The Crucible
(Arthur Miller)
Written and performed during the McCarthy era, The Crucible is a play about the struggle against mass hysteria and fear that one man takes to achieve nobility of spirit. Set in Salem, Massachusetts during the Witch Trials of the 17th Century, the play focuses around the character of John Proctor, who though flawed, finds his own way to goodness through extraordinary times. The play opens at the house of the Rev. Samuel Parris while he prays for the health of his daughter, Betty. Betty and other girls of Salem were caught out in the forest dancing at night. Parris is afraid of witchcraft and the scandal that might occur for his own daughter?s part in the crime. When Betty is left alone with Abigail, Parris? beautiful teenage niece, and the other girls involved, they try all they can to make Betty wake up. Also it comes out that Abigail drank blood and put a curse on John Proctor?s wife, Elizabeth, so that she could have John Proctor to herself. The girls, knowing they are in deep trouble, find a stranger from Boston among them, the Rev. Nathan Hale, who has come to find out if there is witchcraft or not. The girls first deny that there is any witchcraft and blames Tituba, Parrish?s slave, for anything that has happened. When Tituba is called in, after being attacked and threatened with hanging, she confesses to outlandish displays of witchcraft and communicating with Satan. The girls all join in and the act ends with hysterical accusations by both Betty and Abigail of who in the town has been seen with the devil. The next act begins in the Proctor household, with the return of their servant girl, Mary Warren, who tells them that the trials have made her presence at court imperative to bring down the other witches and she cannot help them. The trials at this point have gotten out of hand and many people are being accused including Rebecca Nurse, a pious elderly woman, and other powerful members of the town. Elizabeth Proctor tries to get her husband to go and confess about his affair with Abigail, the ring leader of the girls, and show the court that she is not the noble little girl they think her to be and also that he knows she originally denied there being any witchcraft to blame for Betty?s illness. Proctor refuses, saying that he would not be believed. However, Elizabeth eventually is arrested herself, and Proctor sees that he must stop Abigail. Proctor convinces Mary Warren to admit to the fact that it was all a lie and that the girls are faking. She is afraid of Abigail, but agrees to try and save Elizabeth. In the courtroom, Mary Warren goes to admit that the girls accusations were false. However, Abigail soon makes it seem as if Mary Warren is possessing them and creates such panic in the courtroom that Mary soon goes back to the side of the girls and denies John Proctor. During these events, after Proctor is convicted for Witchcraft, he tries to admit that Abigail had an affair with him. However, when Elizabeth is brought into the courtroom to tell them whether Proctor?s accusations are true or false, she lies out of shame for her husband and says that he never had any affair with Abigail. The Rev. Hale finds these events bogus, and denounces the witch trials as a farce, but Proctor is taken off to prison. Proctor refuses to admit to anyone else?s being a witch or wizard and he is eventually executed. Elizabeth finds his new actions evidence of his new nobility of spirit and his making peace with God. After he is executed they find that Abigail and another girl have fled the village, drawing a close to the witch trials.
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