The Crucible Overview

Arther Miller’s The Crucible is a tragedy that tests each character. The play takes place in a small town in Massachusetts called “Salem”. The play is based upon witchcraft rumors and trials. The trials reveal the character’s true identity to the audience. Every lie and conspiracy in the play spreads the rumors and keeps the trials and proceedings going.

John Proctor faces several crucibles in the play such as revealing his adultery crime. John admits to having an affair with Abigail (The leader of the conspiracies) to both his wife and the court. This shows that he did make a mistake but he came clean on it, realizing that this was a crime punishable by death. John also shows that he has a lot of pride and integrity in himself and his name not to sign his name over to a lie of being a witch. John instead gives up his life to protect his “soul” and his “name”.

Elizabeth Proctor (John’s wife) faces crucibles similar to John. One of which she must determine if she is going for forgive John or not for his “mistake”. Elizabeth has every reason in the world not to forgive him and not to trust him. She thinks that John always goes to Salem to “hook up” with Abigail. However we as the audience know that he would in fact not make the same mistake again, as he says to Abigail: “I will cut off my hand before touching you again”. However she does forgive him. Elizabeth’s next crucible is she must decide whether to reveal John’s affair to the court. Not knowing that John had already confessed she decided that she should protect John and lie saying that she did not know of John’s affair with Abigail. She made a decision to lie and “damn her soul” to save John’s name. Finally Elizabeth is put into one of the biggest crucibles of the play. She has to decide if she should convince John to lie and “throw away his name” or should she let him choose his own fate. In the end she decides that she should let him choose to damn his soul or throw away his name. This shows that Elizabeth loved her husband and forgave him for his mistakes.

Abigail is the main reason for the witchcraft trials in Salem; she is the leader of the conspiracies. Her plan was to get rid of Elizabeth so she could be with John. Abigail’s main crucible is at the end when the court finds out that the witch trials and proceeding are false she steals all of her uncle’s money (Paris) and flees on a ship. She offers to take John with her but he refuses yet again. This shows that Abigail is a weak character in the play that lies to get what she wants and runs away when she has to face her crucibles.

Reverend Hale comes to Salem on a mission to save the community from witchcraft and the devil. However he soon realizes that the witch hunt he has begun has turned false, but he does not want to end the hunt in fear that he will lose his pride. Rather then admitting to his false accusation he flees from the court. Hale also tries to convince Elizabeth to convince John to lie about being a witch and save his life. Hale says that “God’s most precious gift is a life”, but we as the audience know that Salem’s people had believed that all liars are damned to hell. Hale wants to save Proctors life because he feels guilty about taking away John’s life on a false accusation. In some ways you could say that Abigail and Hale are alike, they both run away from reality, they appear as the “weak” characters and they are selfish.
Deputy Governor Danforth faces a crucible. Although he really believes in witchcraft at first he soon learns that it is a misconception. Danforth has many opportunities to do the right thing and we as the audience see that he has chosen not to, for he would look as if he was “weak” and his court would look like a joke. He realizes that the court has gone to far with the witchcraft proceedings but unlike Reverend Hale he continues the proceedings regardless of the truth. This shows us that Danforth is also a selfish character that cares about nothing except his reputation.

The Crucible exposes all of these characters “true” character. Most of Salem’s people are selfish and have grudges against each other, which add fuel to the fire when it comes to the trials and proceedings. Then there are people like John who know he has made a mistake. Although he wants to make up for them he has flaws that his reputation means more to him then life. Arthur also illustrates through the characters in the play how people of today’s society can be taunted or destroyed by our own selfishness, greed, and pride. Arthur also explores how we as people put on an outside appearance to hide away our inside appearance. Many people of today’s society, although not admitting it, most people take on the appearance of Hale, Danforth, and Abigail. Lying and scheming to get what we want or make ourselves appear as a better “character”, or are you like John or Elizabeth a person who’s not selfish all of the time and your pride and integrity means everything?