Comparing The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

The play Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw, which

is about a ‘draggle tailed guttersnipe’ of a woman, Eliza, who

receives elocution lessons from a professor, Mr. Higgins, and

metamorphoses into a Lady; they consequently fall in love. It is set

in the late nineteenth century, during the Victorian era, in London.

The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, is about a town

hysterically overcome by accusations of witchcraft, set in Salem on

the East coast of America in the late seventeenth century.

One of the major differences between the two plays is the period in

which they are set (Pygmalion is set in the early twentieth century,

The Crucible in the Seventeenth). The different periods in which the

plays are set mean that the characters have different beliefs and

traditions in accordance to the times.

The characters in The Crucible are Puritans, Protestants who advocated

strict religious discipline and lived in accordance to the Bible,

meaning they believe in and fear witchcraft, condemning it as a sin,

which is what the play is about. Pygmalion is set in a city which

contradicts the stern Victorian ideals of morality; prostitution and

underhand dealings abounded. In Eliza we see a confident woman who

works for a living, which is in contrast to The Crucible, where the

majority of the women are submissive and take on a distinctly inferior

role to men.

The style of our performance was very realistic. We ensured the

characters all had costume appropriate to the late Victorian era, and

included suitable props in our set. The characters all had names and

personal histories, thus making it easier for the audience to connect

with the characters and empathise with their emotions and individual

plights. The Crucible is also a realistic play, based on the true

events of the witch trials which took place in the 1690s. Arthur

Miller made sure to set the Massachusetts’ town of Salem in context,

giving the characters names and jobs in society to help convey

realism.

Pygmalion is a comic play, its plot is based on a light hearted affair

which rarely lapses into serious matters; sometimes laced with

melancholy it does however all end well for Eliza and Mr. Higgins

without moral reproach. However; based on the events of the actual

Salem witch trials which took place in 1692, The Crucible was written

in the 1950s to reflect the grave politic...

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...etween Mrs. Pearce and the character of

Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible. Goody Proctor piously forgives her

husband John for his adultery; she is aware of his indiscretions but

chooses to put it behind her. This is done with great dignity not

unlike the unfaltering stoicism Mrs. Pearce exhibits. They both appear

to display religious reservedness and Christian charity, shown by

Goody Proctor’s forgiveness of her husband, and by Mrs. Pearce’s

softening when becoming aware of Eliza’s family situation along with

their general attitudes. Mrs. Pearce is a woman in her late fifties,

whereas Elizabeth is a mother of young children, and is aged around

thirty or so; there is a wide age gap between the two characters.

In conclusion, The Crucible and Pygmalion are both very realistic

plays, but with different genres; the characters exhibit similar

repressed morals and attitudes towards women, although The Crucible,

owing to the much earlier time period in which it is set, takes these

to extremes. Definite similarities are apparent between the character

of Mrs Pearce and that of Elizabeth Proctor, despite the two hundred

year gap between the conceptions of their characters.