Commentary on The Crucible Essay

The Crucible

The Crucible, is a play, written by Arthur Miller. It takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, during the Salem witch trials. The play follows the people living in Salem and how they react during the turbulent time of the witch trials. The Crucible, undoubtedly written as an allegory to McCarthyism, still has pertinence in modern situations.

In The Crucible many different groups are represented by the characters. While these characters represent universal groups: the oppressors, the oppressed and the bystanders. These have a more of a specific meaning for McCarthyism: the oppressors; the people prosecuting the communists. The oppressed; the people who were falsely accused of being a communist. And the bystanders; the people who stood blindly by watching as the injustices were happening, and did nothing to stop them.

There are many oppressors in The Crucible. These oppressors all seem to have different motives. The Putnums, a wealthy family and like other oppressors, are accusing others for self serving reasons. The Putnums reason is to obtain land that they think is rightfully theirs. The Putnums represent those who use economic opportunity for the reason of accusing others who hold the economic benefits, that these oppressors want.

Abigail starts to accuse others for personal reasons, trying to get John Procter to become hers, and then have to keep accusing people to cover up for her lies. She represents those who use personal gain for their reason of accusing others. Unfortunately this was a common reality of McCarthyism. Then there are the ones who represent those who uses personal vendettas against a specific person for their reason for accusing others. This was represented by anyone who accused others like Abigails original accused etc.

Then, there are the oppressed, which there are to many to name. but the most important would be John Procter. John Procter represents the skeptics that dont readily accept propaganda. Because of this, John Procter is skeptic of the trials and when he sees that nothing is being done he tries to step in. this unfortunately is his demise. He is symbolic of the socially conscious people, who cant sit back knowing innocent people are being incarcerated.

The bystanders of The Crucible are correctly represented by the girls in the play, who are easily swayed in their opinion, like the majority of the American public. The girls whos stories and actions changed drastically depending on the situation. The most memorable example in The Crucible is when Abigail pretends that Mary Warren was casting a spell on her while trying to defend herself. Suddenly the girls change their views of Mary Warren and start to act like they are being put under a spell. It is assumed that they do this out of fear. Fear that they would end up either an outcast, in the same position as Mary Warren or worse being accused of witchery.

Though The Crucible was written in reference to McCarthyism, it is still relevant to modern situations. On September 11, 2001, four planes were over taken by Islamic extremists and three were successfully used as implements of destruction. This destruction caused the taking of thousands of innocent lives. While this was a horrible day, it cant be an oversight that paranoia became a prevailing part of post-9/11 America.

The post-9/11 America was showed many prerequisites, allowing hunts of the accused. The traits looked for was anyone of middle eastern descent or any affiliation with that religion.

The Crucible is a valid allegory for many situations which can be found in the present day. It is important to understand the circumstances that allowed for these hunts so we can analyze and compare each situation. The Crucible will be used though out time to show the different groups shown though any situation ( the oppressed, the oppressors and the bystanders).