the crucible...the crucible came out in 1951. six years later, in 1957, miller was asked to testify...

Who was Arthur Miller? Page 2 History in The Crucible

• Seventeenth century Massachusetts Page 4 • The United States in the 1950s Page 6

The Crucible • The characters Page 7 • Plot summary Page 8

Miller’s skill as a storyteller • The title 2• Language Page 12• Pace and structure Page 13

Themes Page 13Sources and recommended reading Page 14

CONTENTS

THE CRUCIBLE ARTHUR MILLER

Image shows Iain Glen as John Proctor Photography: David Scheinmann

© RSC Learning 2006 2

Arthur Miller is generally recognised as the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century. His plays challenge the assumptions of US society and ask people to think about their responsibilities to each other. Arthur Miller’s plays pleased critics and audiences. He was awarded the Pulitzer prize for literature, and honorary degrees from Oxford and Harvard Universities. He was popular in the US and beyond: most of his plays were produced across Europe soon after their premieres in New York. One of his most famous plays, The Death of a Salesman, was staged in China in 1983 and was a huge success. It is said that not a day goes by when one of Miller’s plays is not being performed somewhere in the world. So what makes Arthur Miller such a popular writer? His characters were ordinary people who audiences could sympathise with; the dialogue is clear and recognisable but full of character; he wrote about issues like personal freedom, duty and honour – these are big topics but everyone has experience of them.

Who was Arthur Miller?

Arthur Miller was able to write so well about the experience of being American because in many ways his life was typical for someone growing up through the twentieth century. He was born in New York in 1915 and lived in the northern district of Harlem. At the time Harlem was a well-off district where most families (including the Millers) were Jewish. In the 1920s Arthur, his father Isidore, his mother Augusta and his brother Kermit moved to Brooklyn, across the East River from Manhattan. Miller’s father Isidore was a clothing manufacturer. Well into Arthur’s teens the business did well and the Millers lived a comfortable life. Then in the 1930s the American economy collapsed. All overAmerica hundreds of thousands of farms and businesses ran into serious trouble. Isidore’s firm was no exception and the sudden transformation in the Miller family fortunes was a big influence on Miller and his views on life and politics.

Arthur Miller’s life

Miller was clearly bright but without financial backing from his parents had no hope of going straight from high school to university. He did various odd jobs before saving enough to enrol at the University of Michigan in 1934. He started off studying journalism, but when his first play They Too Arise won an award he switched to English. After university, Miller spent just over a year working for the Federal Theatre Project in New York before government funding was withdrawn and the project closed. He continued to write (mostly radio plays) alongside other jobs including a spell collecting dialects in North Carolina for the Library of Congress (the national library) and a job as a shipfitter’s assistant in the Brooklyn Naval Yard.

Arthur Miller


Arthur Miller’s life

Alongside his success as a writer, the 1950s had two other significant features for Miller: love and politics.

His last play, Finishing the Picture premiered in 2004 and he died on 10 February 2005.

Miller continued to write until his death in 2005. He never regained the same levels of popularity in the US that he had in the 1950s and early 1960s but many of his new plays were produced in London right up to the turn of the century and the older plays continued to be performed all over the world. As the president of the international writers’ organisation PEN, Miller continued to work for improved relations between the communist countries of the East and the capitalist democracies of the West. His status as one of the greatest playwrights of the century was beyond question.

In politics Miller became involved with a circle working for greater understanding between the United States and the communist Soviet Union. This brought Miller head-to-head with the HUAC - the House Un-American Activities Committee, a government committee set up to keep an eye on

people who the government felt were dangerously left-wing or communist. For more on this, see the section History in The Crucible on page 11.

In 1951 he met Marilyn Monroe. The media has always portrayed Miller and Monroe as an odd couple but they had a serious relationship. Miller divorced Mary Slattery in 1956 and married Marilyn the same year. They were married for five years and their marriage broke up during the filming of The Misfits. Miller was never keen to discuss the marriage with the media but he did write about it in his autobiography Timebends (1987). Marilyn Monroe died in 1962 and Miller married again, to a photographer called Inge Morath. This marriage lasted until Inge died in 2002.

All My Sons began a run of successful work for Miller. Death of a Salesmancame out in 1949 and won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. The Crucible was first performed in 1953. A View From the Bridge had its first performance in 1955. In 1956 Miller published a short story called The Misfits in Esquiremagazine, which was made into a film starring Marilyn Monroe, John Huston, Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable and released in 1961.

In 1940 Arthur Miller married Mary Grace Slattery and they had their first child, Jane, in 1944. In the same year Miller’s play The Man Who Had All the Luck was performed on Broadway, but closed after just six performances. A lengthy Broadway run was the benchmark of success in the American theatre at this time: Miller achieved this in 1947 with All My Sons, a play about an aircraft manufacturer cutting corners on US air force planes during the Second World War. Although some people criticised the play as unpatriotic it was popular enough with audiences. By 1947 Miller was doing well enough financially to buy two homes – a city flat in New York and a farmhouse in Connecticut where he did most of his writing for the rest of his life.


History in The Crucible

Seventeenth century Massachusetts

Miller’s script for The Crucible begins with ‘A note on the historical accuracy of this play’. He says that the play is ‘not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian’. Miller wasn’t trying to give a 100% accurate account of events in Salem in 1692. What he was trying to show is what it felt like to be involved in those events and the forces at work to make such terrible events possible.

A man called John Proctor was concerned at the way torture was being used to make people confess. He wrote to the minister of Boston asking for an investigation but he was ignored. In August he was hanged along with four others. His wife Elizabeth was pregnant and so escaped hanging. Eight more people were hanged before the trials came to an end in September. Later the government acknowledged that the convictions and executions had been a mistake.

In January that year, a group of teenage girls seemed to be suffering from a strange illness. The illness was blamed on witchcraft and there was an official investigation – by April over 300 suspected witches had been imprisoned. In June 1692 the death penalty was introduced as a punishment for witchcraft. The first person to be hanged was a woman called Bridget Bishop. Five more women, including the real Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good, were hanged in July.

The story of The Crucible is based on real eventsthat took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.

John is hanged

Court official read Giles’ petition

Before writing the play Miller researched original historical documents, including records of the witchcraft trials. Even if the events are not a precise record of what actually happened, other aspects of the play are an accurate reflection of life in seventeenth century Massachusetts.



Many of the supposed signs of witchcraft are mentioned in the play – the power to fly, reading books, muttering curses and making potions with live animals. In Act 3, Abigail accuses Mary Warren of ‘sending out her spirit’ against her, and this was supposed to be another power of witches. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an estimated 60,000 people were executed for witchcraft in Europe and North America. Most were poor and old and often single women who had nobody to stand up for them. In England the last witchcraft trial took place in 1712. It was not just religious, superstitious or uneducated people who believed in witches. King James VI of Scotland (who later became King James I of England) wrote a book about witches called Daemonologie published in 1597.

The names of the characters in The Crucible are taken from the trial records. Miller’s historical note says that the way each person’s story ends, whether it be by hanging like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, being crushed by stones like Giles Corey or escaping death like Elizabeth Proctor, is true to history. Other details have changed, for example John Proctor was an innkeeper, not a farmer. Another detail of the naming is also historically accurate. The female characters are often called ‘Goody’ as in Goody Proctor and Goody Putnam. Goody was short for ‘Goodwife’. It’s an old-fashioned version of ‘Mrs’. By using this title Miller makes us think about how ‘good’ the women really are.

The settlers in Massachusetts were some of the first Europeans to live in this part of North America. They were fighting a physical battle with the wilderness, the climate and Native Americans to establish their European-style farms and towns. They lived with the constant threat of losing everything. This made them tense and paranoid, and even more likely to believe in suggestions of witchcraft and plots against them.

Puritans were Christians who believed that they should strictly obey the words of the Bible. They also believed that it was important to lead a very strict and serious lifestyle. Singing and dancing were banned. People wore sensible dark-coloured clothing that covered everything except their hands and face. Christmas was not celebrated and all religious services were plain and simple. In England, Puritans were persecuted for their extreme views and many made the journey across the Atlantic to set up new Puritan communities in North America. Salem was one of these communities. Supernatural powers were supposed to come from the Devil. In religious communities like Salem this would sound more convincing – and more frightening – than it does nowadays in a less religious society.

Puritan religion

Girls wearing typical Puritan clothes

The settler life

Names

Beliefs about witchcraft



The United States in the 1950s

The Crucible came out in 1951. Six years later, in 1957, Miller was asked to testify in front of the HUAC and name friends and colleagues who might be communists. He refused and was convicted of contempt of court. The judgement was overturned the following year.

Miller’s good friend, the film director Elias Kazan was questioned. He was told that he would not be prosecuted if he named others who might be communists. Kazan was frightened and gave the Committee names. He was ashamed of what he had done and invited Miller over to discuss his experience. Miller drove straight from Kazan’s house to Salem to begin researching for The Crucible.

The US government began to worry that communists might try and take over the United States. A senator called McCarthy was made chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee. This committee’s job was to find communists and communist sympathisers living and working in the United States. The investigators were particularly interested in people working in the media who could have an influence on large numbers of people.

By the 1950s, the two countries were enemies. They didn’t fight each other openly, though they did support rival factions in civil wars around the world. This period was known as the Cold War.

In the Second World War (1939-1945) the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. After the war was over, the two countries became more and more suspicious of each other. The governments of the two countries had very different ideologies. The US government believed in capitalism (everyone making as much money as they can). The Soviets believed in communism (everybody sharing in the whole country’s wealth so nobody is very rich or very poor). The US was run as a democracy, the Soviet Union was a dictatorship.

The play is also a description of historical events in the United States in the 1950s.

Characters

Francis Nurse A sensible, solid man, older than the Proctors. Stands up for his wife when she’s accused of witchcraft.

Rebecca Nurse Mother of seven children. Well-known for her kindness and goodness – almost saintly.

Giles Corey Has often sued his neighbours over petty issues. Dies under torture rather than lose his farm.

Martha Corey A decent woman who loves reading – at her trial this is used as evidence that she is a witch.

Ann Putnam A selfish, spiteful woman. Jealous of Rebecca Nurse’s many children – many of her own have died.

Reverend Parris Worries about money and his reputation in the village. Preaches more hellfire than brotherly love.

Reverend Hale A famous ‘witch-finder’. Smug and complacent at first but learns to see through the lies.

Deputy-Governor Danforth Confident and expects obedience. More interested in maintaining control than finding out the truth.

Judge Hathorne A tough Boston lawyer. Likes everyone to think he’s right whether he is or not.

Marshal Herrick A kind man who cares about his neighbours and is ashamed of his work for the court.

Ezekiel Cheever A tailor from Salem. A timid man who finds confidence in his status as a court official.

Hopkins A messenger – he only gets one line! Same name as the famous English witch-finder, Matthew Hopkins.

Betty Parris Daughter of Parris. A frightened little girl, bored by the strict Puritan way of life.

Abigail Williams 20 years old. Manipulative and selfish. Enjoys her power over the other girls and the court.

Susanna Walcott Like Betty, is easily led by Abigail who is older and tougher.

Mercy Lewis Putnam’s servant. Miller calls her ‘fat, sly’ and ‘merciless’.

Mary Warren The Proctors’ servant. Weak-willed and afraid of Abigail.

Tituba A slave from Barbados working for Parris. Naïve, superstitious and easily scared by people in authority.

John Proctor A Salem farmer in his 30s. Thinks hard about doing the right thing and is not afraid to challenge authority.

Elizabeth Proctor Looks after the house and three children. Loves John though she finds it hard to show it.

Sarah Good A poor and confused but harmless woman who begs from door to door in Salem.

Thomas Putnam A greedy and powerful landowner. Dislikes Reverend Parris who took the preacher’s job from a relative.



The Crucible - Plot Summary

The story is set in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, on the east coast of North America, in 1692.

Proctor is furious that people are trying to explain events through witchcraft. He is openly hostile to Parris. Reverend Hale arrives and Proctor sets off for home. Hale questions the others and eventually focuses on Abigail. She blames events in the wood on Tituba who is called in.

John Proctor arrives. He sends Mary home and Mercy follows. Abigail flirts with Proctor but he insists their affair is over. Abigail is angry and upset. Betty sits up screaming. Parris, the Putnams and Mercy Lewis rush in, followed by Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey. Rebecca calms Betty down. She suggests that the ‘sick’ girls are play-acting to avoid a telling-off.

Betty is left alone with Abigail and the Putnam’s servant Mercy Lewis. They try to wake Betty without success. Mary Warren arrives. She is frightened by the talk of witchcraft. Abigail and Mercy bully and tease her. Abigail turns on Betty who suddenly comes to. She shouts at Abigail, saying she drank blood in the forest. Abigail slaps her and warns all the other girls to stick to the story that they were just dancing.

Goody Putnam bursts in followed by her husband. Their daughter Ruth is in the same state as Betty. Goody Putnam says the devil is at work in Salem. Putnam persuades Parris to go downstairs and talk to his parishioners.

Parris questions Abigail: he caught the girls dancing in the forest and wants Abigail to tell him if they were casting spells. Abigail says they were dancing and Betty had a shock when heappeared. Parris has heard rumours suggesting the Proctors had good reason to ask Abigail to leave her job on their farm.

Betty is in bed, in some kind of fit. Reverend Parris andAbigail are with her. A message from the doctor suggests her illness may have supernatural causes. Parris says he has invited the witch-hunter Reverend Hale to come and prove that witchcraft is not to blame.

Abigail and John

Betty and Parris

Hale questions Tituba

Tituba is terrified by the questioning and admits to witchcraft. She is offered forgiveness for confessing and Abigail, Betty and Mercy join in, shouting out random accusations of witchcraft against women in the village.

Act 1 – Betty Parris’s bedroom


John and Mary are left alone. John says they will go to court together in the morning and Mary will tell the truth about the doll. Mary tells John that if he does this Abigail will tell the court about her affair with John. He says he won’t let Elizabeth hang to preserve his reputation.

Mary is brought down to explain how the doll came into the house. She says Abigail saw her sewing and then sticking the needle in the doll’s belly. Hale tells Mary that by accusing Abigail of lying she is accusing her of murder. John tears up Elizabeth’s arrest warrant but she is taken

Giles Corey and Francis Nurse arrive. Both their wives have been arrested. Hale knows Rebecca Nurse is a good woman and is deeply shocked. The court official Ezekiel Cheever arrives to arrest Elizabeth. He seizes on the rag doll Mary brought home. There is a needle stuck in the doll. Earlier in the evening Abigail fell down screaming and pulled a needle out of her stomach. Cheever sees this as clear evidence that Elizabeth is a witch.

John is on the point of leaving for Salem when Reverend Hale appears. He has doubts about the court and is visiting everyone who’s been accused to find out what they’re like for himself. He questions John and Elizabeth about their religious beliefs. John tells Hale what he learnt from Abigail – that the witchcraft is the pretence of silly young girls. Hale finds this hard to believe but begins to be persuaded.

Mary Warren returns from Salem. She is tired and shaken and gives Elizabeth a rag doll she sewed in court as a way of apologising for being away all day. There are now 39 people in prison and Goody Osburn has been condemned to hang. Mary defends the court against John’s criticisms. He is on the point of whipping her when she reveals that Elizabeth Proctor’s name has been brought up in court. Mary goes up to bed.

Mary gives Elizabeth the doll

Cheever questions Mary

Act 2 – The Proctors’ kitchen

Elizabeth and John

Proctor comes home from a day in the fields. Elizabeth tells him that there is now a full-blown court in Salem investigating witchcraft. Mary Warren is an official of the court. Abigail is leading the accusations and being treated like a saint. The Proctors both know she is far from saintly and Elizabeth wants John to go to Salem and testify against her.




Act 3 – A room at the Salem meeting house

Abigail leads the other girls in a new round of accusations, pretending that Mary is sending a ‘yellow bird’ to attack her. Mary is terrified and breaks down. She turns on John, saying he is in league with the Devil. John is arrested and Hale leaves the court.

Danforth questions Abigail more closely. The pressure drives her into new lies - she pretends that Mary is ‘sending out her spirit’ to attack her. Proctor tries to physically shake Abigail out of her pretence. In desperation he admits to his affair, trying to prove that Abigail is a liar. Elizabeth Proctor is brought in. Danforth asks her whether John had an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth denies it, thinking she is protecting John’s reputation. Danforth takes this as evidence that everything John has said was a lie.

Danforth points out to John that accusing Abigail of lying is basically accusing her of murder. John sticks to his guns and asks Mary to tell Danforth about the naked dancing in the woods. Danforth is shocked. He turns to Mary. He has seen the girls faint and scream in the courtroom and believes this was the effect of supernatural powers. Mary says it was all pretence, but when Danforth asks her to pretend to faint, she can’t do it.

Cheever brings Betty, Mercy, Susanna and Abigail. Danforth explains that Mary is saying their accusations have been lies. Abigail still insists everything she has said is true.

John then offers Mary Warren’s evidence. Hale says he should have a lawyer to help him but Danforth refuses. He orders the girls to be brought in from the courtroom. While they are waiting he gives Mary a hard time, threatening her with jail for lying in court.

John produces Giles’s written statement. It says that Thomas Putnam told his daughter to accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft so he could take his land. Giles refuses to name the man who told him this in case the man is arrested and he ends up being arrested himself.

Francis Nurse tells the Judge there is evidence that Abigail and the other girls are frauds. Giles brings in Mary Warren and John. Mary tells Danforth that the girls have been pretending and John backs her up. Danforth does not want to hear their evidence – it will make the whole trial a nonsense. Elizabeth has told Danforth she is pregnant and he offers to delay her execution if John will take back what he has said. John refuses. He hands over a petition swearing to the good character of Elizabeth, Goody Nurse and Goody Corey. Parris and Haworth persuade Danforth to arrest all 91 petitioners.

Off-stage, in the main courtroom, the prosecutor Judge Hathorne is questioning Martha Corey. Giles interrupts. He is thrown out of court and brought into the meeting room. Giles wants to speak on his wife’s behalf and Reverend Hale backs him up. Deputy Governor Danforth says he must give his evidence in writing.

Mary and John

Giles and Danforth

The girls



Act 4 – The jailhouse

Herrick wakes Tituba and Sarah Good. They drink some of Herrick’s cider and talk to him about flying down to Barbados with the Devil – the accusations and the trial have broken them mentally. Danforth and Hathorne arrive and Herrick sends Tituba and Sarah Good away. Herrick tells Danforth that Reverend Hale has been visiting the prisoners overnight. Parris was with him – he has been acting strangely lately, going around in tears.

Elizabeth and John

Elizabeth tells John that over a hundred people have confessed and escaped hanging. Rebecca Nurse won’t make a confession because it would be a lie. Giles Corey has died under interrogation. John thinks refusing to confess on principle would be arrogant – it would be like claiming he was as good a person as Rebecca. Elizabeth insists he is a good man and says he must do whatever he thinks best.

John snatches his confession

John has doubts when he realises his confession will be written down. Rebecca is brought in to see the confession and this makes John even more ashamed. He refuses to admit to seeing Rebecca or anyone else ‘with the Devil’. After some persuasion he signs the confession but then snatches the document. He doesn’t want it to be publicly displayed. Finally he tears it up – he would rather hang than sign his name to a lie. Elizabeth will not stop him. She sees that John finally recognises himself as a good man and will not take this from him.

Hathorne returns. John tells him he wants to live. Hathorne is delighted. One confession will make the other hangings look genuine and prevent a riot. John feels it is wrong to confess but says he will do it anyway – he still thinks of himself as a bad person.

Hale arrives and says nobody will confess. Danforth decides to try softening John up for a confession by letting him see Elizabeth. Elizabeth is brought to the cell and Hale begs her to persuade John to confess. He says life is the most important thing and it is wrong to die for a principle. John is brought in and the couple are left alone.

Parris enters. He says Hale is trying to persuade Rebecca Nurse, her sister and Martha Corey to confess to witchcraft and save their lives. He also says Abigail and Mercy have run off with his savings. He is afraid that hanging popular people like Rebecca Nurse will cause trouble. People have been rioting against the witchcraft trials in Andover. A dagger has been left at his front door and he fears for his life.


As Puritans, the characters often quote or allude to the Bible. ‘Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel.’ (Elizabeth, Act 2) ‘you should surely know that Cain were an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel’ (Parris, Act 3)

Individual old-fashioned words set the tone from the beginning: bid for ‘told’, unnatural for ‘supernatural’, witched for ‘bewitched’, sport for ‘fun’.

The farming folk of Salem drop the ‘g’s at the end of words: searchin’, nothin’, drivin’.

In modern Standard English you’re not supposed to use not or no twice in the same sentence. Salem people do this all the time: ‘he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books’ (Susanna, Act 1) ‘I never had no wife that be so taken with books’ (Giles, Act 3)

Clearly Miller wasn’t using the title literally – there are no science experiments in the play. Miller is suggesting that Salem at this time was like a crucible. The trials and accusations were like a strong fire, testing and separating the people of Salem. Most of them give in to the pressures surrounding them, but some, like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse survive the trial with their personal integrity and ‘good name’ intact. (‘Crucible’ is also the name of the final part of the US Marine Corp’s training.)

The language characters use in The Crucible sounds old-fashioned. Miller wanted the characters to sound like real people from the seventeenth century. The old-fashioned language also adds colour to the play – if it were all in simple, modern language it might be a bit easier to understand but it would also be a lot duller. There are several tricks Miller uses to give the language a seventeenth century flavour:

The language

At first glance the title, The Crucible, does not tell you very much about the play. A crucible is literally a dish used in science labs to heat different substances and test the point at which they melt or break down. If you heat an impure metal in a crucible, pure metal rises to the top and can be separated from the impurities.

The title

The basic story of the Salem witch trials was exciting in its own right, but when Miller decided to turn it into a play he had to choose a way of telling the story that would keep audiences interested from beginning to end.

Miller’s skills as a storyteller

Miller also includes some very striking images to bring events to life in the audience’s imagination:

I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down! (Abigail, Act 1)

… the Devil is alive in Salem… (Hale, Act 2)

… the wind, God’s icy wind, will blow… (Proctor, Act 2)

… an ocean of salt tears could not melt the resolution of the statutes… (Danforth, Act 4)

…the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law… (Proctor, Act 2)


The four acts also continually focus in on John and Elizabeth Proctor. In Act 1 John is just one of many characters who come to see what is happening at Parris’s house. In Act 2 Elizabeth is arrested and the couple become central to the story. In Act 3 John tries to challenge the course of events and fails. In Act IV, he dies for refusing to make the false confession.

The physical setting of the four Acts is increasingly gloomy and claustrophobic: a child’s attic bedroom, a low-ceilinged farmhouse kitchen, a heavily-timbered and dimly-lit meeting room, and finally a cold, dark, stinking jail cell.

The story of The Crucible is carefully planned – this gives the play a feeling of constant onward movement. The dialogue is tightly focused too. There are no long, flowery, irrelevant speeches – everything that is said contributes to the audience’s understanding of the story.

Events follow the legal process. In Act 1 there is a general feeling that something is wrong but no specific accusation. In Act 2 the arrests begin. In Act 3 we see the court in full swing. In Act 4 sentence has been passed and several of the main characters have died or are about to.

Pace and structure

The emotional temperature of the play increases too: • In Act 1, there is still room for some humour with the ridiculous suggestions that

Betty has been flying, and that Goody Corey’s reading habits make her a witch. • In Act 2, we learn more about the problems Elizabeth and John have had in their

marriage, but also that John cares for Elizabeth. • In Act 3, John is forced to publicly admit to his shameful adultery with Abigail

and Abigail leads the hysterical and disturbing ‘crying out’ that closes the act. • Act 4 is deeply emotional – John makes his final decision to die rather than put

his name to a false confession but is also reconciled with Elizabeth.

Miller’s skills as a storyteller

Themes in The Crucible

The Crucible tells a version of historical events in Salem in 1692. It also comments on the US Government’s methods of rooting out Communist sympathisers in 1950s America. But audiences at different times, all over the world, find The Crucible moving and relevant. It is not just a play for 1950s Americans, or even just for Americans. Many of the issues raised by the play can affect any society and this helps explain why the play is still performed and still popular over 50 years after it was written.

Many of the people who make accusations and confessions in the play are not really acting rationally. They’re afraid of not fitting in, or of being accused and punished themselves. They tell lies to keep themselves safe. Abigail frightens the other girls and creates an atmosphere of hysteria in which they no longer have any idea of what is true or false and can make themselves believe almost anything. Characters like the Putnams are disgustingly hypocritical. They make most of the accusations when the trials begin but in Act 1, Ann Putnam admits to sending her daughter Betty to the woods to find out why her other children died through Tituba’s witchcraft. This is conveniently forgotten later in the play.

In the face of fear, lies, bullying and hypocrisy, John Proctor stands up for what he believes in. It’s not an easy choice for him to make. This makes his actions all the more impressive and makes him the hero of the play.


Sources and recommended reading

Miller, Arthur, The Crucible, London: Penguin 2000 (first published 1953) The Crucible, York Notes for GCSE, London: York Press, 1997 Website of the Arthur Miller Society http://www.ibiblio.org/miller Useful background information, plot summaries and notes. Miller’s life and work: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmillerA.htm McCarthyism and the HUAC: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuac.htm

In 2005, the BBC broadcast an interview with Arthur Miller presented by the critic Alan Yentob. The interview was a great insight into Miller’s personality and moral values – watch a recording if you can get your hands on one.

The film version of The Crucible (1997), stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller wrote the screenplay, but it’s not a word-for-word equivalent to the stage play. Gossip-fiends might be interested to know that Daniel Day-Lewis is married to Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller’s daughter from his third marriage.

RSC Credits

Director DOMINIC COOKE Designer HILDEGARD BECHTLER Lighting JEAN KALMAN Sound PAUL ARDITTI Music GARY YERSHON

The Crucible creative team ROBERT BOWMAN - Reverend Hale KEN BRADSHAW - Ezekiel Cheever ELAINE CASSIDY - Abigail TIM CHIPPING - Herrick LAURA ELPHINSTONE- Susanna Walcott ALISON GARLAND - Mercy Lewis LORNA GAYLE - Tituba IAN GELDER - Parris IAIN GLEN - John Proctor DARLENE JOHNSON - Rebecca Nurse JAMES LAURENSON - Danforth SUSAN McGOUN - Sarah Good CAROLINE O’NEILL - Ann Putnam TREVOR PEACOCK - Giles Corey JAMES PEARSE - Hopkins CLIFFORD ROSE - Francis Nurse HELEN SCHLESINGER - Elizabeth Proctor CATHERINE SKINNER - Ensemble JAMES STADDON - Thomas Putnam JOHN STAHL - Hathorne MICHELLE TERRY - Mary Warren ZOE THORNE - Betty Parris

The Crucible cast

Writer TAISSA CSAKY Editor/designer SUZANNE WORTHINGTONPhotograpy KEITH PATTISON andSUZANNE WORTHINGTON

Learning Pack

© RSC Learning 2006

http://www.ibiblio.org/miller

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmillerA.htm

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuac.htm

the crucible...the crucible came out in 1951. six years later, in 1957, miller was asked to testify...

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