Many story and movie titles have interesting reference to their plots. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the title does just that. Crucible is a word that can either be a vessel of earthenware used to heat materials to high temperatures or a place of severe test or trial. This fascinating word refers in many ways to the main themes, characters and events of The Crucible.
The main themes of The Crucible, accusation and trial for witchery relate in a very distinct way to the definition of crucible. A crucible as a place of test or trial relates to the theme of trial in the book. The town of Salem itself is portrayed as a crucible when the idea of witches spreads. In the book, the trial is an event in which the people of Salem test their community's limits. The people heat each other to high temperature while questioning them in court. Parris is one such example when he is questioning Mary Warren about her fainting. He tests her when he says "Prove us how you pretend in
The main events of the story and of the writing period (trials and the accusations) relate to the title with the theme of test and trial. The top theme of the book is trial and part of definition of crucible is a place of trial. The accusations are also an example of testing people. Danforth says "I say you will hang if you do not open with me!" (117) while testing Mary Warren and trying to get her to confess. The idea of trial has to do with the time the book was written in the 1950's. People then were also testing their community with trials for communism. That relates to the title as a place of trial as well. All of these examples relate to the word 'crucible' in the aspect of trials.
In conclusion, 'crucible' is a perfect way to describe The Crucible as it relates in interesting ways to most aspects of the book. The title of the book underscores many important aspects of the book that relate to the themes, characters and events of the book. This shows the import
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