How Is Characterization Used In The Crucible

Arthur Miller was the author who best used writing craft to convey meaning because of his use with characterization, setting, and conflict development throughout the story. He describes the characters very well and gives you a good idea of their personality; he also does a good job at describing the setting and giving you an idea of exactly what it looks like. In his play The Crucible, which was about what witchcraft would like if it were real, he talks about how people reacted to witchcraft and what they did to people who were claimed to be “witches.”

One device Arthur Miller used best throughout The Crucible was characterization. For example, he introduces one of the first characters: “Parris was in his middle forties. In history he cut a

villainous path, and there is very little good to be said for him. He believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God to his side. In meeting, he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door without first asking his permission. He was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them” (3). This example gives you a very good visual idea of who Parris is. Another great example is, “ The door opens, and his Negro slave enters. Tituba is in her forties. Parris brought her with him from Barbados, where he spent some years as a merchant before entering the ministry” (8). This gives more of a simple, yet very visual idea of who Tituba is. In addition to those two, another great example would be, “Abigail Williams, seventeen, enters a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling. Now she is all worry and apprehension and propriety ” (8-9). This gives a basic idea of who Abigail is and where she is in life. Therefore, Arthur Miller uses characterization very effectively throughout The Crucible.
Along with characterization, setting was also effectively used in The Crucible. Throughout the play he uses setting to “paint” a picture of everything around you and what it all looks and feels like. A great example used in the beginning of the play is, “There is a narrow window at the left. Through its leaded panes the morning sunlight streams. A candle still burns near the bed, which is at the right. A chest, a chair, and a small table are the other furnishings. At the back a door opens on the landing of the stairway to the ground floor. The room gives off an air of clean spareness. The roof rafters are exposed, and the wood colors are raw and unmellowed ” (3). This gives you an idea of what the setting is like to start to play with very specific details. Another great example of this would be, “ The meeting house was nearby, and from this point outward toward the bay or inland
there were a few small-windowed, dark houses snuggling against the raw Massachusetts winter. Salem had been established hardly forty years before. To the European world the whole province was a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics who, nevertheless, were shipping out products of slowly increasing quantity and value ” (4). This example basically gives you the layout of Salem. Along with the other two, another great example is, “ The common room of Proctor’s house, eight days later. At the right is a door opening on the fields outside. A fireplace is at the left, and behind it a stairway leading upstairs. It is the low, dark, and rather long living room of the time ” (49). This one describes the inside of Proctor’s house. Overall, Miller did an amazing job using setting to “paint” a picture for the reader throughout the play.
Lastly, conflict development was a very important device used quite often throughout The Crucible. A really good example of this would be of this would be:
ABIGAIL. But we never conjured spirits.
PARRIS.

Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! (Abigail lowers her eyes.) It must come out my enemies will bring it out. Let me know what you done there. Abigail, do you understand that I have many enemies? (10)

This example shows Parris trying to get the full truth out of Abigail before someone else finds it out and tries to claim that they were performing witchcraft and possibly be hanged. Along with this, another great example is:

PARRIS. Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the dead!

MRS. PUTNAM. I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies?

PARRIS (horrified). Woman! (16)

This shows Parris yelling at Mrs. Putnam for supposedly doing witchcraft. A final example that also shows conflict development would be:

PROCTOR (pauses an instant, then). You will not go to court again, Mary Warren.

MARY WARREN. I must tell you, sir, I will be gone every day now. I am amazed you do not see what weighty work we do.

PROCTOR. What work you do! It’s strange work for a Christian girl to hang old women! (58)

This last example shows Proctor yelling at Mary for disobeying him and becoming part of the court. Overall, Miller made conflict development a big part throughout this

play.
Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible was heavily influenced by fear of communism during the cold war. It was based on the Salem witch trials during the early 1690s where people who were accused were either hanged or confessed their “sins.” Miller wrote this play because of the McCarthy hearings during the cold war trying to find communists in America at the time. With the use of characterization, setting, and conflict development he is able to “paint” a picture throughout the play for you of the characters, setting, and conflict with the trials.