of the accused in their own defence.

• Both American historical events, both travesties of justice.

• Suspension of Civil liberties can never be justified – ever

• Post 9-11 era is ripe with continued civil liberty abuse as homeland security continues to justify these emerging abuses as necessary practices.

• Security at all costs?

Loss of Civil Liberties

The Crucible: Vocabulary

excommunicate

faction

gibbet

grapple

intimation

lechery

licentious

magistrate

obscene

pallor

adamant

affidavit

autocracy

bowlegged

clod

contention

contiguous

Crucible

defamation

deposition

parish

pilgrimage

plaintiff

poppet

predilection

pretense

prodigious

propriety

providence

reproach

struck dumb

subservient

titillated

trepidation

vengeance

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John Proctor - A local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern, harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has a hidden sin—his affair with Abigail Williams—

Abigail Williams - Reverend Parris’s niece. Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor household, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John Proctor. 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..

Elizabeth Proctor - John Proctor’s wife. Elizabeth fired Abigail when she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold.

Reverend Parris - The minister of Salem’s church. Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power-hungry, yet oddly self-pitying figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris is very concerned with building his position in the community.

Rebecca Nurse - Francis Nurse’s wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in tremendous regard by most of the Salem community.

Francis Nurse - A wealthy, influential man in Salem. Nurse is well respected by most people in Salem, but is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife.

Judge Danforth - The deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials. Honest and scrupulous, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out witchcraft.

Characters of The Crucible

Ann Putnam - Thomas Putnam’s wife. Ann Putnam has given birth to eight children, but only Ruth Putnam survived. The other seven died before they were a day old, and Ann is convinced that they were murdered by supernatural means.

Ruth Putnam - The Putnams’ lone surviving child out of eight. Like Betty Parris, Ruth falls into a strange stupor after Reverend Parris catches her and the other girls dancing in the woods at night.

Tituba - Reverend Parris’s black slave from Barbados. Tituba agrees to perform voodoo at Abigail’s request.

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.

Giles Corey - An elderly but feisty farmer in Salem, famous for his tendency to file lawsuits.

Thomas Putnam - A wealthy, influential citizen of Salem, Putnam holds a grudge against Francis Nurse for preventing Putnam’s brother-in-law from being elected to the office of minister

Characters - continued

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1. Why is Reverend Parris praying and weeping as the play begins?

2. Why did Mrs. Putnam send her daughter Ruth to Tituba?

3. What is Proctor's response when Abigail speaks of her love to him?

4. Does Rebecca think that Betty is touched by the devil? why?

5. Why is Mrs. Putnam so quick to believe that Goody Osburn is a witch?

6. Towards the end of act 1, both Abigail and Tituba confess to witchcraft

because....

7. How do the characters in the crucible feel about witches?

8. Describe setting and mood in Act 1.

Crucible Act I: Study Questions

1. Why doesn’t Proctor go to Salem to report what Abigail has told him? Why

does Elizabeth want him to go? Why does Elizabeth mistrust him?

2. How does Proctor feel about the court and Mary Warren’s part in the

proceedings? How has Mary Warren changed?

3. How has Hale changed since his arrival in Salem? Why is he testing Proctor

and Elizabeth? Why hasn’t Proctor been in church?

4. Why is Cheever looking for a poppet? What is the significance of the one

they find?

5. Hale says: “Mary–you charge a cold and cruel murder on Abigail.” What

does he mean?

6. Why does Proctor insist that Mary Warren testify in Elizabeth’s defense?

Why does Mary Warren refuse?

Crucible Act II: Study Questions

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1. Why is Giles Cory expelled from court? Why won’t Danforth hear his evidence? Why is Cory arrested?

2. Why is Mary Warren in court? What does she tell Danforth? Why is Danforth suspicious of her and of Proctor? Why does Proctor remind her of the angel Raphael?

3. How does Parris nullify Proctor’s testament? How is Giles’s deposition turned against him?

4. What is the professed purpose of the court? Why doesn’t the court need witnesses? What does this suggest about the proceedings?

5. Why does Proctor confess lechery? Why does he think Danforth and Hathornewill believe his confession? Why don’t they believe him?

6. How is Elizabeth’s testimony used against Proctor? Why is this an unfair test of Elizabeth’s word against John’s?

7. How does Abigail turn the court against Mary Warren?

8. Why does Hale denounce the proceedings? What should have been the effect of his denunciation? Why is it not?

Crucible Act III Study Questions

1. What is the effect of Sarah Good’s and Tituba’s talk about flying south?

Why does Miller include it?

2. How has Parris changed? Why doesn’t the news that Abigail and Mercy

have left town affect the decision of the court? How is Danforth a victim of

his own logic?

3. Why has Hale returned? How has he changed? Why has he changed?

4. Why does Danforth allow Elizabeth to speak to John Proctor? How has she

changed toward her husband? Why doesn’t she take Hale’s advice?

5. How and why does Giles die? Why wasn’t he hanged?

6. Why does Proctor confess? Why will he not name names? Why will he not

let Danforth have his signed paper?

7. Why does John Proctor choose to hang? What does he thereby

accomplish?

Crucible Act IV Study Questions

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1. Authority and Dissent

2. Martyrdom

3. Community vs. Individual

4. Naming Names

5. Sin and Guilt

6. Self interest

7. Reputation

Major Themes

There are many levels of authority within the world of the Crucible. Early on,

the Reverend Parris is the sole authoritative voice in Salem, as the minister

and a graduate of Harvard College. He is supplanted by the arrival of

Reverend Hale, who derives his authority from books and learning, which are

then further supplanted in turn by the courts and its officials. Meanwhile,

individualists like Proctor and Giles Corey rankle under these layers of

authority – Proctor had long rejected Parris's preaching's, and Corey made

the authority of the law work for him as a constant plaintiff. But being an

outlier is seen as dangerous in this society. Indeed, dissent against official

authority is akin to being an anarchist at best and an agent of Satan at

worst. Proctor and Corey are the two most modern figures in the play for

their willingness to push back against the extreme authority of the courts.

For this, however, they also suffer greatly.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the

theme of Authority and Dissent.

Authority and Dissent

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Miller addresses the question of whether a martyr must be a saint by having

Proctor grapple with this very issue throughout the play. The early victims of

the witch hunt are not seen as martyrs because even after death, they are

considered undesired members of society. In contrast, the execution of

Rebecca Nurse is widely recognized as one of martyrdom, because she has

lived a conspicuously upright life and thus walks to the gallows without

protest. Proctor sees himself as the borderline case – a respected member of

society but far from sinless. It is only by recognizing that he need not be as

perfect as Goody Nurse that Proctor finally finds "his goodness" as a moral

man.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the

theme of Martyrdom.

Martyrdom

Salem is a tight-knit community where there is no such thing as private

business. Individual activities like church attendance or book reading or

keeping poppets become admissible evidence in court. Miller speculates that

the community of Salem sought to keep itself together by casting out

undesirable individuals, and in so doing created the atmosphere necessary

for the witch hunts. The court itself was an extension of this principle,

desperately in search of external validity – Danforth cannot possibly

exonerate some when others have already perished for the same crime. But

for the accused, it is only the individual that matters. In the end, Proctor is

left with nothing but his name and reputation.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the

theme of Community vs. Individual.

Community vs. Individual

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By requiring the accused to name others in their confessions, a witch hunt like that in Salem or HUAC can take on the form of a pyramid scheme or chain letter. In other words, to avoid the effects of this curse, you must pass it on to five other people, and so forth. This "naming names" allowed the accusations to spread and spread, while also permitting the public airing of grievances and sins. As a member of the blacklist himself, Miller felt particularly strongly about the evil of fingering others to save oneself, and he expresses this idea by having several characters grapple with the requirement that they name names. Giles Corey is held in contempt – the charge that ultimately leads to his execution – for refusing to name the person who told him of Putnam's scheming, and Proctor balks at the court's intention to question the 91 people who signed his declaration of the good character of the accused. But it is at the climax that this theme truly comes to the fore, as Proctor would rather die than accuse more innocent people.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the theme of Naming Names.

Naming Names

Miller identifies the witch hunt as an opportunity for the repressed members

of Salem society to publicly proclaim both their own sins and the sins of

others. Guilt has been bottled up at home in this community, and the airing

of sins and grievances is a relief to those previously without an outlet for

confession. Guilt motivates not only the witch hunts themselves, but also

the behavior of several principal characters. Proctor is haunted by remorse

over his infidelity, while Reverend Hale works to undermine the court that he

helped create as penance for his sins. The ultimate irony of the Salem witch

hunts is not only that the sins of the trials quickly outpaced the original

crime, but that there was no original crime to begin with. Indeed, the

abstract concept of sin was made concrete through compounding

avoidances of guilt.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the

theme of Sin and Guilt.

Sin and Guilt

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In varying degrees, the instigators of the witch trials are working to serve

their own self-interest. Abigail begins the hysteria when she finds it a

convenient way to deflect attention from her own sins, and further points

the accusations at Elizabeth to scheme her way into Proctor's arms. Tituba,

the first charged, is also the first to confess when she realizes that a

confession will save her life. Parris at first rankles against the witchcraft talk

because it would undermine his reputation in the town, and later opposes

the execution of prominent community members because their death would

lead to popular uprising. Even Giles Corey died in the way he did because it

was in his own interest – by not pleading and dying under the weighted

rocks, he ensured that his property would pass to his sons rather than to the

state.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the

theme of Self interest.

Self interest

The reputation of each individual within the Salem community largely dictated his or her fate. The witch trials featured significant subversions of the dominant social structure by elevating to a position of power individuals whose reputation and status were otherwise lowly. Abigail, an unmarried, female orphan, suddenly became the most important person in town, bringing with her a dozen other such girls who otherwise could only hope to work as housekeepers until they married. Similarly, the black slave Tituba, whose race gave her the lowest social status in Salem, found herself with the ability to decide the fates of people far more powerful than herself as she accused others of witchcraft. Conversely, individuals with sparkling reputations like Rebecca Nurse and Elizabeth Proctor were dragged through the mud and lost all agency in their situations. John Proctor is the appropriate protagonist for this story especially because he falls in the center of Salem's spectrum of reputation. As a landowner and adulterer, he is placed by Miller at the eye of the storm, watching the entire social structure pivot around him.

Locate two quotes that support Miller’s development of the theme of Reputation.

Reputation