The Crucible

'The Crucible' by Arthur Miller is based on the Salem witch trials of 1692. It was written after the trials, thus being free to criticise the religious elements of it, yet still maintains the key elements of the society and exhibits them quite well. An example is the habit to call all married women “Goody InsertHusband’sNameHere” (short for goodwife). This was basically a way to say ‘this is the goodwife of husband. If anyone needs this goodwife, please contact him.’ However, the sexism isn’t the main point of the book; this one focuses on ageism. It is laid out in the form of a play, to inform and shock viewers over the maltreatment of all these adult townsfolk; hanged over the petty pointed fingers of a few young girls.

The story revolves around three main characters. The first is Abigail, from the viewpoint of the children of the town; specifically the girls. The adult townsfolk truly believed that the children couldn't be "...anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak." At the start of the book, Abigail is just a regular girl, trying to sneak off with the others, an act which they are in control of, an aspect of their life where they are in power. However, as it progresses, she lights the metaphorical fire of the witch hunts, becoming a manipulative young girl, drunk on power and forbidden love, and keeps the flames leaping higher and higher over the town.

The next main character is Abigail's uncle, Parris. He represents all the townsfolk which were clueless about how the whole witch hunt really started, and got dragged along by Abigail's party. At first cynical that the devil truly resided in the town, he goes on to believes every word out of Abigail's mouth, every new person convicted. He's also frantically trying to uphold his position as the town reverend, without knowing that one of the people most thirsty to take the job is the person he's taken as a 'friend'.

Finally, there's Proctor. Once the perspective changes from Parris's frantic attempts to discover the truth amidst the chaos, petty quarrels, and floods of invasive townsfolk, the book finally finds a direction. Proctor represents all the townsfolk who have had a loved one taken from them. They're trying to stop this endless madness, but every step they take to try and end it brings the spotlight onto their own faith. Proctor is a rock in the storm of the witch trials, with one clear goal; to save his wife from the hanging platform.

Back-tracking a little, I'll take a quick look at the setting of 'The Crucible'. Due to it being a play, there are only four rooms that are shown. The first two are people's houses (Parris's and Proctor's), a bedroom and a dining room; and yet, the majority of the cast ends up in both tiny rooms. The setting gives a great sense of the lack of privacy that fuels the witch trials. Every person in the town of Salem wants to know what every other person is doing, and if you don't turn up to one church mass, the whole town will know.

It's a main idea in this book that firm religious beliefs and an extreme lack of privacy can lead to mass hysteria. If every move you make is watched by a dozen eyes, you instinctively feel suppressed. You want to do something, anything, to break above the suppression. So when Abigail’s party started the witch hunts, the power to send anyone to the hanging platform was a bone thrown amongst starving wolves. A petty quarrel, a want for land, anything could be sated with the call of “devil”. Everyone was equal for once; equal chance of hanging, equal power to send others to be hanged.

Then there was the representation of God; key in the fact that it barely appeared. The devil opposed God, therefore those who didn’t worship God at all hours of the day must have been consorting with the devil. People were rife with accusations; to be a good person was to be perfect, never missing a prayer, knowing all of the commandments.  As perfection is unreachable, that meant every townsperson was consorting with the devil; and the only way to escape hanging was to admit it, to blacken the names of others who were ‘also’ consorting, to turn your life back to the impossible, bloodstained ‘perfection’ of God.

 At the height of the trials, the character Hale said "...if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing's left to stop the whole green world from burning." Even Rebecca, an elder whom the whole town looked to for wisdom, was hung. On the whim of a few young girls, the woman most of the town would call the 'purest' was cast amongst the 'consorts of the devil'.

This is why "The Crucible" is a great book. It really shows how the hurricane of accusations swept in and took a whole town, targeting anyone who put a toe out of line, or who tried to save those who had. If a bad happening coincided with another person's actions, then there would be a new face in the court. And the so-called 'justice system' never blinked an eye, never questioned that maybe, just maybe, there was something more to the situation. With a reverend lost in the chaos, an outcast who's trying to save his true love, and a young girl drunk on power, this book truly shows the horrors of the Salem witch trials.

~Giulia Hoekman Milesi