THE CRUCIBLE ARTHUR CONTENTS MILLER Who was Arthur Miller? Page 2 History in The Crucible • Seventeenth century Massachusetts Page 4 • The United States in the 1950s Page 6 The Crucible • The characters Page 7 • Plot summary Page 8 Miller’s skill as a storyteller • The title Page 12 • Language Page 12 • Pace and structure Page 13 Themes Page 13 Sources and recommended reading Page 14

Image shows Iain Glen as John Proctor Photography: David Scheinmann

Who was Arthur Miller?

Arthur Miller is generally recognised as the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century. His plays challenge the assumptions of US society and ask people to think about their responsibilities to each other.

Arthur Miller’s plays pleased critics and audiences. He was awarded the Pulitzer prize for literature, and honorary degrees from Oxford and Harvard Universities. He was popular in the US and beyond: most of his plays were produced across Europe soon after their premieres in New York. One of his most famous plays, The Death of a Salesman, was staged in China in 1983 and was a huge success. It is said that not a day goes by when one of Miller’s plays is not being performed somewhere in the world.

So what makes Arthur Miller such a popular writer? His characters were ordinary people who audiences could sympathise with; the dialogue is clear and recognisable but full of character; he wrote about issues like personal freedom, duty and honour – these are big topics but everyone has experience of them. Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller’s life

Arthur Miller was able to write so well about the Miller was clearly bright but without financial experience of being American because in many backing from his parents had no hope of ways his life was typical for someone growing up going straight from high school to university. through the twentieth century. He did various odd jobs before saving enough to enrol at the University of Michigan He was born in New York in 1915 and lived in the in 1934. He started off studying journalism, northern district of Harlem. At the time Harlem was but when his first play They Too Arise won a well-off district where most families (including an award he switched to English. the Millers) were Jewish. In the 1920s Arthur, his father Isidore, his mother Augusta and his brother After university, Miller spent just over a year Kermit moved to Brooklyn, across the East River working for the Federal Theatre Project in from Manhattan. New York before government funding was withdrawn and the project closed. He Miller’s father Isidore was a clothing manufacturer. continued to write (mostly radio plays) Well into Arthur’s teens the business did well and alongside other jobs including a spell the Millers lived a comfortable life. Then in the collecting dialects in North Carolina for the 1930s the American economy collapsed. All over Library of Congress (the national library) and America hundreds of thousands of farms and a job as a shipfitter’s assistant in the businesses ran into serious trouble. Isidore’s firm Brooklyn Naval Yard. was no exception and the sudden transformation in the Miller family fortunes was a big influence on Miller and his views on life and politics.

2 © RSC Learning 2006

Arthur Miller’s life

In 1940 Arthur Miller married Mary Grace Slattery and they had their first child, Jane, in 1944. In the same year Miller’s play The Man Who Had All the Luck was performed on Broadway, but closed after just six performances. A lengthy Broadway run was the benchmark of success in the American theatre at this time: Miller achieved this in 1947 with All My Sons, a play about an aircraft manufacturer cutting corners on US air force planes during the Second World War. Although some people criticised the play as unpatriotic it was popular enough with audiences. By 1947 Miller was doing well enough financially to buy two homes – a city flat in New York and a farmhouse in Connecticut where he did most of his writing for the rest of his life.

All My Sons began a run of successful work for Miller. Death of a Salesman came out in 1949 and won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. The Crucible was first performed in 1953. A View From the Bridge had its first performance in 1955. In 1956 Miller published a short story called The Misfits in Esquire magazine, which was made into a film starring Marilyn Monroe, John Huston, Montgomery Clift and Clark Gable and released in 1961.

Alongside his success as a writer, the 1950s had two other significant features for Miller: love and politics.

In 1951 he met Marilyn Monroe. The media has always portrayed Miller and Monroe as an odd couple but they had a serious relationship. Miller divorced Mary Slattery in 1956 and married Marilyn the same year. They were married for five years and their marriage broke up during the filming of The Misfits. Miller was never keen to discuss the marriage with the media but he did write about it in his autobiography Timebends (1987). Marilyn Monroe died in 1962 and Miller married again, to a photographer called Inge Morath. This marriage lasted until Inge died in 2002.

In politics Miller became involved with a circle working for greater understanding between the United States and the communist Soviet Union. This brought Miller head-to-head with the HUAC - the House Un-American Activities Committee, a government committee set up to keep an eye on people who the government felt were dangerously left-wing or communist. For more on this, see the section History in The Crucible on page 11.

Miller continued to write until his death in 2005. He never regained the same levels of popularity in the US that he had in the 1950s and early 1960s but many of his new plays were produced in London right up to the turn of the century and the older plays continued to be performed all over the world. As the president of the international writers’ organisation PEN, Miller continued to work for improved relations between the communist countries of the East and the capitalist democracies of the West. His status as one of the greatest playwrights of the century was beyond question.

His last play, Finishing the Picture premiered in 2004 and he died on 10 February 2005.

3 © RSC Learning 2006

History in The Crucible

Seventeenth century Massachusetts

The story of The Crucible is based on real events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.

In January that year, a group of teenage girls seemed to be suffering from a strange illness. The illness was blamed on witchcraft and there was an official investigation – by April over 300 suspected witches had been imprisoned. In June 1692 the death penalty was introduced as a punishment for witchcraft. The first person to be hanged was a woman called Bridget Bishop. Five more women, including the real Rebecca Nurse and Sarah Good, were hanged in July. Court official read Giles’ petition

A man called John Proctor was concerned at the way torture was being used to make people confess. He wrote to the minister of Boston asking for an investigation but he was ignored. In August he was hanged along with four others. His wife Elizabeth was pregnant and so escaped hanging. Eight more people were hanged before the trials came to an end in September. Later the government acknowledged that the convictions and executions had been a mistake.

Miller’s script for The Crucible begins with ‘A note on the historical accuracy of this play’. He says that the play is ‘not history in the sense in which the word is used by the academic historian’. Miller wasn’t trying to give a 100% accurate account of events in Salem in 1692. What he was trying to show is what it felt like to be involved in those events and the forces at work to make such terrible events possible.

Before writing the play Miller researched original historical documents, including records of the witchcraft trials. Even if the events are not a precise record of what actually happened, other aspects of John is hanged the play are an accurate reflection of life in seventeenth century Massachusetts.

4 © RSC Learning 2006

History in The Crucible

Beliefs about witchcraft

Many of the supposed signs of witchcraft are mentioned in the play – the power to fly, reading books, muttering curses and making potions with live animals. In Act 3, Abigail accuses Mary Warren of ‘sending out her spirit’ against her, and this was supposed to be another power of witches. Names In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an estimated 60,000 people were executed for The names of the characters in The Crucible are witchcraft in Europe and North America. Most were taken from the trial records. Miller’s historical note poor and old and often single women who had says that the way each person’s story ends, whether nobody to stand up for them. In England the last it be by hanging like John Proctor and Rebecca witchcraft trial took place in 1712. Nurse, being crushed by stones like Giles Corey or escaping death like Elizabeth Proctor, is true to It was not just religious, superstitious or history. Other details have changed, for example uneducated people who believed in witches. King John Proctor was an innkeeper, not a farmer. James VI of Scotland (who later became King James I of England) wrote a book about witches Another detail of the naming is also historically called Daemonologie published in 1597. accurate. The female characters are often called ‘Goody’ as in Goody Proctor and Goody Putnam. Goody was short for ‘Goodwife’. It’s an old-fashioned version of ‘Mrs’. By using this title Miller makes us think about how ‘good’ the women really are. The settler life

The settlers in Massachusetts were some of the first Europeans to live in this part of North America. Puritan religion They were fighting a physical battle with the

wilderness, the climate and Native Americans to Puritans were Christians who believed that they establish their European-style farms and towns. should strictly obey the words of the Bible. They They lived with the constant threat of losing also believed that it was important to lead a very everything. This made them tense and paranoid, strict and serious lifestyle. Singing and dancing and even more likely to believe in suggestions of were banned. People wore sensible dark-coloured witchcraft and plots against them. clothing that covered everything except their hands and face. Christmas was not celebrated and all religious services were plain and simple.

In England, Puritans were persecuted for their extreme views and many made the journey across the Atlantic to set up new Puritan communities in North America. Salem was one of these communities.

Supernatural powers were supposed to come from the Devil. In religious communities like Salem this would sound more convincing – and more frightening – than it does nowadays in a less religious society.

Girls wearing typical Puritan clothes

5 © RSC Learning 2006

History in The Crucible

The United States in the 1950s

The play is also a description of historical events in the United States in the 1950s.

In the Second World War (1939-1945) the United States and the Soviet Union were allies. After the war was over, the two countries became more and more suspicious of each other. The governments of the two countries had very different ideologies. The US government believed in capitalism (everyone making as much money as they can). The Soviets believed in communism (everybody sharing in the whole country’s wealth so nobody is very rich or very poor). The US was run as a democracy, the Soviet Union was a dictatorship.

By the 1950s, the two countries were enemies. They didn’t fight each other openly, though they did support rival factions in civil wars around the world. This period was known as the Cold War.

The US government began to worry that communists might try and take over the United States. A senator called McCarthy was made chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee. This committee’s job was to find communists and communist sympathisers living and working in the United States. The investigators were particularly interested in people working in the media who could have an influence on large numbers of people.

Miller’s good friend, the film director Elias Kazan was questioned. He was told that he would not be prosecuted if he named others who might be communists. Kazan was frightened and gave the Committee names. He was ashamed of what he had done and invited Miller over to discuss his experience. Miller drove straight from Kazan’s house to Salem to begin researching for The Crucible.

The Crucible came out in 1951. Six years later, in 1957, Miller was asked to testify in front of the HUAC and name friends and colleagues who might be communists. He refused and was convicted of contempt of court. The judgement was overturned the following year.

6 © RSC Learning 2006 Deputy-Governor Danforth Characters Confident and expects obedience. More interested in maintaining control than finding out the truth.

John Proctor Elizabeth Proctor A Salem farmer in his 30s. Thinks Looks after the house Judge Hathorne hard about doing the right thing and and three children. A tough Boston lawyer. is not afraid to challenge authority. Loves John though she Likes everyone to think he’s finds it hard to show it. right whether he is or not.

Francis Nurse Rebecca Nurse Marshal Herrick A sensible, solid man, older than Mother of seven children. Well- A kind man who cares about the Proctors. Stands up for his wife known for her kindness and his neighbours and is ashamed when she’s accused of witchcraft. goodness – almost saintly. of his work for the court.

Ezekiel Cheever A tailor from Salem. A timid man who finds confidence in his status as a court official. Giles Corey Martha Corey Has often sued his neighbours A decent woman who loves over petty issues. Dies under reading – at her trial this is used Hopkins torture rather than lose his farm. as evidence that she is a witch. A messenger – he only gets one line! Same name as the famous English witch-finder, Matthew Hopkins.

Thomas Putnam Ann Putnam Betty Parris A greedy and powerful landowner. A selfish, spiteful woman. Jealous Daughter of Parris. A Dislikes Reverend Parris who took of Rebecca Nurse’s many children frightened little girl, bored by the preacher’s job from a relative. – many of her own have died. the strict Puritan way of life.

Abigail Williams 20 years old. Manipulative and selfish. Enjoys her power over Tituba the other girls and the court. Reverend Parris A slave from Barbados working for Worries about money and his Parris. Naïve, superstitious and Susanna Walcott reputation in the village. Preaches easily scared by people in authority. more hellfire than brotherly love. Like Betty, is easily led by Abigail who is older and tougher.

Mercy Lewis Putnam’s servant. Miller calls Reverend Hale Sarah Good her ‘fat, sly’ and ‘merciless’. A famous ‘witch-finder’. Smug A poor and confused but and complacent at first but harmless woman who begs learns to see through the lies. from door to door in Salem. Mary Warren The Proctors’ servant. Weak- willed and afraid of Abigail.

7 © RSC Learning 2006

The Crucible - Plot Summary

The story is set in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, on the east coast of North America, in 1692.

Act 1 – Betty Parris’s bedroom

Betty is in bed, in some kind of fit. Reverend Parris and Abigail are with her. A message from the doctor suggests her illness may have supernatural causes. Parris says he has invited the witch-hunter Reverend Hale to come and prove that witchcraft is not to blame.

Parris questions Abigail: he caught the girls dancing in the forest and wants Abigail to tell him if they were casting spells. Betty and Parris Abigail says they were dancing and Betty had a shock when he appeared. Parris has heard rumours suggesting the Proctors had good reason to ask Abigail to leave her job on their farm.

Goody Putnam bursts in followed by her husband. Their daughter Ruth is in the same state as Betty. Goody Putnam says the devil is at work in Salem. Putnam persuades Parris to go downstairs and talk to his parishioners.

Betty is left alone with Abigail and the Putnam’s servant Mercy Lewis. They try to wake Betty without success. Mary Warren arrives. She is frightened by the talk of witchcraft. Abigail and Mercy bully and tease her. Abigail turns on Betty who suddenly comes to. She shouts at Abigail, saying she drank blood in the forest. Abigail slaps her and warns all the other girls to stick to the story that they were just dancing.

John Proctor arrives. He sends Mary home and Mercy follows. Abigail flirts with Proctor but he insists their affair is over. Abigail is angry and upset. Betty sits up screaming. Parris, the Putnams and Mercy Lewis rush in, followed by Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey. Rebecca calms Betty down. She suggests that the ‘sick’ girls are play-acting to avoid a telling-off. Abigail and John

Proctor is furious that people are trying to explain events through witchcraft. He is openly hostile to Parris. Reverend Hale arrives and Proctor sets off for home. Hale questions the others and eventually focuses on Abigail. She blames events in the wood on Tituba who is called in.

Tituba is terrified by the questioning and admits to witchcraft. She is offered forgiveness for confessing and Abigail, Betty and Mercy join in, shouting out random accusations of witchcraft against women in the village. Hale questions Tituba

8 © RSC Learning 2006

The Crucible - Plot Summary

Act 2 – The Proctors’ kitchen

Proctor comes home from a day in the fields. Elizabeth tells him that there is now a full-blown court in Salem investigating witchcraft. Mary Warren is an official of the court. Abigail is leading the accusations and being treated like a saint. The Proctors both know she is far from saintly and Elizabeth wants John Elizabeth and John to go to Salem and testify against her.

Mary Warren returns from Salem. She is tired and shaken and gives Elizabeth a rag doll she sewed in court as a way of apologising for being away all day. There are now 39 people in prison and Goody Osburn has been condemned to hang. Mary defends the court against John’s criticisms. He is on the point of whipping her when she reveals that Elizabeth Proctor’s name has been brought up in court. Mary goes up to bed.

John is on the point of leaving for Salem when Reverend Hale appears. He has doubts about the court and is visiting everyone who’s been accused to find out what they’re like for himself. He questions John and Elizabeth about their religious beliefs. John tells Hale what he learnt from Abigail – that the witchcraft is the pretence of silly young girls. Hale finds this hard to believe but begins to be persuaded. Mary gives Elizabeth the doll

Giles Corey and Francis Nurse arrive. Both their wives have been arrested. Hale knows Rebecca Nurse is a good woman and is deeply shocked. The court official Ezekiel Cheever arrives to arrest Elizabeth. He seizes on the rag doll Mary brought home. There is a needle stuck in the doll. Earlier in the evening Abigail fell down screaming and pulled a needle out of her stomach. Cheever sees this as clear evidence that Elizabeth is a witch.

Mary is brought down to explain how the doll came into the house. She says Abigail saw her sewing and then sticking the needle in the doll’s belly. Hale tells Mary that by accusing Abigail of lying she is accusing her of murder. John tears up Elizabeth’s arrest warrant but she is taken

John and Mary are left alone. John says they will go to court together in the morning and Mary will tell the truth about the doll. Mary tells John that if he does this Abigail will tell the court about her affair with John. He says he won’t let Elizabeth hang to preserve his reputation. Cheever questions Mary

9 © RSC Learning 2006

The Crucible - Plot Summary

Act 3 – A room at the Salem meeting house

Off-stage, in the main courtroom, the prosecutor Judge Hathorne is questioning Martha Corey. Giles interrupts. He is thrown out of court and brought into the meeting room. Giles wants to speak on his wife’s behalf and Reverend Hale backs him up. Deputy Governor Danforth says he must give his evidence in writing.

Francis Nurse tells the Judge there is evidence that Abigail and the other girls are frauds. Giles brings in Mary Warren and John. Mary tells Danforth that the girls have been pretending and John backs her up. Danforth does not want to hear their evidence – it will make the whole trial a nonsense. Elizabeth Giles and Danforth has told Danforth she is pregnant and he offers to delay her execution if John will take back what he John produces Giles’s written statement. It has said. John refuses. He hands over a petition says that Thomas Putnam told his daughter to swearing to the good character of Elizabeth, Goody accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft so he could Nurse and Goody Corey. Parris and Haworth take his land. Giles refuses to name the man persuade Danforth to arrest all 91 petitioners. who told him this in case the man is arrested and he ends up being arrested himself.

John then offers Mary Warren’s evidence. Hale says he should have a lawyer to help him but Danforth refuses. He orders the girls to be brought in from the courtroom. While they are waiting he gives Mary a hard time, threatening her with jail for lying in court.

Cheever brings Betty, Mercy, Susanna and Abigail. Danforth explains that Mary is saying their accusations have been lies. Abigail still insists everything she has said is true.

Danforth points out to John that accusing Abigail of lying is basically accusing her of murder. John sticks to his guns and asks Mary to tell Danforth about the naked dancing in the woods. Danforth is shocked. He turns to Mary. He has seen the girls faint and scream in the courtroom and believes this was the effect of supernatural powers. Mary says it was all Mary and John pretence, but when Danforth asks her to pretend to faint, she can’t do it.

Danforth questions Abigail more closely. The pressure drives her into new lies - she pretends that Mary is ‘sending out her spirit’ to attack her. Proctor tries to physically shake Abigail out of her pretence. In desperation he admits to his affair, trying to prove that Abigail is a liar. Elizabeth Proctor is brought in. Danforth asks her whether John had an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth denies it, thinking she is protecting John’s reputation. Danforth takes this as evidence that everything John has said was a lie.

Abigail leads the other girls in a new round of accusations, pretending that Mary is sending a ‘yellow bird’ to attack her. Mary is terrified and breaks down. She turns on John, saying he is in league with the Devil. John is arrested and Hale leaves the court. The girls

10 © RSC Learning 2006

The Crucible - Plot Summary

Act 4 – The jailhouse

Herrick wakes Tituba and Sarah Good. They drink some of Herrick’s cider and talk to him about flying down to Barbados with the Devil – the accusations and the trial have broken them mentally. Danforth and Hathorne arrive and Herrick sends Tituba and Sarah Good away. Herrick tells Danforth that Reverend Hale has been visiting the prisoners overnight. Parris was with him – he has been acting strangely lately, going around in tears.

Parris enters. He says Hale is trying to persuade Rebecca Nurse, her sister and Martha Corey to confess to witchcraft and save their lives. He also says Abigail and Mercy have run off with his savings. He is afraid that hanging popular people like Rebecca Nurse will cause trouble. People have been rioting against the witchcraft trials in Andover. A dagger has been left at his front door and he fears for his life.

Hale arrives and says nobody will confess. Danforth decides to try softening John up for a confession by letting him see Elizabeth. Elizabeth is brought to the cell and Hale begs her to persuade John to confess. He says life is the most important thing and it is wrong to die for a principle. John is brought in and the couple are left alone.

Elizabeth tells John that over a hundred people have confessed and escaped hanging. Rebecca Nurse won’t make a confession because it would be a lie. Giles Corey has died under interrogation. John thinks refusing to confess on principle would be arrogant – it would be like claiming he was as good a person as Rebecca. Elizabeth insists he is Elizabeth and John a good man and says he must do whatever he thinks best.

Hathorne returns. John tells him he wants to live. Hathorne is delighted. One confession will make the other hangings look genuine and prevent a riot. John feels it is wrong to confess but says he will do it anyway – he still thinks of himself as a bad person.

John has doubts when he realises his confession will be written down. Rebecca is brought in to see the confession and this makes John even more ashamed. He refuses to admit to seeing Rebecca or anyone else ‘with the Devil’. After some persuasion he signs the confession but then snatches the document. He doesn’t want it to be publicly displayed. Finally he tears it up – he would John snatches his confession rather hang than sign his name to a lie. Elizabeth will not stop him. She sees that John finally recognises himself as a good man and will not take this from him.

11 © RSC Learning 2006

Miller’s skills as a storyteller

The basic story of the Salem witch trials was exciting in its own right, but when Miller decided to turn it into a play he had to choose a way of telling the story that would keep audiences interested from beginning to end. The title At first glance the Clearly Miller wasn’t using the title literally – there are title, The Crucible, does not tell you no science experiments in the play. Miller is very much about the play. A crucible suggesting that Salem at this time was like a crucible. is literally a dish used in science labs The trials and accusations were like a strong fire, to heat different substances and test testing and separating the people of Salem. Most of the point at which they melt or them give in to the pressures surrounding them, but break down. If you heat an impure some, like John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse survive metal in a crucible, pure metal rises the trial with their personal integrity and ‘good name’ to the top and can be separated intact. (‘Crucible’ is also the name of the final part of from the impurities. the US Marine Corp’s training.)

The language The language characters use in The Crucible sounds old- fashioned. Miller wanted the characters to sound like real people from the seventeenth century. The old-fashioned language also adds colour to the play – if it were all in simple, modern language it might be a bit easier to understand but it would also be a lot duller. There are several tricks Miller uses to give the language a seventeenth century flavour:

In modern Standard English you’re not The farming folk of Salem drop the ‘g’s at the supposed to use not or no twice in the same end of words: searchin’, nothin’, drivin’. sentence. Salem people do this all the time: ‘he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books’ (Susanna, Act 1) As Puritans, the characters often quote ‘I never had no wife that be so taken with or allude to the Bible. books’ (Giles, Act 3) ‘Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel.’ Individual old-fashioned words set the (Elizabeth, Act 2) tone from the beginning: bid for ‘told’, ‘you should surely know that Cain were unnatural for ‘supernatural’, witched an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel’ for ‘bewitched’, sport for ‘fun’. (Parris, Act 3)

Miller also includes some very striking images to bring events to life in the audience’s imagination:

…the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law… (Proctor, Act 2)

… an ocean of salt tears could … the wind, God’s icy wind, not melt the resolution of the will blow… (Proctor, Act 2) statutes… (Danforth, Act 4)

I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I … the Devil is have seen some reddish work done at alive in Salem… night, and I can make you wish you had (Hale, Act 2) never seen the sun go down! (Abigail, Act 1)

12 © RSC Learning 2006

Miller’s skills as a storyteller

Pace and structure

The story of The Crucible is carefully planned – this gives the play a feeling of constant onward movement. The dialogue is tightly focused too. There are no long, flowery, irrelevant speeches – everything that is said contributes to the audience’s understanding of the story.

Events follow the legal process. In Act 1 there is a general feeling that something is wrong but no specific accusation. In Act 2 the arrests begin. In Act 3 we see the court in full swing. In Act 4 sentence has been passed and several of the main characters have died or are about to.

The physical setting of the four Acts is increasingly gloomy and claustrophobic: a child’s attic bedroom, a low-ceilinged farmhouse kitchen, a heavily-timbered and dimly-lit meeting room, and finally a cold, dark, stinking jail cell.

The four acts also continually focus in on John and Elizabeth Proctor. In Act 1 John is just one of many characters who come to see what is happening at Parris’s house. In Act 2 Elizabeth is arrested and the couple become central to the story. In Act 3 John tries to challenge the course of events and fails. In Act IV, he dies for refusing to make the false confession.

The emotional temperature of the play increases too: • In Act 1, there is still room for some humour with the ridiculous suggestions that Betty has been flying, and that Goody Corey’s reading habits make her a witch. • In Act 2, we learn more about the problems Elizabeth and John have had in their marriage, but also that John cares for Elizabeth. • In Act 3, John is forced to publicly admit to his shameful adultery with Abigail and Abigail leads the hysterical and disturbing ‘crying out’ that closes the act. • Act 4 is deeply emotional – John makes his final decision to die rather than put his name to a false confession but is also reconciled with Elizabeth. Themes in The Crucible

The Crucible tells a version of historical Many of the people who make accusations and confessions in events in Salem in 1692. It also the play are not really acting rationally. They’re afraid of not comments on the US Government’s fitting in, or of being accused and punished themselves. They methods of rooting out Communist tell lies to keep themselves safe. sympathisers in 1950s America. But audiences at different times, all over the Abigail frightens the other girls and creates an atmosphere of world, find The Crucible moving and hysteria in which they no longer have any idea of what is true relevant. It is not just a play for 1950s or false and can make themselves believe almost anything. Americans, or even just for Americans. Many of the issues raised by the play can Characters like the Putnams are disgustingly hypocritical. They affect any society and this helps explain make most of the accusations when the trials begin but in Act why the play is still performed and still 1, Ann Putnam admits to sending her daughter Betty to the popular over 50 years after it was written. woods to find out why her other children died through Tituba’s witchcraft. This is conveniently forgotten later in the play.

In the face of fear, lies, bullying and hypocrisy, John Proctor stands up for what he believes in. It’s not an easy choice for him to make. This makes his actions all the more impressive and makes him the hero of the play.

13 © RSC Learning 2006

Sources and recommended reading

Miller, Arthur, The Crucible, London: Penguin 2000 (first published 1953) The Crucible, York Notes for GCSE, London: York Press, 1997

Website of the Arthur Miller Society http://www.ibiblio.org/miller Useful background information, plot summaries and notes.

Miller’s life and work: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmillerA.htm

McCarthyism and the HUAC: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuac.htm

The film version of The Crucible (1997), stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller wrote the screenplay, but it’s not a word-for-word equivalent to the stage play. Gossip-fiends might be interested to know that Daniel Day-Lewis is married to Rebecca Miller, Arthur Miller’s daughter from his third marriage.

In 2005, the BBC broadcast an interview with Arthur Miller presented by the critic Alan Yentob. The interview was a great insight into Miller’s personality and moral values – watch a recording if you can get your hands on one.

RSC Credits

The Crucible creative team The Crucible cast

Director DOMINIC COOKE ROBERT BOWMAN - Reverend Hale Designer HILDEGARD BECHTLER KEN BRADSHAW - Ezekiel Cheever Lighting JEAN KALMAN ELAINE CASSIDY - Abigail Sound PAUL ARDITTI TIM CHIPPING - Herrick Music GARY YERSHON LAURA ELPHINSTONE- Susanna Walcott ALISON GARLAND - Mercy Lewis LORNA GAYLE - Tituba IAN GELDER - Parris IAIN GLEN - John Proctor Learning Pack DARLENE JOHNSON - Rebecca Nurse

JAMES LAURENSON - Danforth Writer TAISSA CSAKY SUSAN McGOUN - Sarah Good Editor/designer SUZANNE WORTHINGTON CAROLINE O’NEILL - Ann Putnam Photograpy KEITH PATTISON and TREVOR PEACOCK - Giles Corey SUZANNE WORTHINGTON JAMES PEARSE - Hopkins CLIFFORD ROSE - Francis Nurse HELEN SCHLESINGER - Elizabeth Proctor CATHERINE SKINNER - Ensemble © RSC Learning 2006 JAMES STADDON - Thomas Putnam JOHN STAHL - Hathorne MICHELLE TERRY - Mary Warren ZOE THORNE - Betty Parris

14 © RSC Learning 2006