What Is The Difference Between The Crucible Play And Movie

The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller; he also wrote a screenplay. Arthur Miller was very purposeful when he wrote the Crucible. He encountered some incidents that related to this historical story, and that is where he got his inspiration. The text and the screenplay had some major differences between them, along with some minor differences. Some differences altered the story while others had little to no effect.

In Act 1, the screenplay shows John Proctor talking to Abigail Williams outside, while in the text, the scene is in Betty’s room. The difference between the setting in the scene, affects the overall story. In the text Betty is in the room, “unconscious”, so she hears everything. In the text, Betty knows about Abigail and John’s affair, while in the movie Betty hears nothing of it. In the screenplay Abigail talks to Reverend Hale about what happened in the forest. She implies that something jumped into the kettle but she doesn’t say what it was, while in the text she tells him it was a frog. This small change has almost no effect on the overall story,

other than the fact that she tells him the truth about what jumped in the kettle, instead of being very vague about the situation.
In the screenplay, all of the girls involved with the ‘dancing in the woods’ were in Betty’s room when Hale was looking at Betty. When Abigail and Betty start telling him who was with the devil, all of the other girls start screaming names too. While in the text, Abigail and Betty are the only girls in the room. The only change in the overall story I see here is the intensity of the story. When all of the girls are in there screaming names out, there is not a very taut scene. There are girls screaming all at once and tensions are high. In the text, the scene is a bit more pleasant and quiet with their only being two crazy girls instead of fourteen.
In Act 2 of the text , there is a very awkward dinner held between Elizabeth Proctor and John Proctor. In this scene, John walks downstairs and while Elizabeth isn’t looking he salts the soup because he doesn’t want to offend her. You can just see in this scene that there are trust issues and it doesn’t seem that they are a married couple. While in the screenplay, John doesn’t salt the soup. Just that small change, makes the audience look at John differently. John doesn’t seem to want to please Elizabeth as much as he did in the text. Although the dinner is somewhat awkward, it’s not as awkward due to this small gesture that Arthur decided not to put into the screenplay.
When Reverend Hale comes to the Proctors house, in the screenplay the children come down the stairs to see what is going on.

When the children see what is going on they try to save their mom. While in the text, we don’t see the children at all. This small modification, changes the feeling of the scene. In the screenplay, the scene seems more tragic with the boys trying to save their mother.

In Act 4 of the screenplay, Arthur Miller adds an entire new scene. This changes a lot. We see how desperate and pathetic Abigail actually was. Abigail is portrayed as delusional, the fact that she actually thought John still loved her. We also see the whole reason this really started, she just wanted John. If she had just accepted the fact that John didn’t love her anymore this never would’ve happened. She reveals in the added scene that, she never intended for John to be in that situation, she just wanted

him.
There were many themes in the Crucible. The main ones were: integrity, good versus evil, justice, religion, and jealousy. John wrestles with whether or not he should lie about not being a witch. Then Elizabeth helps him realize that, integrity can in some situations be worth your life. Most of the village and Judge Hawthorne believed that what they were doing was the right thing. Judge Hawthorne thought he was doing something good for this village, but sometimes what appears good isn’t. Judge Hawthorne thinks he is doing the just lawful thing, but a justice system based on the beliefs of a specific person or group is flawed. Little did most of the villagers of Salem know, their belief system was flawed, and they ended up paying for it. Judge Hawthorne and most of the villagers were so wrapped up in their beliefs that they were blinded to the truth. Abigail was completely in love with a married man. Jealousy can make you go mad, as it made Abigail go crazy enough to try and hang John’s wife so she could have him.