The Crucible

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The Crucible

• By
• Arthur Miller

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Arthur Miller

• Born 1915 in New York City.
• Miller saw stark similarities between the Salem
  witch trials and the McCarthy Hearings.
• He refused to cooperate in the investigations of
  the House Un-American Activities Committee.

• As a result of not cooperating with the
  committee, he was accused of being unpatriotic,
  and his career suffered severely for years
  afterward.

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Literary and Critical Overview

• The Crucible exposes the ignorance produced by
  mass hysteria.
• Miller wrote the play as a response to the
  McCarthy investigations during the 1950s of
  communism in the government.

• The plays main conflict centers around the
  rights of an individual versus those in
  authority.
• The central theme of the play deals with an
  individuals search for self-awareness and
  self-realization through commitment.

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Senator Joseph McCarthy

• Senator Joseph McCarthy headed the House
  Un-American Activities Committee.
• He is responsible for falsely accusing many of
  Communism.

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Salem, Massachusetts - 1692

• Site of mass hysteria due to accusations of
  witchcraft.
• Puritan community which attempted to purify the
  Church of England by stripping away much of the
  ritual, ceremony, pomp, and paraphernalia of the
  traditional church services

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The Characters
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Rebecca Nurse
Rebecca Nurse is the wife of Francis Nurse. She
is a moral woman, and she runs several
charities. Her husbands enemies accuse her of
witchcraft. She dies on the gallows because she
refuses to confess to crimes she did not commit.
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Francis Nurse

• Wealthy and influential man in Salem.
• He is well respected and many people ask him to
  arbitrate their disputes.
• He is involved in a bitter land dispute with the
  Putnam family. He also keeps Thomas Putnams
  brother-in-law from from being elected to the
  office of minister.
• As a result of these disputes, his wife is later
  accused of witchcraft.

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Martha Corey

• Martha Corey is Giles Coreys third wife.
• Her reading habits lead to her arrest and
  conviction for witchcraft.
• She dies on the gallows because she refuses to
  confess to crimes she did not commit.

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Giles Corey

• Elderly but feisty farmer in Salem.
• His offhand comments about his wifes reading
  habits lead to her arrest and execution for
  witchcraft.
• He attempts to clear his wifes name results in
  his own persecution by Hawthorne and Danforth.
• He refuses to plead guilty even after he is
  subjected to torture.

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John Proctor

• John Proctor is Elizabeths husband. He had an
  affair with Abigail when she was a servant in his
  house. He hates hypocrisy, and his hidden sin
  causes him a great deal of moral anguish. He
  hesitates to expose Abigail as a fraud because he
  knows his own conscience is unclean. He does not
  try to expose her as a liar until it is too late.
  He is accused of witchcraft and convicted.

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Abigail Williams

• Abigail is Rev. Parriss niece, and was once the
  servant of the Proctor household. Elizabeth
  Proctor fired her after she found out Abigail was
  having an affair with her husband.

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Abigail and Tituba
Tituba is Rev. Parriss black slave from
Barbados. She agrees to perform voodoo at the
request of Abigail and Ruths mother. Parris
catches her and the girls during a session which
sparks the entire witch hunt craze.
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The Judges

• Hawthorne - Judge who presides over the witch
  trials.
• Herrick - The marshal for Salem
• Danforth - The Deputy Governor of Massachusetts.
  He presides over the witch trials and is just as
  concerned about maintaining him image as he is
  about exposing sin.

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Elizabeth Proctor

• Elizabeth Proctor is Johns wife. She is accused
  by Abigail of witchcraft because Abigail wants
  John Proctor to herself.
• She is convicted of the crime of which she is
  accused, but her execution is delayed because she
  is pregnant. By the time she has her baby, the
  craze has died down and her life is spared.

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Reverend Parris

• Minister for Salem.
• He is a paranoid man who is hungry for power.
• He is more concerned about his own reputation
  than his daughters and his nieces souls when
  the first rumors of witchcraft first surface.
• He quickly learns to take advantage of the
  witchhunt craze for his own personal gains.

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Ann Putnam

• Thomas Putnams wife.
• She has given birth to eight children, but only
  Ruth Putnam survived.
• The other seven children died before they were a
  day old.
• She is convinced they were murdered by
  supernatural means, so she sends Ruth to request
  that Tituba conjure their spirits in order to
  discover who murdered them.

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Sarah Good

• Old beggar woman who is accused of witchcraft.
• Here is her grave site. Notice that it says
  nothing about her except that she was hanged.

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Salem Witch Trial Memorial
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The Stocks

• Many who were accused of witchcraft were detained
  in devices such as this, often for extended
  periods of time.

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Public Execution

• Often times, the entire town came out to view the
  witches trial and their execution by hanging.
• The victims not only had to endure a horrible
  death, they also had to listen to the slanderous
  cries of their friends and neighbors.

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THE END