The Crucible

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19 Terms

1
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Guilt and Love TS

Miller demonstrates how love impedes judgement in times of crisis, unveiling moral inconsistencies and internal paradoxes and exposing how, during the McCarthy era, the personal desires of individuals obscured rational thought.

2
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Guilt and Love quotes (5)

Point

Quote

Technique

Selfless/will suffer for love

“He has his goodness now, God forbid I take it from him”

Lies

“In her life, sir, she have never lied….my wife cannot lie.”

“Is your husband a lecher?/ No sir”

Rage

“That girl is muder, she must be ripped from this world”

Guilt

“It were a cold house I kept”

Proctor confessing: “I have known her, sir. I have known her”

Desperation - condemning self to save Elizabeth

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Redemption TS

By unearthing the complexities and flaws within individuals, and illustrating how temptation overrides moral character, Miller stages paradoxical and inconsistent characters to;l encourage transformation after transgression, exposing to the audience that repenting is the primary way an individual can uncover true peace.

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Redemption quotes (5)

Point

Quote

Analysis

Self-righteous/superiority/hero complex

“The world has gone daft with his nonsense”

a paradoxical character, as someone who places himself morally above other individuals near the beginning of the play, placing judgement on other members of Salem

Paradoxical Proctor

“a  sinner  not  only  against  the  moral fashion  of  the  time,  but  against  his  own  vision  of  decent  conduct.”

Not True Guilt at Start

“Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again” furthered by “A knowing smile on his face”

This also is boasting his good integrity at start contrasted with the fact he still thinks of her softly. Guilt here stems from an attempt to fix his reputation, rather than genuine guilt.

Values Integrity at end

Proof he values integrity: “I have given you my soul, leave me my name” 

The value Proctor placed on integrity is exacerbated as the play goes on and he is faced with the consequences of his actions 

True Guilt at End

“’God in heaven, what is john Proctor, what is John Proctor?’ ‘I think it is honest... I am no saint” 

Repetition, shows his true guilt and his realisation that he is not the morally superior individual he thought himself to be

5
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Fear TS

Extreme situations manifest fear within a collective, where concerns of self-preservation means the desire to conform takes precedence over morality.  

Miller reflects the political landscape of the McCarthy era, where the fear of communism or being accused of being a communist, motivated individuals to betray others and defy their own morals.


6
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Fear Para (6 quotes)

Abigail’s contortions of Salem’s social order, despite her class, reveal the power held by anomalistic individuals who manipulate collective belief through fear, foreshadowed in Act I where she threatens the girls with “a pointy reckoning that will shudder you”, which enforces the “Subservient, naive, lonely” Mary Warren to obey her, as characterised by Miller. She proves to fulfil this characterisation, where the thought of speaking the truth against the collective, reduces her to sob, “over and over again …. ‘I cannot, I cannot, I cannot’ as THE CURTAIN FALLS”the audience witnesses her losing stability and reason, at the sheer prospect of exposing Abigail..  This imprints on the audience as the Act’s final image, highlighting her desperation and terror of being ostracised through repetition and extreme emotion. Audiences align with the complex characterisation of Mary Warren, who despite initially supporting Proctor that the witch hunt is irrational, eventually succumbs to pressures of belonging to the collective. . Through the biblical allusion, Warren denounces Proctor and calls him “the devil’s man” in court. Through dramatic irony, the audience realises that rejecting him abandons what is morally righteous, for the sake of her own social standing amongst the girls. This overrides her moral compass as Miller mirrors how everyday people in the McCarthy era are abandoning their morals to avoid social rejection. 

 

 The value Warren places in this social standing is reflected through her repeated bragging of being “an official of the court, they say”, contrasted with later in the play where she recognises “Staring at Abigail: ‘I- have no power’”, when Warren goes against Abi. . Thus, Miller criticises his audience, illustrating that during times of crises like the Red Scare, individuals will succumb to fear and forfeit their morals to remain within the collective. 

7
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Resentment TS

Miller warns his audience of the power a seemingly harmless individual can have by gaining control over a collective through manipulation, additionally highlighting the desperation of  resentful individuals as they take advantage of times of crises to further their own ambitions, whilst exposing the dangers of ignorance.

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Resentment Quotes (6)

Point

Quote

Technique

Danger

“An endless capacity for dessembling”

Motivations

“Her concentrated desire”

Resentment

“Cold snivelling woman” “Blackening my name in the village”

Method of manipulation: fear

“A point reckoning that will shudder you”

Nothing to lose

“I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine”

Underestimated

“It is not the children who are unmindful of their obligations toward this ministry”

9
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Corruption and Control TS

Miller uses the Puritanical theocratic social system to mirror how, at times of uncertainty, moral paradoxes appear within institutions and individuals designed to deliver justice, critisising those who become corrupt from the inherent human desire for control whilst praising those who pursue the truth.

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Corruption and Control Quotes (8)

the necessity of the Devil may become evident as a weapon, a weapon designed and used time and time again in every age to whip men into a surrender to a particular church or church-state.


Proctor’s rhetorical question confronting Danforth Is the accuser always holy now?” mirrors Miller’s exploration of the extreme dichotomies offered in the McCarthy Era, as he describes through his authorial intrusions “A political party is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence”

Inconsistencies within religious and social structures illustrate how individuals have an inherent desire to strive for power, and yet often hypocrisy lies within these collective systems of control due to individual corruption and selfishness

  1. “Those who weep for them weep for corruption”
    Ironic

  2. “I denounce these proceedings… I quit this court”

  3. ​​His logic “but witchcraft is an invisible crime…therefore, we must rely upon her victims” accentuates a false syllogism as his argument completely lacks evidence which furthers theocracy’s failure to make righteous decisions on the basis of logic and reason, contradicting its system of justice. 

    “Postment now speaks a floundering on my part”

    “What I touched with my bright confidence, It died”


11
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Resistance TS

Miller also presents and promotes anomalous individuals within Salem who maintain their morality through times of crisis, whilst still recognising the consequences of resistance, revealing the importance of standing up against an oppressive society.

Shows ppl with power and ppl without power and aligns himself with those anomalous individuals

Encourage audience to resist collective even tho theres cost

12
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Resistance Quotes (7)

Miler: “You told them anyone you knew had been a left winger… and you went home. But I wasn’t to do that” Context quoted from Arthur Miller by Bigsby in the introduction

Proctor: “His breast heaving, his eyes staring, Proctor tears the paper and crumples it, and he is weeping in fury, but erect.” Stage direction of characterisation, powerful moment that has an effect on the audience and imprints on them

Elizabeth: “He has his freedom now, god forbid I take it from him” worth it

Hale: “I denounce these proceedings/I quit this court” using their positions of power to encourage change, 

 It was also, in my opinion, one of the things that a John Proctor would rebel against

When  one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, just as we shall be pitied someday. It is still impossible for man to organize  his  social  life  without  repressions,  and  the  balance  has  yet  to  be struck between order and freedom.

 Proctor and his wife try to step outside the authorized text. They will acknowledge only those things of which  they  have  immediate  knowledge.  “I  have  wondered  if  there  be witches in the world,” observes John Proctor, incautiously, adding, “I have no  knowledge  of  it,”  as  his  wife,  too,  insists:  “I  cannot  believe  it.”

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Hysteria TS

Miller confronts his 1950s audience by immersing them in a court trial in the third act, highlighting through dramatic irony the way hysteria travels and distorts truth, driving individuals to behave violate their own moral compass, causing them to question their role in the Red Scare and whether they perpetuated hysteria or allowed themselves to be manipulated by it.

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Hysteria Quotes (7)

  • Cacophony of sound

  • DRAMATIC IRONY 

  • Staging 

  • Authorial intrusions 

 Mary Warren…overwhelmed by Abigail‘s —and  the  girls’—utter  conviction,  starts  to  whimper…powerless, and all the girls begin whimpering exactly as she does.

MARY  WARREN “No,  I  love  God…I love God, I bless God… Abigail,  out  of  her  infinite charity, reaches out and draws the sobbing Mary to her”

“Mary,  as  though infected,  opens  her  mouth  and  screams  with  them.” joining in

“: You’re the Devil’s man!” Mary Warren goes against her other beliefs bc of this

“now he [danforth] is frightened; there is real tension in his voice.” Strong feel fear when faced with collective


The  Salem  tragedy,  which  is  about  to  begin  in  these  pages,  developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live…the  people  of  Salem  developed  a theocracy… whose function  was  to keep the community together”


The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom.


15
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Parris/Hawthorne Quotes (5)

Parris: “Obedience! Or the church will burn like hell is burning”

Willful ignorance through dramatic irony: “It is not children who are unmindful of their obligations towards this ministry”

Judge Hawthorne: “This is contempt, sir, contempt!”

“With a gleam of victory”

“Electrified, surprised: ‘you will confess?’”


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Nurse/Corey Quotes (4)

 “more weight”

Rebecca: There is a prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves.

Francis Nurse FRANCIS: We have proof of it, sir. They are all deceiving you.
HATHORNE: This is contempt, sir, contempt!

Martha Corey: Reading

17
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Nietzsche Quotes (15)

Miller explores… , mirroring the philosopher nietzsche “...”, revealing the inherent human experience


“One can cope with a bad conscience more easily than with a bad reputation.” Danforth/Proctor


“In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule” Mass Panic


“The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently” Knowledge


“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will often be lonely, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself” Mass Panic/Resistance


“Nothing on earth more consumes a man more quickly than the passion of resentment” Abigail


“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster” Proctor/Danforth


“Man prefers to believe what he believes to be true” Danforth/Mass Panic


“One must learn to love oneself - so I teach - with a wholesome and healthy love” Love (against selfless Elizabeth)/Proctor transformation/Guilt


“To be ashamed of one’s immorality is a step on the ladder at the end of which one is also ashamed of one’s morality” Hale


“To love is to be the sacrificial victim of one’s own happiness” Elizabeth


“Those who cannot command themselves will be commanded” Mary Warren/Abi


“The priest is the ideal parasite”


“Priests call revenge ‘justice’; they call their hatred of the successful ‘love of mankind’: ONLY IF SPECIFIC PARRIS Q


“The need to be approved of by others is the most vulgar of all needs” Mary Warren


“The noble type of man experiences himself as determining values; he does not need approval” Resistance


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Putnam/Tituba/Mercy/Cheever/Betty/Herrick Quotes

Thomas Putnam: “That  is  a  notorious  sign  of witchcraft afoot, Goody Nurse, a prodigious sign!”

Ann Putnam: how else is she struck dumb now except some power of darkness

Tituba: Scapegoat bc of her none of power; those who are outsiders are further othered in society. The stage direction of her pointed finger, “instantly Abigail points at Tituba” is juxtaposed with Tituba “rocking on her knees, sobbing in terror”. To amplify Tituba’s subjugation she cries “Bless Him. Bless Him” and Hale responds “And to His glory, Tituba: Eternal glory” The call and response patterning is reminiscent of a religious ceremony demonstrating the perversion of faith, religion and law.

Ruth Putnam: Ann talking abt Ruth: “The Devil’s touch is heavier than sick”

Betty Parris: “You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that” reveals to the audience and enables dramatic irony from here on

Herrick: “The law binds me, John, I cannot budge” Doesnt want to but has to from law

Cheever “He plow on Sunday…I think it be evidence, John. I am an official of the court, I cannot keep it.” Exposes Proctor

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Introduction

General conceptual statement (not pre-memorised, engage with the question): 

Miller unveils the complexities and inconsistencies within human behaviour that are exacerbated during times of hysteria and amidst a political crisis in The Crucible by using the Salem witch trials as an allegory for The Red Scare in 1950s America. 

Introduce text, playwright (maybe - purpose?) and context:

His play, ‘The Crucible’ implements his voice through authorial intrusions and stage directions to offer an exploration of political ideological warfare occurring in the McCarthy era, using the guise of a witch hunt to illustrate how in crises, human complexity is heightened as individuals are more prone to behave inconsistently.  

Form and 3 key ideas + THESIS:  

Thus, Miller stages flawed and complex characters to illustrate the way in which extreme situations weaken human morality as emotions of fear, love and resentment override reason, shaping human behaviour into something that is inconsistent and paradoxical, unveiling the extremities of the human experience.