Plot+Summary

**Historical Background**

// The Crucible // is a response to the 1950’s Senator Joe McCarthy’s Red Scare Movement. Arthur Miller intended to portray the accuracy of what was occurring during his lifetime through historical data of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 that resulted in the death of twenty people. Although the mass hysteria did not consequence in executions by hanging, the Red Scare ended the public lives of the victims as being accused of betraying their country. Evidence to act as spies, terrorists, or to commit conspiracy threatening the safety of US citizens caused fro measures to be taken by the House Un-American Committee. The HUAC publicly persecuted any celebrity or political official who was presumed to be a communist. The historical setting of the 17th century New England Puritan society of Salem, Massachusetts in the context of witchcraft accusations served as concrete evidence of the persecution of individuals personal lives being blemished by the falsely words of others. When in the end; the only thing achieved through publicly exposing the lives of the accused is a ripple effect of people accusing others to defend themselves. The Salem hysteria of 1692 was at an uproar by Marther vs. Golver court case in which a local minister of Boston brought to court a woman who was claimed to be a “witch” and who had given confession into having a pact with the devil to extract her witchcraft powers. The Godwin children were supposed to have been bewitched by their maid (Golver), similarly as in Miller’s //The Crucible//.

The Massachusetts Bay Colony was put into the direction of Puritan governance. The citizens who founded the Massachusetts Bay Colony were driven by their sense of faith and duty to be a virtuous society, of which they had fled England in order to freely express their religion. By naming the sinners (witches) in their society the let out the accumulated guilt and enter into a sort of ritual cleansing of the spirit.

The convulsions and visions that had inflicted recorded victims could have been a result of the spread of encephalitis lethargic. Despite the fact of the bewitchment hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials had most likely have been a result of fear within the borders the religious settlement accusing immoral citizens the court cases addressed major social conflicts among the members of the community.

The scene opens with the tortured screams of a girl in a coma-like state; Betty, reverend Parris’ daughter. As the characters converse about what had happened with Betty, the concept of witchcraft enters the minds of the citizens of the New England Puritan settlement of Salem, Massachusetts. Tituba is the first girl accused of being a witch. Only after do we learn that a group of girls employed a ritual in order to kill Elizabeth Proctor by orders of the ring leader; Abigail. A past love affair between John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband and Abigail, a previous maid in the Proctor household is discovered in the following scenes.
 * Plot Summary**

Spited, Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch in a meetinghouse conference. Using her friends as witnesses of Elizabeth’s pact with the devil commonly referred to as “the black man” in the play, Abigail hopes to rid her and disavow her marriage with Proctor. Fearful of having his wife tried and hanged as a witch threatens Mary Warren into telling the truth and revealing to the courthouse the lies made up by the group girls whom created social frenzy within the Puritan society.

The witch trails commence and Elizabeth Proctor’s life is put at the hands of her unfaithful husband and his past mistress after she is arrested. By this time Proctor realizes that the only way to save the lives of his wife and their unborn baby is to confess to the affair which had occurred the season before. With this knowledge Proctor was confident that Judge Danforth would withdraw the testimonies of Abigail and her minions as being motivated by jealousy. In order to insure the liability of Proctor’s claim the well known honest Elizabeth (Goody Proctor) is brought to testify in the matter. Unfortunately Elizabeth chooses to lie in order to protect her family’s integrity, by doing this Judge Danforth has can no longer trust the words of Proctor .Towards the end of the play Hale is determined to save Proctor’s life by persuading Elizabeth Proctor into convincing her husband to make a confession in order to spare his life; as many others who were falsely accused as being witches had done. Proctor refused to up his name; refusing to be stripped of the last honor he had.