The Crucible is a 1952 play by Arthur Miller, based on the events surrounding the 1692 witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. Miller used that event as an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare, which was a period of time in which Americans were in fear of communism and the government blacklisted accused communists. The Red Scare occurred in the United States in the 1950s. Miller himself was questioned by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956. The play was first performed on Broadway on January 22, 1953. The reviews of the first production were hostile, but a year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic. Today the play is often studied in high schools and universities, both because of its status as a revolutionary work of theatre and as a document to political events of the 1950s.

The play was adapted for film twice, once by Jean-Paul Sartre in the 1957 film Les Sorcières de Salem and nearly forty years later by Miller himself, in the 1996 film The Crucible, starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder; Miller’s adaptation earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay based on Previously Produced Material, his only nomination. The play was also adapted by composer Robert Ward into an opera, The Crucible, which was first performed in 1961 and received the Pulitzer Prize. The Crucible is generally regarded as one of the best plays of the modern era, due to its deep and captivating plot.[citation needed]

The play has also been presented several times on stage and television. One notable 1967 TV production starred George C. Scott as John Proctor, Colleen Dewhurst (Scott’s real-life wife at the time) as Elizabeth, and Tuesday Weld as Abigail.

Act One

Setting: Salem, Massachusetts. The play begins in the bedroom of Betty Parris, the daughter of the despised local preacher Samuel Parris. She has fallen ill and into a mania. It is soon discovered that Betty was found with some local girls who were dancing and chanting around a fire in the woods with Parris’s slave, Tituba. Panic spreads through the village as people believe that witchcraft is afoot. Reverend Parris sends for the Reverend John Hale, an authority on witchcraft, to investigate what is going on. Reverend Parris questions the manipulative Abigail Williams, who is the unofficial leader of the group of girls, regarding what took place in the forest. Abigail denies any witchcraft and claims she and the girls were simply dancing. Abigail then threatens the other girls to prevent them from revealing what really happened in the forest the last night. John Proctor enters, and Abigail confronts him, alluding to her having an affair with him. When Parris and Hale interrogate Tituba, she confesses to witchcraft after Parris threatens to whip her to death. She accuses Sarah Good and Goody Osborne, and she is only sentenced to a short term in prison. Betty and Abigail take Tituba’s cue, confess witchcraft, and start accusing almost all of the women from town.

Act Two

Late one evening in the Proctor household, John Proctor comes home from planting in his fields to his wife, Elizabeth. Their forced conversation eventually grows into an argument concerning John’s past infidelity and Elizabeth’s inability to either forgive or forget the incident. Mary Warren, their house servant, comes home in a disturbed state. She is serving as a clerk of the court and witnessed the first handing down of a death sentence to one of the accused witches that very day. She gives Elizabeth a poppet that she made during the trials that day. Mary then goes to bed, but only after telling the Proctors that Elizabeth’s name has been mentioned in the court. John and Elizabeth continue their argument, now enhanced by Elizabeth’s fear of Abigail and the other girls vicious power in the courts. They are interrupted by the sudden appearance of John Hale at their doorway. He is traveling from house to house, speaking to those mentioned in the court to gain more information about them. During their discussion, John reveals that he is aware that Abigail and the other girls are lying. They are all then interrupted by two Salem citizens that have had wives arrested, and they are shortly followed by a party come to arrest Elizabeth. They find a needle stuck in the poppet Mary gave Elizabeth, which appears to confirm the accusation on witchcraft made upon Elizabeth by Abigail. The act closes with Elizabeth being taken away and John telling Mary that she will come to the court to dispute the claims made by Abigail.

Act Three

Act Three takes place 33 days after the events in Act Two, set in the Salem court house. Mr. Corey and Mr. Nurse have come to disrupt the proceedings so that the judges can be presented with evidence that the girls are lying. Judge Danforth, the lead judge in the trials, has little patience for them and dismisses them quickly. Soon, however, John Proctor and Mary Warren arrive to dispute Abigail’s claims. Danforth questions Mary and Proctor, revealing that Elizabeth has been found to be pregnant, and decides to investigate the situation further, calling in Abigail and the other girls. The resulting actions result in Corey being arrested for contempt of court and warrants issued for several citizens that had supported the claims of Mr. Nurse. While examining Mary further, Parris and others try to get Mary to demonstrate how she and the other girls would faint. She cannot, and Abigail and the girls start to make accusations against Mary. To attempt to break the hold that Abigail has, John admits to his infidelity with Abigail. In order to determine if John is telling the truth, they call Elizabeth into the courtroom. Despite John’s assertion that Elizabeth never lies, she does not admit to any belief that John has ever strayed, in an attempt to save his name. This results in Mary and John’s claims being dismissed. Abigail and the other girls then go into violent fits, accusing Mary of dark witchcraft. Mary becomes completely desperate and turns on John Proctor, saying that he is in league with the Devil. John states that if these events can occur, than “God is dead.” The courtroom erupts into chaos and the act ends.

Act Four

Act Four starts with Proctor chained to a jail wall totally isolated from the outside. The authorities send Elizabeth to him, telling her to try to convince Proctor to confess. Proctor gives in to the authorities and the advice of Reverend Hale. Hale is now a broken man who spends all his time with the prisoners, praying with them and hoping to save their lives from their unjust fates. Hale advises prisoners to confess to witchcraft, so that they can live. Proctor signs a confession, but retracts it when he realizes that Danforth intended to nail the confession to the church door (which Proctor fears will ruin his name and the names of other Salemites). The play ends with Proctor and Rebecca Nurse (an accused witch) being led to the gallows. (In the real trials 19 women were hanged as well as John Proctor. Giles Corey was “pressed” to death, with large stones placed on a board on his body, crushing him to death; this medieval punishment was in fact illegal at the time, but an error led to the punishment.)

Major characters

John Proctor – A hard working farmer, and native of Salem who lives just outside town; he is married to Elizabeth Proctor. Proctor seems to hate hypocrisy[citation needed]. Before the action of the play, he has had an affair with a 17 year old girl, Abigail Williams; this action will lead him to his downfall. When the hysteria begins, he hesitates to expose Abigail as a fraud because he worries that his secret will be revealed and his good name ruined. Abigail uses this to manipulate him and keep her sins away from public view. But at the end, in order to save his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, from Abigail’s accusations of witchcraft, John Proctor unveils his affair with Abigail. However, Proctor himself is accused of being the “Devil’s man” by a frightened Mary Warren and, on the basis of this, is sentenced to be hanged.

Abigail Williams – Williams is Parris’s niece. She is 17 years old in the play and during the trials. Abigail was once the maid for the Proctor house, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John Proctor. Abigail has her uncle’s slave, Tituba, lead the local girls in love-spell rituals in the Salem forest over a fire. Rumors of witchcraft fly, and Abigail tries to use the town’s fear to her advantage. She viciously accuses many of witchcraft, starting first with the outcasts of society and gradually moving up to respected members of the community. Finally, she accuses Elizabeth Proctor, most likely out of spite. She is manipulative and dramatic, as well as darkly charismatic. She resists anyone who stands in her way (i.e. Mary Warren, Mrs. Proctor). She later flees Salem during the trials and, “legend has it”, becomes a prostitute in Boston. Although in real life, Abigail Williams was actually accused and tried for witchcraft, the speculation about her affair with John Proctor was not true, as she was only 12 years old, and he was 60.

Reverend John Hale – Hale is a well respected minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft. Reverend Hale is called in to Salem to examine the case, and Parris’s daughter Betty, who has fallen into a mysterious illness after being discovered participating in the suspect rituals. He originally believes that there are witches in Salem and advocates the trials, but later realises the widespread corruption and abuse of the trials and struggles to get accused witches to confess rather than die.

Elizabeth Proctor John Proctor’s wife, a resident of Salem. Elizabeth fired Abigail when she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Abigail. She forgives her husband and earns Abigail’s accusations of witchcraft for taking him away from her. She is saved from hanging by a pregnancy.

Reverend Samuel Parris – Parris is the poorly respected minister of Salem’s church. He is disliked by many Salem residents because of his greedy, dominating nature. The man is more concerned about his reputation than of the well being of his sick daughter, Betty. He is also less concerned about his missing niece, Abigail Williams, and the lives of the dead and condemned on his conscience and more about the money taken. He is related to the history of Salem where in real life his niece and daughter were the first to be accused of witchcraft.

Sub Characters

Giles Corey – Giles is a friend of John Proctor, who is very concerned about his land, he believes Thomas Putnam is trying to take it and other people’s land by getting the girls to accuse Giles’ wife of witchcraft. Giles gains this information from an anonymous man whom he will not name as he knows the man would be put in prison. Instead of telling them he lets his interrogators kill him under the weight of rocks stacked on his torso.

Thomas Putnam – Thomas Putnam is a man who lives in Salem village and owns a bit of land close to Giles Corey, Giles accuses him of trying to steal it when he says Putnam got his daughter to accuse Giles’ wife of witchcraft.

If you read the book it is pretty clear no witchcraft is going on. That’s the whole point of the book. If this is for your homework, you are going to have to read the book or you’ll look like a fool for not knowing the details of it. It starts with some teenage girls who go to dance in the woods and cast some spells (just for fun, not real witchcraft) to get boys to like them. They’re caught and to avoid being accused themselves start wild accusations about having been possessed by witches across the village. This is exactly what Abigail was waiting for. She uses the whole mess to get what she wants: John proctor, a married man she had an affair with. That’s the basic outline. You will need the details from the book for your homework. PS: I loved the movie too, but the book is also brilliant.

The Salem Witch Trials. Look it up on sparknotes.com

Tell the truth…you didn’t read it at all, did you? The story is simple to understand if you read it.