Crucible Essay

1 Found helpful • 3 Pages • Essays / Projects • Year: Pre-2021

Miller, throughout the crucible, condemns the way in which competing political perspectives impact on the individual, due to the forced questioning of their public and interpersonal morality. This illustrates Miller’s concern for the exaggerated fear and hysteria of a communist infiltration which characterised American society in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and highlighting the way in which such hysteria caused a breakdown of personal morality and integrity of friendships throughout the McCarthyism movement and consequential communist trials. Throughout the play, this interpersonal morality and unjustified social fear is illustrated using the analogy of the Salem witch trials. The theocratic society within the play demonstrates that conformist political ideals result in discontent when the ideals considered to constitute moral rightness juxtapose those of some individuals. Primarily, this is depicted through the juxtaposition in characterisation of John Proctor and Reverend Parris. Parris’ position as the Parish priest makes him the head political leader in this theocratic society. Despite this, miller positions the audience to despise him by illustrating his fear of external forces such as the outside environment, symbolic of new political ideas and, in turn, the irrational American fear of a communist infiltration. Moreover, the use of doors and windows as a motif of acceptance of new ideals characterises Parris. Miller’s extensive use of stage direction, including “[Parris] closes the door and leans against it” exemplifies the fear of this society, and the American society of the 1950s, of external and opposing political views. John Proctor, in contrast to Parris, maintains a strict set of moral codes that are secular to the political state in which he lives, and disagrees with Parris to a significant extent, demonstrating political discontent.

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