Arthur Miller Essay

The Crucible was written in 1952 by the writer Arthur Miller. It is a story of ‘witch-hunts’ which occurred a lot during the 1950’s. Throughout the play, Arthur Miller has talked about characters facing severe tests that have made them question their own self. It shows the extreme surprising occurrences which were often being caused by what they thought was the devil or his cohorts. The inscrutable sickness fears of witchcraft were happening and it was not long before the girls, and many residents began to accuse other villagers of associating themselves with devils and casting spells. Old grudges and jealousies spilled out into the open, making the atmosphere very tense. A lot of the residents were either forced to give in and live or lie and be put to death by being hanged. In some sense, ‘The Crucible’ has the arrangement of a tragedy, With John Proctor as the play’s tragic hero. John Proctor is an honest, upright, blunt-spoken person, however he is a very good man. The fatal flaw of him is the lust for Abigail Williams which led to an affair (this happened before the play begins). This caused jealousy of his wife, Elizabeth, which sets the entire witch exaggeration within the community in motion. Of all the major characters throughout the play, Abigail is the least complicated. She is sort of the villain in the play. She tells lies, manipulates her own friends and the entire town to her favour. Eventually she sends nineteen innocent people to their deaths due to the lies she tells and the way she manipulated people. Among the witch-hunt mania, Abigail’s motives never seem more complex than just jealousy and the desire to have revenge on Elizabeth Proctor. In the play, Abigail seems to be like a biblical character, like a Jezebel figure, always being driven by a sexual desire and a lust for power. In the first chapter, the audience learn about the affair associated with Abigail and Proctor. We learn that they have had an affair, however the audience soon see that the affair is no longer continuing. ‘Abigail: Give me a word, John. A soft word. (Her concentrated desire destroys his smile. ), ‘Proctor: No, no, Abby. That’s done with. ‘. He reacts negatively, he denies her, and he is repulsed. He is trying to put the adultery in the past. ‘Proctor: Abby, I might think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut my hand off before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby’, he tries to put his adultery in the past. He tells her that he never touched her, even though he did, and he makes it clear that It will never happen again. Throughout the monologue with Proctor and Abigail, the attitude and mood soon changes because Proctor wants to leave the affair in the past, and wipe it out of mind, like it never happened. ‘Wipe it out of mind’. However Abigail wants to carry on with the sexual desire to carry on the affair with Proctor. At the beginning of the monologue he tries to set her firmly out of his path, however later he gets angry and she can’t believe it. Abigail soon gets quite angry as well, and this part of the play expresses the anger between both of them ‘Abigail (With a flash of anger): How do you call me child! ‘ During Act 1, it seems as though Abigail wants John Proctor ‘Abigail (grasping his hand before he can release her): John – I am waitin’ for you every night’, however as the John Proctor and her keep talking there is a change in her mood because he is not giving into her sexual desire for him. Now her mood changes into anger and jealousy ‘Abigail (With a bitter anger): Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-‘, here she becomes really jealous that he won’t give into her due to the fact that he loves Elizabeth, and Elizabeth is his wife. The stage directions that Arthur Miller uses in the play tell the reader a lot about the character. When Abigail is going on about the affair between her and Proctor the stage directions are beneficial. ‘Abigail: (grasping his hand before he can release her): John – I am waitin’ for you every night’, this instantly helps the reader visualise the character and will aid the an actor that is performing the play, whilst playing the role to act more effectively. Arthur Miller also uses the language as a benefit for the effective of the play, Miller uses language to effectively set the period and the tone for the play. The language brings an approach of something out of the King James Bible, but somehow makes it universal to modern day, and the stage directions being out an approach of making the play more effective to both the actors and the audience. In court, Proctor has an outburst of truth and attack on Abigail. Abigail’s reaction to this, is that he is lying about what he is saying, she tries to manipulate the court room into believing what she is saying. ‘Abigail: Mr Danforth, he is lying! ‘, later on, she then makes it up that she is seeing a bird up on the ceiling, and she gets the rest of the girls to go with her lying, to make it look as though there is witchcraft going on right before there eyes. ‘Abigail, with a weird, chilling cry, screams up to the ceiling’, ‘Abigail (unperturbed, continuing to the ‘bird’): Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do. ‘ Here is where she really starts to manipulate people, and lie. The language that Proctor uses to describe himself is not like his prideful ways.