BELONGINGArthur Miller’s

The Crucible

Worksheet

Area of Study: BelongingThe Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a play that explores ostracism from a community. Miller’s witch hunt is a metaphor for the way in which society can punish those who do not conform or refuse to ‘belong’, and the way in which communities can turn on their own in times of great stress or fear. It is a vivid portrayal of the destructive side of the social aspect of belonging that opposes individuality and denies the value of personal integrity.

Ideas on Belonging that we will explore: [Each begins with a TOPIC SENTENCE that is a thesis statement]

1) Pressure to belong and conform can threaten a person’s identity and restrict their individuality and independent thought.

Belonging to a community or a group is not always a positive thing. To maintain the cohesion, power and authority of the community or group, individuals could be forced to conform and suppress their individuality. Freedom and independence can become casualties of conformity.“a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it”

2) Individuals have the power to destroy communal belonging when a community is weakened by self-interest and lack of moral courage. Several individuals in the play are responsible for the destruction of communal belonging in Salem, but they would not have had the power to achieve this if the unity of the community was not questionable. “Long-held hatreds of neighbours could now be openly expressed, and vengeance taken…Giles says that there has been trouble brewing for years in Salem, “…it’s a deep thing, and dark as a pit”Reverend Parris is driven by greed and social acceptance, and his relentless focus on sin and the Devil in his sermons has caused disunityChurch leaders who should represent wisdom and common sense have been too authoritarian Abigail’s actions have been triggered by her insecurity regarding her reputation and her

for Proctor’s wife. Abigail as an orphan and a servant believes that she is an outsider.

3) Individuals may be excluded because they make a conscious choice not to belong: Proctor and Rebecca choose not be part of the hysteria and madness that grips Salem. Proctor emerges as an independent thinker who questions those in authority. Parris’ pessimistic sermons have alienated them both.

4) Communal belonging can be restored by individuals with a strong sense of integrity, loyalty and compassion.Rebecca Nurse, more than any other character, exemplifies the attitude and values that are essential for a strong, supportive community. From the beginning, she questions the presence of evil and witchcraft, and begs for common sense to prevail. She identifies the real cause of the hysteria and echoes Miller’s sentiments that it is our flaws that divide a community: “Let us rather blame ourselves…” (Act I, p. 33). Her death shocks other members of the Salem community, such as Proctor and Giles, to challenge the actions of the girls and the court.

1) Communities may demand conformity and this pressure can threaten a person’s identity, and restrict their individuality and independent thought.

Belonging to a community or a group is not always a positive thing. To maintain the cohesion, power and authority of the community or group, individuals could be forced to conform and deny their individuality.

HOW does Miller convey this idea on belonging?

USE OF ALLEGORY

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in the context of the Cold War and the investigation by a committee led by Senator Joseph McCarthy into Un-American activities in 1953. Miller saw McCarthyism as a shameful example of social compliance that denied individual freedom. His play, set in Salem 1692, functions as an allegory to illuminate the issues of his own time: “I wished …to write a play that…would show that the sin of public terror is it divests man of

conscience, of himself”. Although the play is set in 1692 and reflects the context of the 1950’s, its exploration of the dangers of conformity and paranoia that continue to plague humanity ensure its continuing appeal.

Miller’s assumptions about human behaviour, based on his experiences with fear and persecution in America in the 1950’s, have shaped his representation of belonging.The allegory of the Salem witch trials allowed Miller to draw parallels with the anti-communist purge of the McCarthy era in which time suspected communists were forced to confess and identify other communist sympathisers as a way of avoiding punishment. His play is a warning of the danger of belonging when it demands conformity and represses

identity and denies individual freedom. SETTING - THE PURITAN COMMUNITY OF SALEM

Salem was rigidly governed as a theocracy in which any transgression was considered heresy. social cohesion was enforced by strict moral codes which determined its laws deviation from the moral code was harshly punished the society was characterised by dutiful restraint – all forms of pleasure were suspectAs a result, a feuding atmosphere of “constant bickering over boundaries and deeds” prevailed in Salem. Factions developed in the town causing disruptive tensions and resentment grew against the overbearing and repressive administrative authority

Miller establishes the restrictive world of Salem in his extensive stage direction and Commentary in Act 1. Quote and make notes to illustrate this:

- Millers ‘commentary’ is an important device which informs the readers and actors of sense of place (setting)

- ‘Salem had been established hardly forty years before. To the European world the whole province was a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics…’ (p13)

- Miller uses a lot of light description – ‘A candle still burns near the bed, which is at the right.’ (p1) General description gives a sense of religious overtone

- ‘the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together’

- ‘A holiday from work meant only that prayer must be concentrated on more’ – heavily religious, conformist and hard working

‘All organisation is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition’ – (p16) Gives a sense that the community is organized in such a way that if you are not completely ‘with it’ or conformist you are outcast

Miller establishes the disunity that has arisen in the community in his extensive stage direction and commentary in Act 1. Quote to show these tensions

- ‘All organisation is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition’ – (p16)- ‘It was an opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publically his guilt and sins, under the

cover of accusations…’- ‘But the people of Salem in 1692 were not quite the dedicated folk that arrived on the

Mayflower’ (p16p1) – Informs the reader of ‘2nd generation’ and not as dedicated - ‘The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, developed from a paradox. It is a

paradox in whose grip we still live…’ (p16p2)-

Reader’s belonging to the text:Miller’s Commentary serves not only to represent the lack of cohesion and belonging in Salem society, but also acts as an inclusive device for the reader who is drawn into the world of the play. This reinforces our understanding that an individual’s place in a community influences his or her sense of self.

BINARY OPPOSITION In his play, The Crucible, Miller has set the drama against a framework of binary oppositions – good and evil; truth and falsehood; reason and hysteria; belonging and exclusion. To reflect the conflict of his day, an era of absolute values, Miller has created characters whose view of belonging is in conflict to depict the moral battle between good and evil.

Danforth, Parris and Hale represent the theocracy and urge the citizens of Salem to submit to the authority of the church. Parris: “There is either obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning!”

DANFORTH

Identity and independence can become casualties of conformity. The legalistic and absolutist language used by Deputy Governor Danforth and the other judges helps to reinforce their legal power and influence as they defend themselves against challenge. “You will confess or you will hang! Do you know who I am?” (Act III, p 103)

Other examples:- ‘What are you? You are combined with anti-Christ, are you not? I have seen your power you will

not deny it’ (p105)- ‘But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted

against it, there be no road in-between’ (p85)-

Such characters as Danforth, Parris and the court officials reflect the unquestioning compliance with codes of moral behaviour deemed appropriate by authority.The crucible of the play’s title is a symbol for the purification of elements under heat, and links to the sustained fire motif and imagery of suffering in the language of the play. Danforth expresses both in his ironic pronouncement, “We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment”.

Danforth and his court demand unity and obedience:“…a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between”… Act yet his dialogue is the language of exclusion: “Your soul alone is the issue here….you will prove its whiteness or you cannot live in a Christian country”.

His refusal to show compassion, or to doubt the legal process in the face of new evidence, shows how powerful groups can enforce conformity in the name of the law: “I should hang ten thousand that dared to rise against the law, and an ocean of salt tears could not melt the resolution of the statutes”.

However, Miller illustrates that assumptions about belonging can shift through experience. Hale’s shift in perception creates conflict with Danforth and this shown through their dialogue:

REVEREND HALE’S dialogue is that of an educated man, a scholar and intellectual, similar to those individuals targeted by the McCarthy trials: “There is a misty plot afoot so subtle we should be criminal to cling to the old respects and ancient friendships”.

Use quotes to show Hale’s initial view of church authority; analyse his language in Act II:a) ‘I must say it, Mr Proctor; that is not for you to decide (p63)

b) ‘My duty is to add what I may to the godly wisdom of the court’ (65)

Hale’s faith in justice is shaken as his perspective gradually aligns with Proctor. Miller uses Hale as the voice of reason against the tide of hysteria initiated by the girls and sanctioned by the court.

Quote to show how Hale’s assumptions about belonging to the court have shifted as he questions Danforth’s uncompromising view of compliance to church authority. Analyse his language:

a) ‘I may only fear the lord, sir, but there is fear in the country nevertheless. (p88)b) ‘The world goes mad’ (p73)c) ‘I dare not take a life without there be proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of

conscience may doubt it. (p89)

Hale objects to the actions of the court who have executed "people who have great weight yet in the town" in a metaphor that evokes the scales of justice.By the end of Act 3, Hale rejects the godly authority of the court in impassioned language: “I denounce these proceedings!”However, unlike John Proctor, Hale believes a lie is a lesser evil than an unjust hanging. We are positioned to see Hale as unable to free himself from his conformity to the theocracy: “Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it." (Act IV, p 115)Rather than remain and keep fighting the injustice, he leaves Salem.

Evaluation:Miller warns of the dangers of unquestioning compliance with authority through the

developing conflict between the characters of Hale and Danforth.

Start with name of composter for every evaluation, (miller explores/challenges/reflects etc.)

Writing Task, Part 1 – ESSAY CHUNK 1Examine the ways Miller has represented the limitations of belonging to a community. Use your worksheet notes and detailed reference to the play

Communities may demand conformity and this pressure can threaten a person’s identity, and restrict their individuality and independent thought. The allegory between witch-hunts and the spread of left-wing ideologies in America during the 1950s provides Miller with a basis to portray the negative effects and limitations on individuality through belonging to a community. Unable to describe his own setting, Miller uses commentary throughout Act 1 to reflect a conformist society writing ‘the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together’. That reflects the community only held together through ‘state and religious power’. Through the use of the allegory Miller uses his play as a warning of the dangers of belonging within his own context. However reveals that belonging in any society can represses identity and deny individual freedom. The limitations of belonging to a society are also seen through the Salem community setting to highlight limitations on individuality. ‘All organisation is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition’ – (p16) this commentary statement from Miller, reveals that the limitations to belonging to an ‘organisation’ are ’exclusion and prohibition’ reflecting contextual events such as black-listing by McCarthy. Through commentary and stage direction Miller establishes the disunity that has arisen within the community. Lastly Miller has set the drama against a framework of binary oppositions. The characters created (Danforth and Hale) reflect the conflict of his day, an era of absolute values. This is seen through the legalistic and absolutist language used by Deputy Governor Danforth “You will confess or you will hang! Do you know who I am?” (Act III, p 103) and ‘‘But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must’ that highlight that the only answers to the authority were absolute 305 WORDS

Side Notes:

- In the Commentary Arthur Miller uses a didactic tine to insist how the reader sees the characters, done through binary opposition.

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2) Individuals may have the power to destroy communal belonging when a community is weakened by self-interest and lack of moral courage.

HOW does Miller convey this idea on belonging?

DRAMATIC TENSION ABIGAIL AND THE GIRLS hold the community to ransom, even though they were not powerful members of Salem society before the witch trials. Their power stems from their unity: belonging to this group ensures that the girls avoid detection, so loyalty to the group becomes essential.Abigail is an independent, free thinker who has become self-reliant and hardened because she witnessed the horrifying slaughter of her parents. She has suffered the insecurity of being an orphan, belonging to no family. The lack of love and independence has made her bitter, opportunistic, devoid of a conscience and coldly calculating.Quote and analyse to illustrate:________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Abigail’s flirtation with witchcraft originates from her desire to be unconventional, and becomes a thrilling conduit to curse Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As her credibility and authority grow, Abigail leads the girls and the court to divide the community and commit a heinous crime against humanity.

Abigail and the girls use the impassioned language of accusation and threat to dominate others and protect themselves. They show no restraint, and their screams and hysteria overpower the language of reason and logic used by the accused.To Betty and Mary Warren in Act 1 Abigail reveals her vindictive nature in her threatening dialogue : “Let either of you breathe a word or…I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you...” (Act I, p 26)

Analyse this dialogue: __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Quote to show how Abigail manipulates others through threatening dialogue or behaviour____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________In the court when she accuses Mary Warren in order to intimidate her: “Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape”, and “She’s coming down!”(Act III, p101)

Reader’s belonging to the text:While we are positioned by Miller to reject Abigail’s morality through his use of threatening dialogue and behaviour in her characterisation, the implications for her gender do not create strong connections with the text for a reader of the 21st century. Salem was a patriarchal society and reflected the staid, conservative notions of gender in post-war America where the sexualised woman was represented as a threat to society

The essence of drama is conflict. Miller uses rising tension to build each act frenetically to a crescendo to warn of the dangers of hysteria and paranoia. Act I: “Abigail: I saw Goody Booth with the devil!”Act II: “Aye, naked! And the wind, God’s icy wind, will blow!”Act III: “God is dead!” “burn together!” (Proctor)Act IV: “The final drumroll crashes, then heightens violently”

MARY WARREN Through the characterisation of Mary, Miller reveals the how easily individual identity can be suppressed when security lies with belonging with the majority.Quote and analyse to illustrate Mary’s moral dilemma

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The stage directions indicate that the girls “let out a gigantic scream” and Mary, “as though infected” screams in unison with them.“I love God, I bless God. Abby, Abby I’ll never hurt you more!” Mary’s conformity to the pressure of the group is sealed in her screams, a signifier of hysteria and irrationality that can occur when personal conscience is surrendered to the collective will of the group.

Evaluation:Miller’s play is a warning that pressure on the individual to conform to the will of authority can pervade any culture at any time. Through the form of tragedy he shows that conformity is achieved through mob mentality with individuals united by bitterness, ambition, jealously and paranoia against those individuals who represent reason and integrity

3) Individuals may be excluded because they make a conscious choice not to belong. However, communal belonging can be restored by individuals with a strong sense of integrity, loyalty and compassion.

HOW does Miller convey this idea on belonging?

CHARACTERISATION OF JOHN PROCTOR . Proctor chooses not to belong by failing to comply with the actions and demands of the majority. His refusal to name others reveals his humanity and his understanding of true communal belonging: “I have three children – how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends?”

Proctor is an independent thinker who resists the authoritarian demands of the Church leaders such as Reverend Parris who is dividing the community through his obsession with hell and the Devil: “I like not the smell of this ‘authority’!”(Act I, p.35). (sensory imagery of smell) (tone of authority is skeptical) The community was founded on obedience and compliance to the Church, so people like Proctor who question the authority and who has elected to live out of town, are regarded as threatening the cohesion and beliefs of SalemThrough the drama we understand that in order to belong to a group we may be pressured to conform and to repress individual conscience. Miller himself was interrogated by the Senate Committee into Un-American Activities and refused to betray his associates in order to save himself from imprisonment.

Individuals, like John Proctor, do not conform readily but rely on their own conscience to guide their actions. Give evidence that he is an outsider in the Salem community at the time the play opens:

- P27, Commentary – Miller tells us ‘he is a sinner’ and ‘even feared’- Dialogue ‘I note you are rarely in the church on Sabbath Day’ (p62)- (p35) Proctor in reference to the faction ‘I must find it and join it’- Lives on a farm outside town

The audience is also aware that he has committed adultery, a sin he repents privately. He uses animal imagery to show his own disgust for his lustful affair with Abigail: “The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl!” (Act II, P61)

Proctor’s language is that of a farmer, blunt and full of earthy imagery: “Were I stone I would have cracked for shame this seven month!” Proctor sees himself as “a kind of fraud” in this society, an outsider who is excluded by his conscience.

Miller’s characterisation of John Proctor is used to show the importance of true communal belonging. Proctor’s alienation from the community becomes unsustainable when he hears of the injustice of the court proceedings and he is forced to act: “I will fall like an ocean on that court!” (Act II, P72)

The simile and his impassioned language express his outrage as he sees innocent victims hanged on the word of Abigail and the girls.

While Elizabeth may have a reprieve, Proctor recognises that he cannot relinquish his duty to his friends. He redeems himself when he refuses to condemn innocent people and takes a stand against corruption, in much the same way Miller and others defied the Senate Committee investigation.The metaphor “because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hanged!” (Act IV, P124)expresses his solidarity with those who have refused to allow their individual conscience to be denied by collective pressure.

Miller establishes light and darkness as recurrent motifs to endorse humanity’s innate goodness despite the inner darkness and evil of some individuals. In Betty’s bedroom “morning light streams” in (Act I, p.13); the courtroom has “sunlight pouring through” (Act III, p.77); and at the beginning of the final Act in Proctor’s jail cell, moonlight can only seep “through the bars” (Act IV, p.108). But when he chooses death over subjugation and defeat, the “new sun” pours in on Elizabeth’s face giving hope for the future (Act IV, p.126).

Proctor discovers a new acceptance of himself when he denies the pressure of the court to confess “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life” (Act IV, P124). The repetition of “because” adds weight to his personal decision. As he tears up the confession he recognises that this act has restored his faith in himself: “….for now I do think I see some goodness in John Proctor”. – talks to himself as in the third person (new sense of belonging to self, sense of belonging because he sees some good in him)

- Returns to community to fight his cause, growing a sense of self, identity starting to take shape- Restored genuine and true communal belonging to Salem after death

Reader’s belonging to the text:While Americans in the 1950’s were Miller’s primary audience, the play creates interest for a contemporary audience as well because of Miller’s autobiographical relationship to the community he depicts, and because his purpose was to warn of the negative impact when a community’s need for cohesion overrides the rights of the individual. Since 9/11 we have witnessed how witch-hunts can occur against groups within western communities when suspicion and fear prevail.

Evaluation:In this way the audience is positioned to realise the significance of identity in shaping our sense of belonging. Proctor has found a new sense of belonging within his community by keeping faith with his own integrityMiller endorses true communal belonging which allows the individual to make decisions based upon personal conscience.