Themes

Hysteria: In the play, hysteria is the main cause which suffices in the village that cause the whole “witch-accusing pandemic”. Hysteria enables people to believe their friends and neighbors are committing crimes such as communicating with the devil, adultery, and even killing babies. The townsfolk of Salem accept and participate with the hysterical atmosphere not only out of religious righteousness, but more so to fulfill their selfish vendetta and of course to get something out of it. Jealousy, lies, and deceits feeds hysteria which causes many characters to face with adversities dealing with these false accusations. //ABIGAIL, with a bitter anger: Oh, I marvel how such ... a strong man may let such a sickly wife be- PROCTOR, angered-at himself as well: You'll speak nothin' of Elizabeth! ABIGAIL: She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her! Let her turn you like a-// Base on that quote, it was evident that Abigail was jealous of Elizabeth more so than her believing that she ruined her reputation. Abigail allows herself to be the culprit of the hysteria because at the end, people can benefit from it. People like Thomas Putnam, who accused an ordinary citizen of witchcraft just to get land. Thomas lost seven children and his only child, Ruth, is sick. So his actions were immoral however understandable.

When the townsfolk accused Rebecca for convicting supernatural murders on Ann Putnam’s babies, they did so out of jealousy of Rebecca's fortunes. Rebecca, was a respected women, and her being accused represents hysteria going overboard. //'For murder, she's charged! For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies'.//

 Overall, the townspeople participate in these act as a way to fulfill their long-held grudge, however this actions were masked by people believing they have done it for social righteousness. “ Abigail: 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” 

Religion //The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for ... their failure to convert the Indians. Probably they also preferred to take land from heathens rather than from fellow Christians. At any rate, very few Indians were converted, and the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand. To the best of their knowledge the American forest was the last place on earth that was not paying homage to God. (I. paragraph 10) //

Base on that quote, religion is a very important factor in Salem; it’s basically woven into the everyday life. Salem is a theocratic society, meaning that social standing is heavily influence by religious practice. Those who attend church every Sunday, show their faith in God and only God are the only people who deserve attention in the world. With a town very inclusive with religious practice, it was easy for someone like Abigail to ostracize regular townsfolk. //“Abigail: I want to open myself! I want light of God. I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil.”// Abigail was able to accused anyone by lying that they disobeyed the divine rule of Christianity.

In the very beginning of the play, it was evident that religion has been the catalyst to help rise to social status of the person and is portrayed to be an almighty force in theocratic Salem. Religion has been the weapon to destroy people and acquire materialistic things as well as power. Miller portrayed characters like Reverend Parris, who advocates the idea of using religion to help control everyone and assert him as an authority figure to parallel the events that took place during McCarthyism. //PUTNAM: Against him and all authority! PROCTOR: Why, then I must find it and join it. There is shock among the others. REBECCA: He does not mean that. PUTNAM: He confessed it now! PROCTOR: I mean it solemnly, Rebecca; I like not the smell of this "authority. " REBECCA: No, you cannot break charity with your minister. You are another kind, John. Clasp his hand, make your peace. PROCTOR: I have a crop to sow and lumber to drag home. // Around the moment the play was published, Miller account the time when he as well as other notable celebrities at that time were accused of communism. He parallel witch accusation with the idea of corruptness over power. In the Crucible, power was attained through the use of religion. John Proctor has associated Reverend Parris as greedy man who drips with hypocrisy. HALE: Mr. Proctor, your house is not a church; your theology must tell you that. PROCTOR: It does, sir, it does; and it tells me that a minister may pray to God without he have golden candlesticks upon the altar. HALE: What golden candlesticks? PROCTOR: Since we built the church there were pewter candlesticks upon the altar; Francis Nurse made them, y’know, and a sweeter hand never touched the metal. But Parris came, and for twenty week he preach nothin' but golden candlesticks until he had them. I labor the earth from dawn of day to blink of night, and I tell you true, when I look to heaven and see my money glaring at his elbows-it hurt my prayer, sir, it hurt my prayer. I think, sometimes, the man dreams cathedrals, not clapboard meetin' houses. HALE, thinks, then: And yet, Mister, a Christian on Sabbath Day must be in church. Pause. Tell me-you have three children? PROCTOR: Aye. Boys. HALE: How comes it that only two are baptized? PROCTOR, starts to speak, then stops, then, as though unable to restrain this: I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I'll not conceal it. HALE: I must say it, Mr. Proctor; that is not for you to decide. The man's ordained, therefore the light of God is in him. PROCTOR, flushed with resentment but trying to smile: What's your suspicion, Mr. Hale? HALE: No, no, I have no – Proctor: I nailed the roof upon the church, I hung the door- HALE: Oh, did you! That's a good sign, then. PROCTOR: It may be I have been too quick to bring the man to book, but you cannot think we ever desired the destruction of religion. I think that's in your mind, is it not? (II.219-232  ... ) Proctor symbolizes the man fighting society that circulates around religion. In the 1950’s, Senator McCarthy as well as other political representatives, used the idea of demagogy as a way to gain political power. America, a capitalist country with so much nationalism, fears communism—Salem a religious town, fears witchcraft. The government was able to exploit the nation’s fear of communism by initiating the Red Scare; simply by substituting ‘terrorist’ for ‘communist’, the government was able to implicate power in their hands to control the minds of the people. With power so infinite, it was bound to escalate into catastrophic destruction. This problem correlates with the characters in the play. For example, Rebecca Nurse, who was a highly religious woman, was accused of being a witch. The irony of this situation is the fact that in the beginning religion seems to protect everyone who used it, however Miller’s decided to use religion as something that would persecute the innocence. Characters like Abigail and the Putnams were the ones who corrupted religion to necessitate their selfish needs. As a result, innocent people were hanged due to the corruptness of religion.

Reputation: <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 12.4pt; line-height: 115%;">Reputation is extremely important in Salem, because what you do in your private life is as much important as what you do in public. With everyone focused on maintaining a good public reputation they have a fear of being associated to those who have a bad reputation. In the beginning of the play, when Reverend Parris found out that his niece and daughter were conjuring spirits, he feared that his reputation as a reverend would perish. As a result, he allow people to think his daughter was bewitched. During the beginning of the play, John Proctor had a chance to testify against Abigail’s accusation of Elizabeth being a witch. However, <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 12.4pt; line-height: 115%;"> he was plagued with ideas that this would tarnish his name and blacklist him out of the community. Nonetheless, the protagonist committed a heroic decision by denying to sign a false confession and accepting his fate. By stating that he indeed had an affair with Abigail, showed that he sinned however was able to relinquish his name by being honest. <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">“Proctor: You have all witnessed it – it is enough <span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 14.4pt; line-height: 115%;">…I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

<span style="background-color: #c0c0c0; font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace; font-size: 120%;">PROCTOR, breathless and in agony: It [Abigail] is a whore! DANFORTH, dumfounded: You charge-? ABIGAIL: Mr. Danforth, he is lying! PROCTOR: Mark her! Now she'll suck a scream to stab me with but- DANFORTH: You will prove this! This will not pass! PROCTOR, trembling, his life collapsing about him: I have known her, sir. I have known her. DANFORTH: You-you are a lecher? FRANCIS, horrified: John, you cannot say such a – PROCTOR: Oh, Francis, I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me. To Danforth: A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that. DANFORTH, dumfounded: In-in what time? In what place? PROCTOR, his voice about to break, and his shame great: In the proper place-where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past. She used to serve me in my house, sir. He has to clamp his jaw to keep from weeping. A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you-see her what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir- He is being overcome. Excellency, forgive me, forgive me. Angrily against himself, he turns away from the Governor for a moment. Then, as though to cry out is his only means of speech left: She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it now. III.374-384 ...