In the 1950’s, Andrew Miller, author, traveled to Salem, a little town in Massachusetts to research the witch trials of 1692. He then decided to write The Crucible, play inspired by true events in the town of Salem. Summarily, the play revolves around the villagers Abigail and the girls have accused of witchcraft and making pacts with Lucifer and the prosecution and their fate with a deeply tragic and provocative aspect. Miller created a special relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor, villagers of good reputations, and Abigail Williams, who would become the protagonists in the play. The author designed John Proctor, as an imperfect character, who was able to fight the madness and craziness all around him. Miller choose to named his work The Crucible because he wanted to make an allusion to the utility of a real crucible, the objet, because what happened in a crucible is without a doubt what the play is. Furthermore, the play Miller choose to write brought a lot of changes in every one’s character and made reveal each individual’s true self, which relate a lot to the behaviour of a crucible. However, the reputation of characters such as Elizabeth and John Proctor is in danger during the play, mostly because of the hysteria caused by Abigail and the girls in the community. Some characters have been put to a test, the test of being honest and staying true to yourself. Mary, tested by truth, failed miserably when she tried to step out of the girl’s lies. John Proctor, tested by his own recognition has succeeded by sticking to the truth and not lying to himself. Also, the choices they will make shows how much integrity is in some of the characters. Ultimately each individual’s true character comes to the surface as the play progresses and gets more complicated, in other words, as the girls continue to be untruthful and the lies become more powerful, it leads up to tragedies and the authenticity of each character is shown.
As Miller incorporated the behaviour of laboratory equipment that basically is used to remove impurities by increasing temperature in the object and reveal a pure and clear substance, he probably decided to use this object as the title of his work because it relates to what happened in the play: In a little town named Salem, villagers change because a group of girls are following the craziness of Abigail, who will do anything to have for her and only her John Proctor. Her actions will lead to reveal each individual’s true character. That is why this little container called crucible, which contains violent reactions is a perfect metaphor for the hysteria that the village of Salem contained during the witch trials. Indeed, because of this hysteria, characters lost their good reputation. Abigail made the townsfolk become active in the hysterical climate, in her game,because of religious piety and because it gives them a chance to express their feelings. In this way, the city reveals in some way its true face, because people exposed their feelings in relation to the grudges they might have had with some of the accused characters. The most obvious case of a ruined reputation is when Abigail used the witch trials to accuse Elizabeth Proctor and have her sent to jail. The plan she had in mind was to put everyone she did not like in front of the court, accused of witchcraft. John Proctor’s wife then loses the good reputation she had built. When John said in front of the court “ […] see her what she is… She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance”, he finally exposed the true face of Abigail. Unfortunately, Parris and the other members of the court ignored his voice, because only Abigail and the girls hold the truth. That means every villagers has lost their reputation, and nobody can defend themselves. However, John’ speaking revealed his true self and made the readers realize he truly cares about his wife. When she is in danger, he tries to save her, even sacrificing his own reputation to do so.
Because Miller wanted to relate the activity happening in a crucible and his play, he gave some particular characters a test. The challenge they will face in the play will reveal how much goodness and honesty lives inside of each characters. For the girls that were following Abigail, their test was simple but infeasible: step out of the world of lies they created and tell the truth and be honest for the good of all. The only girl in the group who has tried to promote honesty and goodness is Mary Warren. She stepped forward to denounce Abigail and the other girls who accuse half the town of witchcraft, however, because of that she was threaten to be hanged. She then failed the test of truth like all the other in the group. Yet, John is surely the one that struggled the most with goodness. After trying to cover the fact that he had a relationship with Abigail to everyone, he finally confessed. But he had to sign a false confession, then ripped it up to finally recognize that the only way he can be good is by being honest and true to himself. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” Said John who, at the end, died with honor. Furthermore at that moment of the play, another character is tested: Elizabeth. It is when Hale begs her to turn Proctor from his suicidal self-martyrdom. She refuses by saying "He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!". With that decision from her, it made her reveal her true sentiments towards her husband: she loved him and want him to be happy with his act whatever it is, because the more important thing is to stay true to yourself. Summarily, The testing of these characters leaves them either devastated or purified, but it leads them to reveal their true self and how much goodness they contain.
More as the play goes on, more each individual’s true character comes to the surface. Why? Well, on of the reasons is because the conflict within the play gets more complicated. And lying in a complication situation is not evident. So most of the characters will let their plan to protect themselves away and just express the truth to free their soul. John Proctor is again a very good example: at first the protagonist tried to hide the fact that he and Abigail had an affair, but more he sees what she is capable of, more he understands he needs to tell the truth about him and her so he can convince the court Abigail made up accusations of witchcraft to get rid of Elizabeth. Unfortunately it did not work, but at least he admitted and reveal to the court what truly happened between them. Abigail Williams also has changed a lot throughout the story, but her motif is not because the situation is getting more complicated, it is because she realizes she is having more and more power over everyone else. At the beginning of the play, she starts as Parris’ niece, a good girl, but in the town, there is a rumors surrounding her name and she believes that John Proctor’s wife is the one who started them. Nevertheless, throughout the story, Abigail rises as the head of the afflicted girls, and obtains the power to deface anyone’s name in the town. All she had to say was paroles such as: “[…] I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”. She was no longer playing the role of the good niece; now she was revealing her hypocrisy and selfishness and she felt good, she loved the power she had all over the town and that is her true face. She was doing all this only for herself, she was not thinking about other’s emotions. To summarize, each main characters gets to reveal their true face more as the play goes on and once again, it explains why Miller, the author, choose with the title.
At the end of the day, indeed the witch trials caused anger, riots and even death, but it most importantly brought change about how every characters perceives each other and reveals each individual's true character. However, to do so, a lot of tests and scenarios had happened. Some reputations had been ruined because of the hysteria spread in the town, but at the end, it helped villagers purifying and becoming true to themselves. Without the craziness of Abigail, which represents the heat in a crucible, the outcome of the Salem witch trials could have been very different and some people could have stayed impure to themselves. The concept of the utility of a crucible Miller has perfectly incorporated in his work shows that most of the time, it is during severe test or complex situation that an individual’s true character shows up. No matter how hard a person tries to hide his true self, at the end, as Miller said, “we are only what we always were”.