The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay Example For Students

The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay The Crucible is seen as a political parable that compares two awful chapters in American and human history. The play is based on the Salem witch trials in 1692 which is parallel to the events that took place in 1957 during the McCarthy political witch hunt McCarthy set up the House Un-American Activities Committee which became paranoid in its search for communist sympathisers in America. Arthur Miller as a modern playwright achieved this comparison well even though he believed that the critics didnt fully appreciate the point of the story. The purpose of the play as Arthur Miller expresses is to show the conflict between a mans raw deeds and his conception of himself; and what happens when (conscience) is handed over not merely to the state or the mores of the time but to ones friend or wife. This shows the reader/audience that problems arent only confined to the rich and powerful but a common mans failure is just as moving and tragic. The courtroom in Act three is a crucial point in the play where each character is put under pressure and this exposes each of their weaknesses. Miller chose to write his play based on this subject partly because e had always found this appalling episode in the American history fascinating, but also because he wanted to show what was going on in America 1940s and 1950s. This was a time when the relations between the USA and Russia (then a communist state) were very strained and many and many Americans believed that communists who threatened the American way of life surrounded them. Then after Miller read the book The Devil in Massachusetts he started to see similarities between 1950s America and Salem 1690s. This inspired Arthur Miller to write The Crucible. Arthur Miller was trying to draw parallels between the two past events. He called his play The Crucible because the people in Salem were being tested in religious ways and they were trying to melt down lies to the truth. This is what happens in a crucible, things are melted down and purified by witches. On PG 81 Danforth states We burn hot fire here; it melts down all concealment. This statement was ironic as the people in Salem who were confessing were lying and in no way were they burning down any type of concealment. Towards the end of the play the judges knew that this was not the truth coming through but they had to pretend to themselves and Salem tat it was. They felt that if more people confessed more people would think that the judges were doing their job properly. The final scene begins on a high point of tension. Elizabeth Proctor is trying to persuade her husband John Proctor who has been accused by Mary Warren of being in league with the Devil. One of the reasons why she has accused John Proctor is because she is trying to get herself off the hook with the court. She firstly accused Abigail Williams of lying to the court but as she sees that she has no hope so she switches her story around and accuses Proctor.