72 pages • 2 hours read
Arthur MillerThe Crucible
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Witches and Witchcraft
In Arthur Miller’s play, accused witches are metaphorical stand-ins for accused communists in the McCarthy hearings, and the Salem witch trials are metaphorical stand-ins for the hearings themselves. During the 1950s, people who objected to McCarthy’s hearings referred to them as “witch-hunts,” referencing the use of flimsy “spectral” evidence, fear-mongering speeches, and threats (which were present in both). In both the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy hearings, the most vulnerable and “other-ed” members of society—including immigrants, homosexuals, and progressives—were the first targets.
The List
In Act II, Francis Nurse produces a list with signatures from 91 people who attest to the good character of accused “witches” Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth Proctor. When Nurse produces this list in court, Danforth announces that he will summon and interrogate all 91 people of the list (despite Nurse’s promise that they wouldn’t come to harm for testifying against the accusers). These 91 people from the list are likewise compelled to turn on their neighbors by “naming” other witches.
This list is comparable to a lengthy “blacklist” of suspected communists in the entertainment industry. The blacklist included many well-known figures in the industry, including Leonard Bernstein, Dalton Trumbo, Lena Horne, Dorothy Parker, and Arthur Miller himself.
The Crucible
The word “crucible” has two meanings. The term can either refer to a large (witch’s) cauldron wherein substances boil together, or a challenging test of character (a “trial by fire”). Though this precise title phrase never appears on the pages of The Crucible, the term gestures toward several moments and developments in the play.
The “melting pot”/cauldron definition appears with the pot in which Francis Nurse forges the church’s pewter candlesticks (which Reverend Parris greedily replaces with golden candlesticks). This definition could also apply to the boiling kettle with the frog that Abigail uses for her conjuring ceremony in the woods. In both instances, the image of “the crucible” suggests a “boiling over” of the community (including conflicts within the church congregation and a surge of repressed young female sexual desire).
The “trial by fire” definition refers dually to John Proctor’s internal evolution (as he processes guilt over his affair with Abigail) and the literal Salem witch trials (wherein Proctor’s “goodness” and loyalty to his neighbors is tested). As Elizabeth Proctor summarizes in Scene 2 of Act I: "The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you” (29).
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