The Crucible Book Report

The Crucible

Plot Spot

The daughter of Reverend Parris, Betty, is in a coma-like state after being found in the forest. She finally wakes up after the other girls that were also in the woods, confess to conjuring spirits. They also tell everyone about all the people they saw with the devil. This leads to the trials and hangings of many innocent people.

About a week later, John and Elizabeth Proctor are at home discussing the many trials happening in the town. Elizabeth tries to get John to go into court and tell them what he knows about the Abigail and the girls. After he refuses, Elizabeth believes he still has feelings for Abby.

The next morning John takes Mary to court as proof that the young ladies are lying about seeing the devil. This

This fear was growing and growing. People were using this to their advantage and it is known as the Red Scare. One man that is well known for doing this is Joseph McCarthy. “Capitalizing on those concerns, a young Senator named Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government.” (“McCarthyism”). His accusations lead to Americans and American officials to panic. The idea that they came up with to solve everything was to hold hearings against members of the government. “For eight weeks, in televised hearings, McCarthy interrogated army officials, including many decorated war heroes.” (“McCarthyism”). These brave people that fought for our country had to sit through these humiliating hearings. They were not the only ones that had to deal with this. “Known as McCarthyism, the paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers, many of whom were labeled communist sympathizers and were unable to continue working.” (“McCarthyism”). Many of them had their passport taken away. Others were placed in jail if they did not give them the names of the others who were communists. This really hurt their careers and

“I’ll tell you what’s walkin Salem- vengeance is walkin Salem, but now the crazy little children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law.” (Miller 2.3.77). John is describing how the young ladies of Salem run the town with their power to convict someone for witchcraft. Also the girls thirst for revenge help to create the laws of the town. The second quote is from the beginning of act IV. It is when Ezekiel Cheever is describing how these trials are affecting everything. "There be so many cows wanderin' the highroads, now their masters be in the jails, and much disagreement who they will belong to now.” (Miller 4.2.125). The trials are not just affecting the people in jail. There are farm animals roaming around, children with one less or no parents at all, and men and women who are now widows or widowers. Both quotes show how these young ladies and the hangings they cause are exceedingly changing and destroying the town of Salem.

Symbols and Motifs The Crucible is a twist on McCarthyism in many ways. McCarthyism is when Joseph McCarthy stated that hundreds of members of government were communists. Abigail Williams also wrongly accused others, but in her case it is witchcraft and not communism. Many people would wonder why they would do something like this. One reason is they distract and make