The Crucible Thematic Essay

Ben Boyd   English 11H

The Crucible: Thematic Essay

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a rich and enticing play set in the late 1600’s describing the epic horrors and emotions through the events of the Salem witch trials. The Crucible, focuses primarily on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. The play begins with the discovery of several young girls and an African American slave, Tituba, in the woods just outside of Salem, dancing and pretending to conjure spirits. The Puritans of Salem stood for complete religious intolerance and stressed the need to follow the ways of the bible literally without exception. The actions of the women in the woods are entirely non-puritanical and, when caught, these actions led to dire consequences. Based around senseless and childish finger-pointing The Crucible portrays the thematic ideas of self-preservation, social responsibility, as well as desire and the quest for power.
To begin to understand the themes of the play, one must note that during this time period, religion was everything. Religious figures and governmental politics were maliciously intertwined, thus if one was to disagree with an authoritative power, it would be like refusing the notion of a divine dictator. Disagreeing with this authority would almost always lead to mass hysteria due to the chaos caused by the will of each person to survive and “self-preserve”
The opening act begins just after the “unseen” scene in the woods and figuratively sets the stage and serves as a catalyst for the remaining action of the play. This “unseen” scene is symbolic of the suppression of desire, which is paramount in Salem. Desire, of course, has different interpretations depending on the character throughout the play. For Abigail, desire reflects her longing for John Proctors love. She had not known love of anyone until she became a servant to the proctor household....