Destroying Evil or Mindless Slaughter? Wider Reading (Drama) 15: The Crucible

Arthur Miller’s classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 and the McCarthyism which gripped America in the 1950s – two of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.

The religious (and racial) identity of each character is at stake as the events of the play unfold, and their ultimate demise or salvage depends almost entirely on their reputation. Tituba, as a black slave, has the lowest social standing of all the characters and is quick to be accused. However, she acquires immense power over her superiors as she accuses others of witchcraft. Contrastingly, characters with impeccable reputations such as Elizabeth Proctor or Rebecca Nurse find their names dragged through the mud in their situations.

The age-old question of guilty or not guilty is explored with tact and accuracy within this play. The extreme strictness prevalent within Salem causes guilt to be bottled up within the citizens, acting as a catalyst to the mass rush for confession and punishment. The playwright himself ascertains that the Salem witch-hunt was an opportunity for the stifled members of the community to both declare their own sins and publicly identify those of others. This is what motivates not only the witch hunts themselves, but also the actions of most of the focal characters. Abigail is constantly reprimanded by her reputation-destroying fun in the woods, while penitence over his infidelity plagues her secret lover Proctor. Meanwhile, Reverend Hale must attempt to undermine the court that he helped create as atonement for his own sins, but is now spinning out of control. This is the ultimate and tragic irony of the Salem witch-hunts: not only that the sins of the trials themselves uncontrollably overtook the sins of the original crime, but that there was rarely an original crime to begin with.

The Crucible - Identity Quotations