Arthur Miller’s †The Crucible Essay

In 1953 Arthur Miller wrote a play entitled The Crucible, by writing this he aimed to challenge the assumptions of US society and led people to question each others responsibilities. In the 1950’s senator Joe McCarthy started to exploit the US fears of communism and organised a witch hunt. Miller would have seen this as similar to the Holocaust in the sense that people were being wrongly accused of being witches when they were not. Arthur was a Jew and so would have had sympathy with these people and this in my eyes was one of the key factors in the writing of this play. During the 17th century there was an outbreak in the belief of witchcraft in Europe. This led to mass immigration from Europe to America; the immigrants were Puritans and so set up their own strict Christian communities. This is how Salem, Massachusetts came into being. Miller’s characters convey my point through their change of personality from Act I through to Act IV. There are different types of change throughout the play such as change in character, beliefs and loyalty and these all occur at some point in the play to different characters. Proctor, a farmer, goes from a local, well respected man to a man accused of being in contact with the Devil. Abigail transforms from sweet and beautiful to malicious and evil. Hale on the other hand is bought into the play as a witchcraft ‘expert’, he ends up struggling with this particular case and so changes into a frail, old and weak man. Putnam is much like Proctor and his story throughout the play is much the same and ultimately ends in death. The first time Putnam is mentioned he is said to be ‘vindictive’, meaning he is sly and malicious. But there is a reason for this nature of his; Miller does say that Thomas Putnam is a man ‘with many grievances’. This quote alone says that his vindictive nature comes after a certain event in his life, this being that James Bailey (his son in law) had been turned down as minister of Salem. But this changes completely as the accusations of witchcraft come out from the woodwork, instead of being scarred by this grievance he turns to his controlling self. During Act I the Putnam family cry witchcraft on a certain Rebecca Nurse; this is all Thomas Putnam’s alter ego. The Nurses were the ones who ultimately prevented James Bailey from taking office in Salem and for Putnam, blackening the Nurse name would surely open the gateway for Bailey to become minister of Salem. So, at the start of the play Putnam is portrayed as the accuser, and rightly so. But as we go on through the play we see Putnam’s character change somewhat rapidly from the accuser to the accused. This is proven correct when in Act III Danforth says, ‘Mr Putnam, I have here an accusation by Mr Corey against you.’ This accusation alone shows how Putnam’s personality has changed from one extreme to the other; he has gone from accuser to the accused. This outlook on Thomas Putnam goes someway to describing how the whole ordeal in Salem has changed everyone and is bigger now than ever before. This shocks the audience as it shows that this whole ordeal in Salem is changing even the most respectable of men. The next character we see is Reverend Hale; he is brought in by Parris as a master of the supernatural arts, witchcraft. We are first introduced to Hale as, ‘Mr Hale is nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual’. This makes the audience think straight away that Hale is a well respected and well educated individual who is very contempt with his job, to the extent he actually enjoys it. Miller described Hale as someone who, ‘†¦felt the pride†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢. This shows Hale took pride in the fact he was sought after and good at his job, and a specialist in such areas. So, from how Miller describes Hale we see his willingness to be involved with this court and eager to show off his ability, as this improves his self esteem.. So it would be easy to assume that Hale would be a figurehead for the further Acts in the play, this is true to some extent, until Act III where Hale ultimately loses his head; he realises how much this case has affected Salem and its citizens, ‘I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court’. This quote itself lets the audience know how much the situation in Salem has blown up into something that never should have been. How it has all spurred from one accusation to a further ten, then at the end, over one hundred. It shows the audience how the situation has affected so many people and that Hale is the first to realise this. He, as a result, quits the court, this giving evidence to the statement that Hale’s personality has completely changed. At first he wants to be involved (the hero) and take pride in his work. But now, n Act III he gets as far away from the case as possible, it shows how the situation is changing people, and more so how it has changed Reverend Hale. Hale is now portrayed as a weak, deflated individual, lacking in personality. He goes from strong to frail and deflated. The audience watching this would feel confused at seeing this radical change in this holy moral figure.  Possibly the most important ambassador for change in The Crucible is John Proctor. We are first introduced to him during Act I, Miller describes John Proctor as, ‘†¦a farmer in his middle thirties. He need not have been a partisan of any faction in the town’