Conceptual Ideas about The Human Experience to begin an Introduction

- 1950’s American zeitgeist, much like that of Salem, was rife with fear - a fear bourne out
of trauma (War, frontier life…); it was the cultural memory of this fear returning which
pervaded society and which made people [irrational?]
- Human experiences motivate composers to create texts with a purpose in order to
engage with readers; it is the universal nature of storytelling to entertain and inform
which transcends time and and allows these composers to critique enduring human
qualities and experiences. So, they are didactic.
- Man is conditioned by the prevalent circumstances, and above all, he is restricted by the
different context-based psychological, cultural, moral, religious and socio-political values,
that are what push man into a world of alienation and make him grope for his real
identity.
- Human experiences and ways of experiencing vary due to individual circumstance and
these experiences can change many things about individual lives, communities and the
world.
- Experiences affect individuals emotionally, rather than rationally, resulting in their
behaviour becoming paradoxical, anomalous and inconsistent. This is critical in The
Crucible, driving the plot at all times.
- The human experience, regardless of the changing context in which it is examined, is
bound by the same forces: human emotions, weaknesses, virtues, desires and fears;
- while contexts may change, the forces which shape the human experiences do not:
human emotions, weaknesses, virtues, desires and fears. Arthur Miller penned The
Crucible as a means to dramatically decontextualise his immediate surrounds: 1950’s
McCarthyism. Miller sought to demonstrate that history repeats itself by drawing a
parallel between his own situation and that of the Salem Witch Trials.
- What are the human experiences and what impact do those human experiences have on
individual people and on groups?
- The human experience is a cycle of struggle and growth, that is that: immediate,
personal struggles and universal, enduring human struggles as well as existential
struggles. How is personal growth stifled in the Puritan theocracy ? Social, sexual,
economic ? Abigail and Proctor for instance? The girls dancing?
- For most humans, panic sleeps in one unlighted corner of the soul. Link this to Miller’s
note in the overture about the increasing freedoms in Salem and the fear this unleashed.
- The Human experience is defined by the struggle between good and evil in human
nature, borne from an individual’s character. (experiences, emotions, motivations).

Ideas about Drama and Storytelling to consider when writing about The Crucible
- An overarching Paradox which you could discuss in this essay is actually about the
Module/Rubric: in this play, the individual succumbs to the collective; however, in
participating in a collective experience (theatre), an audience member can become more
individual. Great idea.
- Theatre binds isolated human beings into their essential corporateness...and should
make man more human.
- Theatre results in a heightened consciousness
- The plays of Arthur Miller brought back into Theatre the drama of social questions.
- Specifically, texts use narrative form to explore conflict, struggle and resolutions,
positioning audiences to learn from the representation of those struggles.
- Experiences are widespread and often shared: this is why people tell their stories and
these shared experiences form part of our cultural heritage. These experiences often
inform, warn and teach across entire cultural groups and many stories are shared across
cultures.
- Storytelling lies at the core of textual representation and explores the universality
of personal or collective human experience. Stories about History can provide
both a sense of moral relativity and a set of values which enable us to behave
morally within that relativity.
- Driven by conflict, stories often chart a collective or individual struggle set within timeless
themes such as adversity, injustice or oppression.
- Audiences become engaged with how people deal with such problems or situations and
how their actions, thoughts and feelings have been conveyed.
- Composers often adopt universal themes to highlight the moral divide between
oppressors and the oppressed or the corrupt and the innocent but this can be offset by
inspirational depictions of growth and insight.
- Knowledge and understanding about humanity and existence itself is fostered by
examining the stories of others.
- The experiential struggle is not always victorious, but composers have often prompted
their audience to recognise and applaud the qualities of resilience, fortitude and integrity
that have been revealed.
- The immediacy created by ‘live’ theatre helps draw an audience into the illusion of reality
that unfolds on stage.
- Drama reflects and interprets social reality and Miller’s play explores how the Salem
witch-hunt was triggered by childish ‘sport’ and ‘mischief’ but quickly became a whirlwind
of accusation based on ‘spectral evidence’. The accused have no defence against false
accusations for once mass hysteria takes hold within a community, social norms and
justice are destroyed.
- A dramatic representation which prompts audience think rather than fall into
the trap of emotional passivity.
- The play employs the rhythm of a classical tragedy in its unfolding revelation of
"the presentness of the past," its depiction of the inexorable journey back to the
crossroads that mark John Proctor's offense and triggers his existential
awareness.
- The axiom that great pain often produces great art is surely embodied in The Crucible.
- The Crucible not only emphasizes the importance of sympathy in human relationships, “
not to break charity with your fellow man” - the Puritan imperative. but explores why
sympathy must be a component of those [human] relationships; hence, why we
feel for the characters on the stage, so might we better understand our own
neighbours…
- Through the allegory of Puritanical Salem, Miller is evoking our sympathies for
characters whose world-view and beliefs are totally different from our own, thus enabling
us to do precisely what the Puritans themselves were unable to do: to accept the
diversity of opinions, the variety of perceptions, the mixture of bad and good which
characterize the human community.
Random, unsorted stuff
- Via the allegory, MIller demonstrates how history is what enables us to resist the
demon of moral absolutism.
- it is the life encounters of an individual or a wider group that shapes the human
psyche in one or more ways. Many are led to destruction by a few - because of
pride? Individual conscience versus collective conscience - and the societal
conscience is undone because of weakness and fear....
- A central thematic concern in Miller's entire body of work is the necessity of viewing the
past as a living presence in today's reality.
- The human experience is characterised by a struggle which transcends time and context
- a conflict between the forces of the past and the expectations and pressures of the
present on an individual and community.
- To be human is to experience and be challenged by the tension which exists between
the past and the present and future
- Miller dramatises how the human experience can be seen as an enduring struggle
between dichotomies - good and evil, strength and weakness. Commented [1]: A good point for using a Yeats poem
- Miller dramatised how the human experience is defined by one’s character - that each as a related?
individual personality makes everyone’s journey and destination unique And Miller is right—this is a play about the balance
- Freedom is central to the human experience and being human. between order and freedom, and specifically order’s
ultimate triumph over its weaker counterbalance. The
- Freedom v the confinement of ideology
historical setting is, of course, the Salem witch trials of
- the desire for an individual identity is core to the human experience. the 1690s. The order is that of the theocratic state, its
- Conflict between individuals will and communal expectations and communal pressures functionaries able to convict, jail and hang those they
determine to be in league with the Devil. The freedom
and provides opportunities for conflict which Miller dramatises. But narrative is about is that of John Proctor, his wife Elizabeth, and their
conflict, struggle and resolutions, so the learning from that struggle. fellow villagers, who are held hostage by the
accusations of a group of vengeful teenage girls.
- personal integrity has a challenging relationship with rigid belief sets; Proctor suffers
initially by the 'weight' of his guilt which is of (religious) adultery and is able to experience
catharsis by standing up against the Trials....
- THE Is complex because of competing ideologies between individuals and communities.
- THE Is complex because of individuals being motivated by weaknesses such as
irrational fear and greed - and less altruistic/noble reasons.
- Miller fears man’s loss of self - a self which is lost in conscience’s conflict
between justice and evil. Link to Tragedy and the Common Man.
- People in groups often give way to mass hysteria and thus often lose their
individual consciences.
- Miller wants us to fear the power of the group and to fear coercion.
- Miller realised that the greatest horror of all was that ‘conscience was no longer a private
matter, but one of state administration’; to combat this horror, Miller wrote The Crucible
so that all audience members could be aware of, and therefore, take action against the
loss of conscience he saw around him. Commented [2]: Use this for Intros?
- In Miller's view, moral absolutism, pride, contempt, and a marked tendency to see
outward signs as evidence of inner being--these McCarthy-like, Puritan-like qualities--
were the opponents of liberty, and they characterized victim as well as victimizer.
- A political, objective and knowledgeable campaign from the far right was capable
of creating not only a terror, but a new subjective truth and reality. The collective
 experience of this ‘new’ reality transforms individuals, stripping them back to their rawest
forms.
- The thing at issue is buried intentions -- the secret allegiances of the alienated hearts
always the main threat to the theocratic mind, as well as its immemorial quarry.
- Human sacrifice to the furies of fanaticism and paranoia that goes on repeating itself
forever as though imbedded in the brain of social man.
- By portraying a community in these trying times, Miller is able to bring to light many
disturbingly familiar patterns of human behaviour and provokes us to confront what it
really means to be human.
Some of the complex aspects of the Human Experience, as evident in The Crucible; these
could form practise prompts, be the basis for a thesis or topic sentence ideas - but will
need to be modified to become complete sentences, of course. . take these and build
upon them with the subsequent aspects of the rubric
1. Arthur Miller's modern tragedy The Crucible (1953) endures as a powerful
theatrical experience because it exposes the capacity for an individual to be
restricted by repressive collective ideological values; it is the oppressive nature of
the institutions which defend these values, and their tendency to subvert truth in
the quest to retain power, which pressure individuals into social compliance and
to the relinquishing of their most important qualities – freedom and the soul –
thrusting man into a world of internal conflict and social alienation. Without the
ability to experience the fullness of these qualities, the human experience is
lessened.
2. Through his modern tragedy The Crucible (1953), Miller dramatises the dangers of
ideological intransigence as being the suppression of individual expression and
agency, effects which if not challenged can threaten the trust which underpins
social life.
3. Arthur Miller's modern tragedy The Crucible (1953) dramatises how the experience
of societal conflict can lead to individuals discovering their true identity.
4. Arthur Miller's modern tragedy The Crucible (1953) dramatises how the human
condition is complex because it can be motivated by conflicting visceral emotions
such as fear and negativity, not altruistic ideals
5. The Crucible is a play that dramatises what should be America’s faith in
community, but is instead an exploration of the isolation, fear and hysteria which
arise when community falls apart.
6. The Crucible employs the historical events of the Salem Witch Trials to develop a
powerful critique of moments of human history when judgement, reason and fact
became clouded by irrational fears and the desire to place the blame for society’s
failures and problems on certain individuals or groups.
7. Arthur Miller's modern tragedy The Crucible (1953) examines how the human
experience is defined by one’s cultural memory.
8. Through The Crucible, Miller identifies the dangers of ideological
intransigence as being the suppression of individual expression and
agency, effects which if not challenged can threaten social life - which is
based primarily on a certain amount of shared trust.
Commented [3]: Miller himself asserted that “the
central impulse for writing at all was not the social but
the interior psychological question of the guilt residing
in Salem”; discuss Parris, a ‘noble’ landowner within
the community, ultimately revealed to represent the
selfish aspects of humanity (lack of a soul, uses fear to
further his own PERSONAL CONFLICT...), driven by
his own greed (desire for more land); contrast with the
‘tragic hero’, Proctor, whose experiences of
EXISTENTIAL CONFLICT as to how to respond to the
Trial, lead to a personal revelation of great morality (he
must protect his reputation); Hale - his experience in
Salem leads to his changed perception through
scepticism of ideology.
Commented [4]: The most important process in
Proctor’s search for identity is his coming to terms with
the inevitability of his transformation from a “private” to
a “public” man.
The second and accompanying search for identity
dawned on Proctor is the necessity he feels for moving
from guilt to responsibility, as the underlying motive for
his confessions.
Commented [5]: (a subversion of the founding fathers
of USA) -the irony that the ‘trial’ was carried out by the
congress set up to protect the constitution is poignant
(just like the Salem Puritanical Church and Court was
meant to ‘protect’)
Commented [6]: (there is the experience of NO
COMMUNITY) humans lose their way because they no
longer hold authentic and meaningful connections with
others in a community; when otherness replaces
community, evil rears its horrifying energy. Salem is
corrupt rather than pure and is a place of competing
values rather than a set of unifying beliefs.
Commented [7]: - The inherent fear of witch-craft and
'the other'
- Hale’s use of Salem’s cultural memory. Those in
Salem all know the basic tenets of Christianity and
much about the Devil’s ways. Hale capitalizes on what
they already know, but also instructs: “We cannot look
to superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of
his presence are definite as stone [. . .]” (38). He also
relies on the memories of others, and their testimony,
to apply his own knowledge.
Commented [8]: Communal
history/values/beliefs/ideology shape the individual
minds and actions of the Salem community; Puritan
beliefs and moral purity; fear of subversion and non-
conformity.
 9. Arthur Miller's modern tragedy The Crucible (1953) endures as a text
because it exposes the capacity, deep within the human psyche, for
transforming ignorance and mistrust of the "other" into raw fear and
paranoia, culminating at times in a self-delusional justification for untold
atrocities.
10. By a consideration of inconsistencies in emotion, ambitions and desire in The
Crucible, audiences may draw a clearer appreciation of how texts manage to carve
an image of human fickleness.
11. Arthur Miller’s modern tragedy The Crucible (1953) provides an in-depth
consideration of the sinister brewing and machinations of individuals’ and
expounds upon the reality that each character holds not only different status, but
a different relationship with themselves, their society and the with the notion of
truth.
12. ….when humanity is restricted by contextual psychological, cultural, moral,
religious and socio-political values, individuals are pushed into a world of
alienation, initiating a desire for self-actualisation and a search for truth and
identity.
13. ...truth is revealed by Miller to represent a manipulation of shared political and
societal values and is relative to a society’s ideas of what is right and wrong, and
good and bad; therefore, truth can never function as a pure or absolute concept.
14. …social compliance as the result of institutionalised shame and guilt which
individuals strive to conceal through acts of irrational obedience, fearful that they
might be somehow discoverable to the dominant power structure as lacking in
loyalty. These qualities which defined the victim, become the instruments which
support and strengthen the oppressor.
15. …is an examination of the extreme tendency to moral absolutism by ideologically
intransigence and exclusive institutions, and the subsequent inability to accord
others in society the privacy and nuance which are not simply human rights but
inherent features of perception itself.
16. …..morality, Miller suggests, is dependent upon recognizing and accepting our
humanness.
17. ...the complexities in motivations and behaviours which arise when a society
lacks a clear point of moral reference

Rubric Point: to see the world differently, to challenge assumptions, ignite new ideas or
reflect personally.

The Crucible prompts/challenges the reader to …...

1. the play dramatises how a social event can bring about significant changes in the self-
perception of an individual.
2. To see human nature differently: It is possible to live without being perfect, that is
possible to sin and still have goodness.
 3. To see Truth differently, that it can be something other than ‘reality’ or ‘facts’:
terror of a "subjective reality" metamorphosing into a "holy resonance" and assuming an
objective truth. Truth is in fact part of political and social ideologies and therefore can
never function as a pure or absolute concept. Truth is relative to a society’s ideas of
what is right and wrong, and good and bad.
4. To challenge the assumption that Authority and ‘Justice’ are always noble. These
can be subverted by fanaticism.
5. To see ‘Goodness’ and ‘justness’: Is never easy to ‘do’ (when you think it should be)
6. See ‘Goodness’ differently: Goodness had lost its theological meaning and
degenerated into a merely human concept. Hence, to the end of the play neither
Elizabeth nor John fully understands the meaning of the word "goodness”.
7. To challenge assumptions about love. A negative, motivating force; there are diverse
range of LOVES in the play.
8. Reflect personally on ourselves. Ultimately, The Crucible doesn’t divide its characters
into a heroic Us, with whom the audience identifies, and an evil Them. Through Miller’s
dramatic form, audiences feel that we are all, potentially, one of Them. There has to be
some part of us that knows that we, in such circumstances, we might just as easily have
been Parris or Abigail
9. Reflect personally on ourselves. Miller challenges us to turn our own eyes inward - to
our own darkness, as John Proctor must do - to serve both as judge and pardoner,
embracing simultaneously our fallibility and capacity for forgiveness. It is the ultimate
cathartic experience.
10. See Otherness in a new way. The Crucible resonates with powerful moments that can
incite viewers and readers to imagine otherness not as demonic threats, but as
redemptive possibilities that can enlarge selfhood through participating in community.
11. Challenge the assumption that a Community is logically inclusive: can be brutal,
isolating and stymie the development of the individual, instead of allowing them to
flourish and be free.
12. Challenge the assumption that a broken man cannot be moral or ‘good’; Proctor,
the sinner, ultimately makes the choice to overturn his paralysing personal guilt,
becoming the most forthright and rational voice against the madness around him -
demonstrating that a clear moral outcry can still spring even from an ambiguously
unblemished soul.
13. Audience are now aware of Miller’s reversal of what might be regarded as the normal
moral situation: traditionally, societies have turned to religious institutions and
authorities for guidance about moral questions; but in “The Crucible” the
religious authorities are villainous, seeking to force people to act against their
consciences to save themselves.

Elements of The Crucible (Dramatic form and structure)

1. Allegory - to expose the shortcomings of McCarthyism and to allow the playwright to

show how these concerns are universal and transcend time.
2. Anticipating his composition would be read as well as performed, Miller inserted a
number of authorial intrusions into Act One; these are essays placed within the script;
 convey specific ideas about the context of the play which are also relevant to 1950s
America, making more accessible Miller’s veiled political commentary.
3. Stage directions
4. Dramatic Irony
5. Dialogue
6. Characterisation
7. Biblical Allusions
8. Figurative Language
9. Mise en scene
10. Idiom
11. Hamartia: John Proctor’s weakness is his pride and care for his reputation.
12. Tragedy/Catharsis; Miller challenges us to turn our own eyes inward - to our own
darkness, as John Proctor must do- to serve both as judge and pardoner, embracing
simultaneously our fallibility and capacity for forgiveness. It is the ultimate cathartic
experience.
13. Tragedy: unlike a classical tragedy, in this modern tragedy, Proctor charts a reversed
moral trajectory, moving from being broken to being whole.
14. You could add the various motifs as part of the dramatic form...especially the notion of
light - windows etc.

Reputation/illusion/perception/truth
- Proctor’s personal reputation as an outsider
- Proctor’s self-awareness of his morality develops because he is compelled to
participate in the social crisis in Salem - the airing of his sins means the fullness
of his identity is known (is authentic) and he is therefore able to cast off his guilt
and flourish, morally.
- The integrity of the Court’s reputation is predicated on a falsehood and developed
through fear.
- guilt which characterizes both Proctor and, by implication, many of the victims of
McCarthyism, is an "illusion" which people only mistake for "real."

Awareness/knowledge
- Of self – your weaknesses and faults (but this awareness can be changed, a
change catalysed by external factors.
- Awareness is subjective – knowledge, reality or truth is ‘what you want/need it to
be’.
- Proctor’s attempts to rescue his wife and subsequent acute feeling of
helplessness is the most crucial element in Proctor’s self-understanding and
leads to a drastic correction in his views on reason and the objectivity of the legal
process.
-
Identity
- Within a community can cause conflict
- Can be redefined
- Proctor’s search for identity is evident in the necessity he feels for moving from guilt to
responsibility, as the underlying motive for his confessions.
- Proctor’s attempts to rescue his wife and subsequent acute feeling of helplessness is the
most crucial element in Proctor’s self-understanding and leads to a drastic correction in
his views on reason and the objectivity of the legal process.
- Danforth’s characterisation positions audiences to understand the self-other paradigm.
His righteous ‘self’ represents the negation of the ‘other,’ not out of hatred, but due to his
extreme confidence in the infallibility of his self and the rawness, irrationality and
profanity of the ‘other’.
-