May 10, 2023 by Abby Bundy (‘23)
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a compelling allegory in the form of a play paralleling the McCarthy trials of the 1950s. A prominent playwright, Miller warns how blindly following people is dangerous and the ensuing ignorance and fearmongering make people controllable. Through the use of timeless characterization and transcending themes, this play is a cautionary political tale, unfortunately for all time.
During the Salem Witch trials, the period during which this play takes place, a wicked young woman named Abigail sins by dancing naked in the woods and attempting to conjure spirits with the Barbados-born, Tituba. What seems to the modern audience a scene of typical teenage rule-bending quickly takes a more serious turn when one of the girls never awakens the next morning. Abigail ultimately drives the town mad, accusing people of witchcraft for self-protection once her reputation is threatened. Despite the madness, people like John Procter prove that humanity is worth something. Even though people began to confess to get their name cleared, John Proctor sacrificed his life for the hope that the madness would eventually end, and people would come back together in a society looking out for one another. The ability of even one individual to find light in the darkness paved a pathway for change, and holds true today.
Throughout the play, Miller addresses the theme that people who are living in fear are susceptible to being controlled. For example, once Betty awakes after being unconscious, she blurts out “You drank blood Abby! You didn’t tell him that.” Abigail responds by slapping Betty in the presence of the other girls from the conjuring and Miller writes, “now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnum’s dead sisters. And that is all. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, above the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” Abigail lies to defend herself and threatens other people to keep her lie. By publicly showing a sign of physical aggression, especially in a time period where women were expected to be passive and weak shows just the effect Abigail has on her friends.
Abigail quickly discovers that power lies in her ability to blame. Whenever her own reputation is threatened, Abigail is quick to point her finger at someone else. About Tituba, Miller writes through her voice, “She comes to me every night to go and drink blood.” Even though Abigail is one of the main characters and ultimately gets away from Salem innocent, she is weak. Her actions drive innocent people to their death because she would rather live a life as someone who is feared than someone who isn’t loved. The girls that blindly follow Abigail are just as guilty though and it goes to show how dangerous it is to be ignorant. No one in the town could stand up for each other, despite knowing each other for years and years. It is in this way that Abigail is able to control the town.
Written during the height of McCarthyism, Arthur Miller invites viewers to see the hysteria in their own time. At the time this play was written, outbreaks of hysteria drove people to exploit the weak as scapegoats for fear of unknown futures. The government was rounding up “card-holding Communists” and rooting out traitors to our country with much of the same righteousness and moral vigor as the Puritan leaders in Salem, who ultimately hanged nineteen innocent people who were falsely accused of witchcraft. This invited audiences to question what wrongs might be committed in the name of “right” then, as well.
An audience comes away with considering that under the leadership of the wrong person, cult-like followings can form. Under certain political figures today, especially at a time of party divides, people are looking for something to latch on to. The Crucible is especially significant because it reminds us of how easy it is to fall into hysteria when we there is fear and when leaders are more interested in power than in the communal good.
The inability to address adversity rationally drives Salem, MA to insanity, but while Miller’s play is a tragedy, we are not left hopeless. Through the heroic acts of our protagonist, John Proctor, humanity ultimately reigns. He chooses “goodness” over a life of lies. Miller makes Proctor a Christ-figure here, dying for the sins of his people, but ultimately saving them by doing so.
The allegory of The Crucible may have been a commentary on the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, but its enduring messages about power and hysteria and these great tests of humanity certainly make it a play for all time.