ENLL 121

The Crucible context and themes

Piotrowska, C. 2020. Vanderbijlpark: North-West University.

Context and themes
Questions
 What, do you think, are the major themes of The Crucible?
Substantiate.
 What is the historical context of the play?
 Why do you think Arthur Miller chose this as his setting?
 Which social problems is Miller trying to draw our attention to
in this play?
Activity
Attempt to answer the following:
 What would you say are the main themes of The Crucible?
 Find 2-3 quotes that support each theme that you’ve identified.

Briefly consider the role that religion plays in our lives.

 Do you think that religion plays a role in the formation of our moral
codes? Why / why not?
 How do we decide if certain actions/behaviours are moral or immoral?
 What are some of the positive aspects of being religious?
 What are potential negative aspects of being religiously zealous?
 Research the religion “Puritanism” and think about how it compares to
your own religious views. Next, consider the role Puritanism played in
Salem during the witch trials.
Themes of The Crucible
 Share your findings with the class during the discussion.

Some additional themes that The Crucible explores:

 The nature of truth
 The nature of justice
 Fragility of human rationality
 Human capacity for cruelty and oppression
 Consequences of fear and suspicion in a society (and hysteria)
 Fear isolation and of the unknown
 Preservation of human dignity
 The triumph of principles in the face of death
 Erosion of Puritan theocracy
 Inability of the church to cope rationally with legal issues
Arthur Miller and McCarthyism
 Arthur Miller (1915 – 2005) was an American playwright, who was
awarded a Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1949. Considered to be one
of the greatest dramatists of the 20th C, and wrote over 50 plays.
 The Crucible was first performed in January 1953
 Famous plays include: All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, and A View
from the Bridge

What was McCarthyism? Watch the video linked below.

 In 1952, Miller’s friend Elia Kazan appeared before the House of
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and named 8 members of
Group Theatre as being members of the Communist Party.
 Miller likened the situation with HUAC’s hunt for Communists to the
witch hysteria seen in Salem, then wrote his play The Crucible as an Married to Marilyn
Monroe from 1956-1961
allegory for McCarthyism.
 The HUAC took an interest in Miller after the play opened. His
passport application had been denied and he was not allowed to
leave the country. Miller was found guilty of “contempt of Congress”
in 1957, but this was overturned in the following year.
Socio-historical context
Historical accuracy: Salem witch trials versus The Crucible
 Very little is known about many of the people involved in the trials, as
there are very few surviving historical records
 Abigail was only 11 or 12 years old in real life
 John Proctor was 60 years old – the affair between John and Abigail
is entirely fictional
 Some characters in The Crucible were created by combining 2-3 real
people
 The many judges are symbolised by Danforth and Hawthorne, and
there are no juries in the play
 The Putnams were survived by 10 of their 12 children (in the play, Ann
Putman says one only of her children lived past adolescence)
 There was a three month delay between first accusation and the first
trial – in the drama this takes 8 days
 Spectral evidence was a source of contention in 1692, but in the play
this appears to be the primary source of evidence
Language use
 Miller tries to imitate authentic 17th C language use [Early Modern
English] to give the play a historical tone
 Miller read through the trial documentation and the 1611 King
James Version of the Bible to get a sense of how language was
used
 The Bible was translated into English (for the third time) between
1604-1611 under the sponsorship of King James IV and the
Hampton Court Conference
 The events of the Salem witch trials took place in 1692
 Attempts for standardising the language and creating English
spelling and grammar norms came much later, with Samuel
Johnson’s dictionary published in 1755
 Fact: Language evolves over time
 There are many variables contributing to language change (internal
& external). Language use differs according to social class, age,
gender, race, and geographic location.
 People from different eras will use language differently. This is why
the language use in The Crucible seems archaic, even though the play
was written in the 1950s.
Language use
 Use of archaic words
 Verbs and nouns that were considered outdated even in 1692
 Verbs: digged (for "dug"), gat and gotten (for "got"), bare (for "bore") spake (for
"spoke") clave (for "cleft" or cleaved) and wist (for "knew”)
 Nouns: brethren ("brothers"), kine ("cattle") and twain ("two")
 Pronouns: subjective “ye” and objective “you” (Ye have not chosen me, I have
chosen you)
 Masculine possessive used in place of a neuter possessive “its” (the salt lost his
savour)
 Use of double negatives / negative without do- support
 “They knew him not” (instead of “they did not know him”)
 Unfamiliar use of the verb 'to be'
 Changing the word order
 Colloquialisms such as elision/contractions
 Religious rhetoric
 Finite verbs in the third person use –eth instead of –s (“he runeth” instead of
“he runs”)
Tituba is from Barbados, speaks an English
Creole (Bajan)
 [Will] My Betty be hearty soon? I love me Betty!
 No, no, chicken blood. I give she chicken blood!
 No, no, sir, I don’t truck with no Devil / I don’t compact with no Devil!
 You beg[ged] me to conjure! She beg[ged] me make [a] charm -
 Why [do] you say that, Abby?
 No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir.
 I don’t know, sir, but the Devil got him numerous witches.
 Well, they was always talking; they was always runnin’ round and
carryin’ on –
 He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean
man and no gentle man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and cut your
throat! But I tell him “No! I don’t hate that man. I don’t want [to] kill that
man.” But he say, “You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free! I give you
pretty dress to wear, and put you way high up in the air, and you gone fly
back to Barbados!” And I say, “You lie, Devil, you lie!” And then he come
one stormy night to me, and he say, “Look! I have white people [who]
belong [/belonging] to me.” And I look[ed] - and there was Goody Good.
In summary
 In order to understand the play, you must be aware of the context
– the setting of Salem in 1692, and the socio-historical background
of USA in the 1950s
 Miller wrote the play as an allegory, in which he compares the hunt
for communists under McCarthy’s rule to the hunt for witches in
Salem.
 He draws the audience’s awareness towards the social injustices of
the times, the lack of evidence in trials, and the social stigma of
being called in for a trial (many people lost their jobs, neighbours
were constantly suspicious even if you were proven innocent, lives
were disrupted)

 Language and setting are always closely linked. Miller wrote the
play using language that reflects the 17th century
 Miller shows keen awareness of English varieties with the character
of Tituba, as she is a non-native English speaker. Her language is
important for her characterisation.
References and further reading
 Li, H. 2018. The idea of tragedy in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible
and A View from the Bridge. English Language and Literature
Studies, 8(2):115-120.
 Mhayyal, B. M. 2013. Arthur Miller’s Tragedy as Reflected in
The Crucible. J College of Education for Women, 24(3): 917-
928.