The Crucible is a
story set in Salem, Massachusetts set during the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail,
her cousin Betty, and other women were discovered dancing in the forest, and
Betty has fallen sick with an illness that seems otherworldly. When the talk of
witchcraft sets a panic in the townspeople, Abigail, in order to cover her
tracks, lies and gives names of people who she “knows” practice witchcraft in
order to get the attention off of her and her friends. There is a struggle for
power throughout the play between Abigail and the other female characters, and
the audience watches helplessly as it plays out. Abigail desperately wants to
become the alpha of the pack, and she will stop at nothing to get herself
there. Frail Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of John Proctor—the man Abigail loves—becomes
Abigail’s target. Full of spite, Abigail
battles Elizabeth for dominance and stops at nothing and no one to obtain it.
The arena staging for The
Crucible helps immerse the audience in the show. Throughout the play, the
audience is right in the middle of the action. The audience gets to see
Abigail, Elizabeth, and Mary up close, and personal and, therefore has a better
idea of what kind of characters they are. Abigail is presented as strong and
fearless in the beginning. She is not afraid to yell or get up close to the
women she is trying to intimidate. Her posture is tall and her head is always
held high, even when she is lying. She has a confident air about her, and is
not easily intimidated. Mary is presented as being a lukewarm follower, and lives
up to that role. She rarely looks people in the eye, and often cowers away when
people get close to her. She shrinks constantly, allowing Abigail to expand
around her space and helping her get the upper hand. Elizabeth is presented as
being frail and weak. In the first scene in which she appears, she is seen barefoot
in her house preparing dinner. Her shoulders are often stooped low. She never
raises her voice or puts up a fight about anything. The stage set up allows the
audience to observe the characteristics of each character’s personality, and
cast their judgment.
Abigail is an important character in The Crucible. She spends the entirety of the play scheming. Being
the leader of her pack, she has a lot of influence over the young women in the play. Abigail manipulates her young cousin, Betty,
and some other women to go dancing in the forest as part of a spell
incantation. She hopes to get rid of Elizabeth, John’s wife, in order to take
her place in his household. She is headstrong, but without conscience. She does
not care whose lives she ruins in the process of trying to get her way. She
spends the play yelling out her innocence and condemning others. Her mental strength
is presented alongside a wicked manipulative streak. Abigail’s morals are very
loose. While she claims to be a God-fearing woman, she does not prove this with
her actions. In the end, she steals Parris’ money, and, like a coward, runs
away.
The antithesis of Abigail is Elizabeth Proctor. The audience
is informed of her illness very early on in the play. After she had had her last baby, she became
ill. At the time, Abigail was working for their household and took on more
responsibility, including having an affair with Elizabeth’s husband John. This
affair is a source of contention for John and Elizabeth throughout the majority
of the play. Elizabeth is, rightfully, untrusting of her husband, and John is
tired of being doubted. However, Elizabeth has a good heart. She takes care of
their household, and their children and does so without complaint. While she
does not quite trust her husband, she also does not distrust him. She still
shows great love and care for him.
Mary Warren is an important female figure in the play. She
is the Proctors’ servant and also Abigail’s best friend. Mary goes along with
Abigail’s accusations of witchcraft in the beginning. They all accuse innocent
people in order to save themselves, because witchcraft is a crime punishable by
death. However, Mary has a change of heart during the play. She, with prompting
from John Proctor, realizes how wrong her lies are and attempts to make amends.
But again, Abigail gets to her. Abigail and the young women pretend that Mary
is cursing them, and Mary eventually gives in and accuses John of witchcraft.
Elizabeth Proctor, also accused of witchcraft by Abigail, has
this far been defended by John. He realizes that, had he never had an affair
with Abigail, she would very likely not be trying to kill his wife. It becomes
a power struggle between Elizabeth and John versus Abigail, and, impossibly,
Abigail is seated to win. A seventeen year old has the upper hand. When John
confesses to adultery in the hopes of saving Elizabeth’s life—as witchcraft is
a crime punishable by death—Elizabeth lies in the hopes of saving his honor.
Instead, both John and Elizabeth are to be hanged for their crimes. In the end
Elizabeth half-heartedly attempts to save John’s life. If John confesses to
witchcraft, he can live, but Elizabeth knows that to confess to witchcraft
would be a lie. John realizes that his wife will never admit to witchcraft in
order to live, and follows in her footsteps. His desire to be as good a person
as his wife believes him to be wins out over his desire to live.
The staging in The
Crucible allowed the audience to feel as if we were part of the courtroom.
Since most of the play deals with witch trials in an actual courtroom, the
stage also seemed to expand to include us in the judgment of Elizabeth and
John. Judge Danforth speaks directly to the audience at various points during
the trails. He attempts to convince us, and himself, that he is doing the right
thing in putting Elizabeth and John through these trails he knows they will
lose. Being a part of the court meant that the audience felt helpless
throughout the play. The audience watched characters we knew were good crash in
court and get sentenced to death due to no fault of their own, but we could not
do anything to stop it. The audience observed Abigail’s manipulative deceit
playing out, but could not do anything to help Elizabeth and John.
The Crucible
explores many themes, one of the main ones being female involvement. There was
a fairly even ratio of women to men in the play; while the men dominate, as usual,
the women to do have the most influential roles in the show. The morals of the
men are exposed by the actions of the women. The female characters, as diverse
as they are, make the story what it is. The stage allowed the audience to
become part of the story as people in the courtroom. Abigail and Elizabeth’s
conflict exposes the true nature of many of the townspeople in the process.
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