The Crucible - Elizabeth's Personal Crucible
Uploaded by Estruch on Nov 09, 2001
Prior to the play Miller clearly establishes what the Salem community would have been like in 1692:
“The children were anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak”
This shows us that life in Salem in 1692 was very strict and religious. There was a very rigid regime to follow and everyone should be thankful to god for being allowed to follow it. It was as if it was so rigid someone would soon burst out and rebel against it.
The crucible describes Salem in 1692 when madness took over when accusation by a bunch of girls started flying around the village that there were witches:
“I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!”
The girls who made these accusations snapped because of the harsh strict conditions they lived in and started making accusation about half the women in Salem being witches.
This is also very similar to Miller’s own experiences. He fell to the hands of a very paranoid committee called the House Un-American Activities Committee who had the power to investigate people who were seen as a threat to the state. The chairman of it was Senator Joseph McCarthy. This committee wanted to stop the spreading of communist at a very delicate time and it was know as McCarthyism. It stopped and arrested anyone who they thought might have been a communist. Miller was one of these people; he was brought before the caught because he signed a petition because he was scared of fascism. This made Miller think of the parallels between McCarthyism and the cries of witchcraft in Salem 1692.
A crucible is a container in which metals are heated to extract the pure element from impurities. In the play many characters go through there own personal crucibles where there impurities are extracted and they become better people.
Elizabeth Proctor is married to John proctor who have 3 children and are very religious:
“There be no love for satin in this house.”
Elizabeth and John Proctor are good people who are religious and believe that satin does not reside in there house even if it does in the rest of Salem as they try their best to be Christians whilst still looking after each other and their farm.
In act one we hear Abigail describe Elizabeth as “ a cold snivelling woman” yet this contradicts with stage directions, which describe Elizabeth as...