What does allegory mean in The Crucible?

The Crucible, a play by the famous playwright Arthur Miller, retells the story of the witch trials occurring in Salem during the seventeen century. Between lies, deceiving and treachery, Salem was the place of a relatively massive genocide solely based upon unproved facts and accusations. However, the real message being the story is something else altogether as The Crucible is an allegory denouncing McCarthyism. The present written task will focus on the following question “If the text had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different audience, how and why might it differ?” Based on the context of this literary piece, we will therefore see how a text might change based on time period, the setting and the language…show more content…
The setting of a story is a key factor which affects the understanding of the story. Changing the place in which the characters are evolving can drastically modify the meaning of the play as the different actions and aims of the drama would not have had the same impact and the same meaning. The Crucible, as we know, was situated in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Arthur Miller chose this setting for a specific reason, as the events occurring in Salem in the seventeen century allegorized the situation in the United States in the early fifties. Changing the setting of the play while keeping the same time period, the story itself would have been completely altered. During the seventeen century, the events which marked Salem were not the same which marked for example Africa, which was mostly subject to explorations and the settlement of the Europeans. Therefore, the message Miller aimed to transmit would not have the same impact if the story was in a different setting.
The audience targeted is also a factor influencing the impact the literary work has on the population. The play was written to raise awareness of the effect of McCarthyism on the American society and on American people. Thus, it was specifically aimed towards people who could do something about the situation in the United States. Therefore, the audience targeted is the young adults, adults and elders of the

The Crucible is a tragedy in that it features a tragic hero whose fatal flaw of adultery results in his downfall, and who only repents his error after it is too late to alter his fate. While making notes for the play, Arthur Miller wrote, “here is real Greek tragedy,” and reminded himself that Proctor’s death by hanging at the end of the play “must be ‘tragic’ – ie; must be result of an opportunity not grasped when it should have been, due to ‘flaw.’” Greek tragedies told stories of noble characters whose flaws, or deficits, caused them to compound one bad decision after the other, making their deaths at the end of the plays inevitable. In The Crucible, John Proctor is in most ways an upstanding character, honest and highly moral. But his flaw is his extramarital lust, which has resulted in an affair with his family’s servant, Abigail. Proctor’s guilt over the affair and fear of his secret being revealed causes him to remain silent while Abigail accuses many townspeople of witchcraft. He then compounds this error by falsely confessing to witchcraft himself. He is finally redeemed when he retracts his confession, but it’s too late, the damage has been done, and Proctor, like all tragic heroes, dies.

Allegory

In using the 1692 setting of the Salem witch trials to warn audiences about the dangers of present-day McCarthyism, The Crucible also functions as an allegory. An allegory is a story in which characters or images represent specific ideas. At the time that Miller wrote The Crucible, an American senator named Joseph McCarthy was leading Senate hearings accusing American citizens of being members of, or sympathetic to, Communism. Suspected Communists could be blackballed from work or even imprisoned, and many accused informed on friends and neighbors to save themselves. The events of The Crucible parallel McCarthyism, with intolerance, hysteria, and fear causing characters to implicate each other as witches, and legal trials determining the fates of the accused. However, the narrator explains how the Salem witch trials are only one example of mass hysteria, relating them to similar events throughout history, both before and after 1692. The narrator argues that the “political inspiration of the Devil” began centuries ago and provides examples like the Spanish Inquisition and Martin Luther. By linking his story to instances of mass hysteria throughout the ages, Miller presents an allegorical story about the dangers of mob mentality and unchecked political authority.

Historical Fiction

In using a real-life setting, real people, and historically accurate details to tell a fictional story, The Crucible is also an example of historical fiction. Miller had studied the Salem witch trials in college, and he traveled to Salem in 1952 to conduct extensive research at the Salem courthouse while working on the play. Miller writes in the play’s preface that although he took some artistic license, “the fate of each character is exactly that of his historical model, and there is no one in the drama who did not play a similar—and in some cases exactly the same—role in history.” Miller consolidated several historical figures into one or a few characters and, most significantly, raised Abigail’s age and lowered John Proctor’s, so their affair would be plausible. In doing this, he presented a personal motivation for the two main character’s actions: Abigail acts out of jealousy, while John acts, or fails to act, out of guilt. In truth, people’s motivations for accusing each other of witchcraft often remain unknowable, as many people may have been caught up in the hysteria of the moment and believed their accusations were justified. In fictionalizing the plot of the play and making the two protagonists’ motivations specific and clear, Miller ensured their actions would feel relatable to modern audiences.

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The Crucible, a play by the famous playwright Arthur Miller, retells the story of the witch trials occurring in Salem during the seventeen century. Between lies, deceiving and treachery, Salem was the place of a relatively massive genocide solely based upon unproved facts and accusations. However, the real message being the story is something else altogether as The Crucible is an allegory denouncing McCarthyism. The present written task will focus on the following question “If the text had been written in a different time or place or language or for a different audience, how and why might it differ?” Based on the context of this literary piece, we will therefore see how a text might change based on time period, the setting and the language used in the play The Crucible and the audience for which it was written. The aim of this task is also to visualize the reasons for these differences if the changes occur.
The Crucible was written in 1953 by Arthur Miller. Miller was portraying, through the reenactment of the Salem witch trials, an anti-communist movement we can refer to as McCarthyism. The play is therefore an allegory of McCarthyism. It illustrates the impact of the hysteria witchcraft has aroused in the town of Salem, thus demonstrating the effect of the Red scare on the American society. Miller denounced the actions of McCarthy’s House of Un-American Activities Committee through the character Abigail, whose lying and deceiving abilities lead to the death of numerous honest Salem citizens. However, Arthur miller’s message would not still hold the same relevance if the play was written in a different time. The aim of the play would have been completely obsolete since it was written for a specific time period. McCarthyism lasted... ... middle of paper ... ... his league. Also the tone of the story varies depending on which character is talking, therefore having an effect on our vision of each character. Miller gave a harsher tone to the judges, thus painting them as villains. Abigail was portrayed with a rather malevolent tone which thus classified her as the main felon of the story. Proctor and the other victims had a more innocent tone and are therefore seen as victims. Therefore, the language in which the play is written has a definite aim and altering it can have a significant impact on the play’s meaning and objectives.

The Crucible’s literary elements where chosen for specific reason as they have different effects on the story and on the audience. Therefore, changing the time, place, audience or language of the play modifies it considerably and consequently alters the context, the meaning and the aim of the story.

In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.
Abigail is indirectly compared to McCarthy at many points throughout the play. Just as McCarthy used…show more content…
While Corey broke conformity to do what was right, Betty did quite the opposite. Betty is the best direct representation of the American government of the 1950s. The government of the time served as McCarthy 's puppet, doing whatever he told them and arresting anyone he told them to. In The Crucible, the group of girls act as the government, jumping on the band wagon when Abigail accused others of witchcraft. This is seen in Act 1 when Betty starts naming people she said she saw with the Devil because Abigail started doing it. Betty said “I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil”(45), despite whether they were innocent are not. The quote shows that Abigail could tell the girls anything and they would say or do it, even if it meant accusing innocent people. In Act 3, the narrator says “she [Abigail] and all the girls ran to one wall, shielding their eyes and now as though concerned, they let out a gigantic scream”(109). The quote shows how much influence Abigail had over the girls, enough to make them act in ridiculous ways, similar to McCarthy 's impact on the government and how much power he had and in this way, Miller used Betty as an allegory for the government under McCarthy’s