The Crucible

The Crucible

Explore how Miller dramatises the conflicts within John Proctor and

presents him as a good man, despite his failings. How does Miller make

him dramatically effective for an audience?

Refer to Act two and Act four.

Miller's purpose through writing 'The Crucible' was to express his own

views on what was happening in America at the time in 1953 -

McCarthyism, a period of intense anticommunism. Miller uses the

character of John Proctor to put across his views. He is interested in

the character who does not allow himself to be caught up in hysteria,

but thinks for himself and stands up for his values. Miller wants to

teach us, his audience, about social awareness with deep insights into

personal weaknesses through his characters. Miller also wants to teach

us the important moral lessons about human nature of the notion of

goodness. Miller's play deals with difficult and controversial issues

making the audience think about the pleasant and unpleasant

experiences of humans and relating them to today's modern world.

When writing 'The Crucible' Miller was influenced partly by

witchcraft. For many hundreds of years there was a belief in

witchcraft throughout Europe. This belief in witchcraft persisted

among the English colonists in America. In 1692 there was an outbreak

of accusations of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, which lead to

twenty innocent people executed. In the play John Proctor was one of

the twenty innocent people executed. Of those women accused many were

old women with knowledge of herbal medicine or other folk remedies, an

example of a character with this description would be Rebecca Nurse,

who was hanged with John Proctor in the dramatic last scene. The

English colonists were Puritans and they felt surrounded by ungodly

people and associated the forest with savages and evil. Miller uses

this belief in the play at the beginning, when Betty, Abigail and ten

or twelve other girls were seen dancing in the forest; this event was

greatly frowned upon in the village and led to many accusations.

Miller also links his characters to the Salem witchcrafts as during

the witchcrafts one man was pressed to death by stones; this links to

the character Giles Corey. This trumped-up witch hysteria in Salem,

Massachusetts deteriorated the rational and emotional stability of its

citizens. This exploited the population's weakest qualities, and

insecurities. The obvious breakdown in Salem's social order led to

this tragedy.

McCarthyism also influenced Miller when writing 'The Crucible'. In the

early 1950s Joseph McCarthy, a senator, exploited his fear of

communism and managed to create a national campaign against

Communists, ex-Communists and anyone associated with them. The play

was produced when McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign was at its height