The Crucible

A detailed Summary of The Crucible

Out of pride or out of guilt all people hold back certain truths about themselves from the public, and even from those closest to them. Arthur Miller's drama The Crucible demonstrates this as an underlying factor. The reader is first exposed to some seemingly small happenings in a seemingly innocent and far-from-peculiar Puritan town. They, as true Puritans, are merely concerned with the strange and unfortunate juvenile misbehavior of several girls in their community. The reader soon becomes aware of the secrecy of certain affairs and the long-held grudges based on public opinion between many of the townspeople. These in part and a greed for vengeance complicate the proceedings of Christian normality. When they call upon external and unbiased authorities, specifically Reverend Hale and the court, the townspeople fear first for their pride and then for their lives. Through these fears, they confuse matters when they overlook truthful secrets and make untruthful accusations of secrecy. Because of original secrecy, they can no longer trust even what their fellow townspeople confess. When the authorities and the townspeople dismiss truthful secrecy, naive public opinions prevail and they forfeit justice as demonstrated by law and by t

The crisis arrives when nearly the entire town is either involved in or witness to the trial. It is now that pride is so nearly destroyed that it almost ceases to be a factor. The people involved unveil their secrets one after another. Giles' makes his secret knowledge of his wife's books known for the second time, but for the first time to Deputy Governor Danforth (79). This puts the first question of the accused witches' guilt in the mind of Danforth. It also sets the tone for the crisis in this play; a tone of despair and hostility. It is the despair that diminishes pride, and the result of this and threatened lives that creates hostility. The next confession of secrecy is Mary Warren's confession that her acts were pretense (82). With each secret unveiled, Danforth feels his dignity and credibility is threatened. In this manner alone, secrecy is battling public opinion. Danforth fears not for pride so much as for credibility in his judgment, which is very important to him as Governor. After this, Proctor's flaws are examined in that he goes to church but once a month, sometimes plows on Sunday, and opposes the teachings of Parris, a well-respected reverend. The revelation of Mrs. Proctor's pregnancy establishes the court's respect for her credibility (85). Her inability to lie is mentioned once more before Proctor's most sacred secret is unveiled. It is, however, dismissed when Mrs. Proctor hides it unaware that it was made public. She is also not aware that John Proctor's pride at this point is virtually gone. His last hope is for justice and the freedom of his wife and those of his friends.

Public opinion and private truths play a major conflicting role in Miller's play. From beginning to end, they are in constant struggle. Because private truths are dismissed by the townspeople in general, true justice is forfeited to please the public opinion of the people. It is the private truth of innocence, again dismissed by the court that sends Proctor and his colleagues and the other wrongly accused witches and wizards to their death by the noose.

Blind belief begins to complicate matters when accounts of the so-called witchcraft are being given. Abigail tells her false version of what happens and first accuses Tituba of forcing her to perform the acts she did (40). Reverend Hale and the others

Some common words found in the essay are:
Reverend Hale, Pontius Pilate, God Hale, Arthur Miller's, John Procter, Reverend Parris, Marshal Herrick, Governor Proctor's, Mary Warren's, God Parris, public opinion, public opinions, secret unveiled, private truths, personal opinions, reputations credibility, community reader, eyes god, secret truths, private truth,

Approximate Word count = 1559
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English