Arthur
Miller
(October 17, 1915 – February 10,
2005)
Notes
First called Those Familiar Spirits, this play
under its current title opened on Broadway in New York at the Martin Beck
Theatre (renamed Al Hirschfeld Theatre in 2003) on January 22, 1953 and
ran for 197 performances, winning the Tony Award for Best Play that same
year. An operatic adaptation was commissioned by the New York City Opera,
written by Richard Ward with libretto by Bernard Stambler, and premiered
in 1961, winning a Pulitzer Prize for Music and the New York Music Critics
Circle Citation in 1962.
crucible:
(Merriam-Webster)
1: a vessel of a very refractory
material (as porcelain) used for melting and calcining a substance that
requires a high degree of heat 2: a severe test 3: a place or situation in
which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or
development <conditioned by having grown up within the crucible
of Chinatown — Tom Wolfe>
Examples of crucible
He's ready to face the crucible
of the Olympics.
His character was formed in the crucible
of war.
Act
1 (Overture)
3 Reverend
Samuel Parris: minister of Salem Village 1689–1697
reverend(Merriam-Webster) 2 b: being a member of
the clergy —used as a title <the Reverend
Mr. Doe> <the Reverend
John Doe> <the Reverend
Mrs. Jane Doe>
minister (Merriam-Webster) 2 b: a clergyman
especially of a Protestant communion
clergyman: a member of the clergy
clergy (Meriam-Webster) 1: a group ordained to
perform pastoral or sacerdotal [priestly] functions in a
Christian church
Biography
Samuel
Parris, Salem Witch Trials: Documentary Archive and
Transcription Project (biographical data)
4 their creed: Puritanism;
Puritan beliefs and values, for example:
One
law forbade the wearing of lace, another of "slashed cloaths other than
one slash in each sleeve and another in the back." The length and width of
a lady's sleeve was solemnly decided by law. It was a penal offense for a
man to wear long hair, or to smoke in the street, or for a youth to court
a maid without the consent of her parents. A man was not permitted to kiss
his wife in public. Captain Kimble, returning from a three-years' ocean
voyage, kissed his wife on his own doorstep and spent two hours in the
stocks for his "lewed and unseemly behavior." (Puritan
Laws and Character)
Part One, Lecture 3: New
England Colonies (1620–1700), LecturePoint:
U.S. History (lecture with presentation slides covering religious
faction in England, colonizing New England, Massachusetts Bay Colony,
Salem Witch Trials; 19:17 min.)
People and Ideas: The
Puritans, God in America,
PBS
7 Tituba:
Note Miller's liberties in the creation of Tituba. For instance,
historically she may not have been a Negro, and she was not the reason the
girls were afflicted.
Alyssa Barillari, "Tituba,"
Salem Witch Trials in History and Literature (2001)
7 Barbados:
an island country in the Caribbean Sea; colonized by Britain in 1627
Central America. Map.
2006. Modified from the CIA's World Factbook.
Ligon, Richard Ligon. A
Topographicall Description and Admeasurement of the Yland of
Barbados in the West Indyaes. Map. A
True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados. London:
H. Moseley, 1657.
dissemble (Merriam-Webster)
transitive verb 1: to hide under a false
appearance 2: to put on the appearance of :
simulate intransitive verb
to put on a false appearance: conceal facts, intentions, or feelings
under some pretense
Examples of dissemble
<he dissembled
happiness at the news that his old girlfriend was getting
married—to someone else>
<children learn to dissemble
at a surprisingly early age>
10 sport:
sport (n.) (Merriam-Webster) 1 a: a source of diversion:
recreation b: sexual play c (1): physical activity
engaged in for pleasure (2): a
particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in 2 a: pleasantry, jest
b: often mean-spirited jesting: mockery, derision
11 Goody:
shortened form of goodwife, a polite way to address the mistress of a
household; Mrs.
used since 1550s as a shortened form of goodwife,
a term of civility applied to a married woman in humble life; hence Goody Two-Shoes, name of heroine in
1760s children's story who exulted upon acquiring a second shoe. (Online
Etymology Dictionary)
12 hard-handed:
hardhanded (Merriam-Webster) 2: strict, oppressive
<the hardhanded rule of a
tyrannical regime>
14 break:
to make a will invalid; here, Thomas Putnam is trying to contest his
father's will through legal procedures
break (transitive verb) (Merriam-Webster) 2 b: to invalidate (a will) by
action at law
16 swayed:
convinced
sway (Merriam-Webster) intransitive verb 1 a: to swing slowly and
rhythmically back and forth from a base or pivot b:
to move gently from an upright to a leaning position 2: to hold sway: act as ruler or
governor 3: to fluctuate or veer between
one point, position, or opinion and another transitive verb 1 a: to cause to sway : set to
swinging, rocking, or oscillating b:
to cause to bend downward to one side c:
to cause to turn aside: deflect, divert 2archaic
a: wield b:
govern, rule 3 a: to cause to vacillate
b: to exert a guiding or
controlling influence on 4: to hoist in place <sway
up a mast>
Examples of sway
branches swaying in
the breeze
He swayed a
moment before he fainted.
The lawyer tried to sway
the jury.
She persisted in her argument, but I wouldn't let her
sway me.
22 covenanted:
covenant
(Merriam-Webster) noun 1: a usually formal, solemn,
and binding agreement: compact 2 a: a written agreement or
promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for
the performance of some action b:
the common-law action to recover damages for breach of such a contract
Examples of covenant
an international covenant
on human rights
The restrictive covenants
of the building development prohibit the construction of
buildings over 30 feet tall. transitive verb
to promise by a covenant: pledge intransitive verb
to enter into a covenant: contract
Examples of convenant
<a traditional rule held that a husband could
not enter into a covenant with
his wife, because that was the equivalent of covenanting
with himself>
<the home buyers had to covenant
that they would restore and keep the house for at least 10
years in exchange for a low mortgage rate>
"Covenant
Theology." The A to Z of the
Puritans. Charles Pastoor and Galen K. Johnson. Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press, 2007.
Also known as Federal
Theology. According to Covenant theology, God's relationship
with humankind throughout history is best understood as a series of
agreements set forth either explicitly or implicitly in the Bible.
God established the first of these covenants with Adam, who acted as
the representative of the entire human race. With this covenant, God
promised eternal life as long as humanity lived in obedience to him
but death if it disobeyed. Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the
forbidden fruit; thus, all humanity stands condemned before God by
imputation.
But God in his mercy established a second
covenant in place of the first. This is the Covenant of Grace, in
which God promises eternal life and blessings to all who believe in
him. In the Old Testament, this agreement serves as the basis for the
covenants established with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David. In the New
Testament, the New Covenant extends to all who believe in Christ, the
second Adam, as the sacrifice by which God reconciles humanity to
himself. Covenant theology also posits a third Covenant of Redemption
between God the Son and God the Father. In this covenant, the Father
appoints the son to serve as the substitutionary sacrifice that makes
the Covenant of Grace possible. (88)
[...]
The idea that covenants are collective in
nature became a key element in the civic life of colonial New England.
Early settlers in New England saw the covenant as extending beyond
families and households to whole communities. They viewed themselves
and their neighbors as bound together with God and with each other in
a covenant relationship that assured their mutual prosperity. This
conception of covenantal ties explains in part the strict guidelines
governing virtually every aspect of human behavior among early
American Puritans. (89)
iniquity (Merriam
Webster) 1: gross injustice: wickedness 2: a wicked act or thing: sin
Examples of INIQUITY
<the use of illegal narcotics is not only a destroyer of personal
health but also an iniquity that
undermines our society>
<a nation still struggling with the aftereffects of the iniquity
of slavery>
28 Quakers:
members of the Religious Society of Friends
Abbey, Edwin Austin. Trial of
Anne Hutchinson. Scribner’s
Popular History of the United States. William Cullen
Bryant, Sidney Howard Gay, and Noah Brooks. New York: C. Scribner's
Sons, 1898.
Friend (Merriam
Webster) 5capitalized:
a member of a Christian sect that stresses Inner Light,
rejects sacraments and an ordained ministry, and opposes war
—called also Quaker
Who
Are the Quakers?, Arch Street Friends (what Friends
believe, testimonies in real life)
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) arose in
mid-17th century England, during the religious, social and
political upheaval of the English Civil War. Founded by
George Fox (1624–1691), the movement was not intended as a
new denomination, but rather as a rediscovery of original
Christianity without institutional limitations. With
recently-acquired access to the Bible in English, converts
to this new view called themselves "Friends of Truth,"
considering themselves to be friends of Jesus, after the
Gospel of John 15:14 ("You are my friends if you do what I
command you").
Mocked as trembling with religious zeal, Fox and his
followers adopted the term "Quakers" as their own.
Making the most of early Quaker statements that the inward
light superseded the Bible and ignoring modifications in the
sect's position since that time, ministers often informed
lay people that the Quakers refused to acknowledge that the
Scriptures were the Word of God. (148)
The portrayal of sectarians as outsiders proved most
effective with the Quakers, for whom it had originally been
developed. Quakerism, as the more radical departure from
orthodoxy, had always earned especially vicious epithets.
Initially, official pronouncements by the General Court
described them as "wicked and dangerous seducers" and
"incorrigible rogues & enemies to the common peace."
Given this understanding of the sect, Quakers could easily
be depicted as alien. The extremism of the early movement
and the Salem community's clannishness also enhanced the
image of Quakerism as far beyond the pale. (148)
Increase Mather adopted a more indirect approach to
damning Quakerism, repeating stories of the murderous
debauchery of the Long Island Ranters in his exceedingly
popular Essay for the
Recording of Illustrious Providences (1684).
Dubbing them the "singing and dancing Quakers," Mather
linked this group—which reportedly stage sacrificial
killings, danced naked, and otherwise worshipped the
devil—to the Quakers themselves. Similarly, Cotton Mather
would associate Quakers first with witches and then also
with Satan and Indians in pamphlets published five and
fifteen years later. (149)
To be likened to the Quakers...was a profound insult. In
1690, Cotton Mather was declared a "semi-Quaker" for his
views on the Lord's Supper. (150)
The association of Quakers as aliens continued for so long
in large part because the Quakers themselves enhanced that
image by adopting a provocative stance toward the colonial
establishment. Their audacious disregard for the authority
of the colony's magistrates and ministers was most marked
during the first twenty years of the sect's existence in
Salem. (150)
Tim Lambert, "A
Short History of Boston, Massachusetts, USA"
The Puritans hoped to create a 'city
on a hill' i.e. a shining example of a Godly society for the
entire world to see. Instead they created a society just as
intolerant as the one they had left. The Puritans went to
America fleeing religious persecution but they in turn
persecuted the Quakers who they called a 'cursed sect'. A
Baptist named Obadiah Holmes was publicly whipped in Boston in
July 1651. In October 1659 two Quakers named William Robinson
and Marmaduke Stevenson were hanged in Boston. Another Quaker
named Mary Dyer was hanged on Boston Common on 1 June 1660.
Murray N. Rothbard, "Pennsylvania's
Anarchist Experiment: 1681–1690," Conceived
in Liberty (1979)
Induced by religious liberty and
relatively cheap land, settlers poured into Pennsylvania at a
remarkably rapid rate, beginning in 1682. Most of the
immigrants were Quakers; in addition to English Quakers came
Welsh, Irish, and German Quakers, Penn laid out the capital,
destined to become the great city of Philadelphia, and changed
the name of the old Swedish settlement of Upland to Chester.
The German Quakers, led by Francis Daniel Pastorius, founded
Germantown, In addition to Quakers, there came other groups
attracted by the promise of full religious liberty: German
Lutherans, Catholics, Mennonites, and Huguenots.
Society of Friends (Quaker) (Patheos
Library)
The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the
Quakers, is a Protestant Christian tradition originating in
mid-17th century England. Founded (traditionally) by George
Fox, it adhered to religious teaching and practice that
focused on living in accordance with the "Inward Light" (the
inward apprehension of God, who is within everyone).
Burgkmair, Hans. Die Liebe.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
charity (Merriam
Webster) 1: benevolent goodwill
toward or love of humanity 2 a: generosity and
helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering; also:
aid given to those in need b:
an institution engaged in relief of the poor c:
public provision for the relief of the needy 3 a: a gift for public
benevolent purposes b:
an institution (as a hospital) founded by such a gift 4: lenient judgment of
others
1
Corinthians 13:
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling
cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so
that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am
nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and
though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it
profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not;
charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they
shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease;
whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is
in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a
child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put
away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to
face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I
am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the
greatest of these is charity.
Charity,
The Theological Virtues, Chapter 1: The Dignity of the Human
Person, Catechism of the Catholic Church; Charity
charity
charity (Merriam-Webster) 1: benevolent goodwill toward
or love of humanity 2 a: generosity and
helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering; also: aid given
to those in need b: an
institution engaged in relief of the poor c:
public provision for the relief of the needy 3 a: a gift for public
benevolent purposes b:
an institution (as a hospital) founded by such a gift 4: lenient judgment of others
37 incubi:
plural of incubus
incubus
(Merriam-Webster)
1: an evil spirit that lies
on persons in their sleep; especially: one that has sexual intercourse
with women while they are sleeping 2: nightmare 2 3: one that oppresses or
burdens like a nightmare
Bane, Theresa. "Incubus."
Encyclopedia of Demons in World
Religions and Cultures. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2012.
All cultures from all over the world and from
all time periods have reports of a type of vampiric demon that feeds
off the sexual energy of humans. The incubus is generally described by
its female victims as "feeling" male. At night this demonic vampire
assaults a woman while she is asleep, steeling her sexual energy from
her. She seldom wakes during hte attack but will experience the event
as if it were an erotic dream.
Once an incubus has locked on to a woman (if
prefers nuns), it can be very difficult to drive away, although there
are many recommendations that the church offers in order to ward it
off, such as performing an exorcism, relocating, repeatedly making the
sign of the cross, or, as a last resort, performing an excommunication
on the woman being assaulted. Traditional lore says that to hang
garlic and a druidstone (a stone with a natural hole through it) next
to your bed will keep an incubus away.
Incubi can father children with their female
victims; these offspring are known as cambions. There is a report of a
man from Bologna, Italy, who staffed his entire brothel with incubi
and the female equivalent of this vampiric creature, succubi.
37 succubi: plural of
succubus
succubus
a demon assuming female form to have sexual intercourse with men in
their sleep (Merriam-Webster)
Act
2
55 commandments:
the Ten Commandments
(Encyclopædia
Britannica)
Ten Commandments, also called Decalogue (Greek: deka
logoi “10 words”), list of religious precepts that, according
to various passages in Exodus and Deuteronomy, were divinely revealed to
Moses on Mount Sinai and were engraved on two tablets of stone.
3: Thou
shalt have no other gods before me.
4: Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth:
5: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for
I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me;
6: And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and
keep my commandments.
7: Thou shalt not take the name
of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold
him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
8: Remember the sabbath day, to
keep it holy.
9: Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:
10: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in
it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle,
nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and
all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the
LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
12: Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which
the LORD thy God giveth thee.
13: Thou shalt not kill.
14: Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
15: Thou shalt not steal.
16: Thou shalt not bear false
witness against thy neighbour.
17: Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor
his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
3: Thou
shalt haue no other Gods before me.
4: Thou shalt not make vnto thee
any grauen Image, or any likenesse of any thing that is
in heauen aboue, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water vnder the earth.
5: Thou shalt not bow downe thy selfe to them, nor serue them:
For I the LORD thy God am a iealous God, visiting the iniquitie
of the fathers vpon the children, vnto the thirde and fourth
generation of them that hate me:
6: And shewing mercy vnto thousands of them that loue mee, and
keepe my Commandements.
7: Thou shalt not take the Name
of the LORD thy God in vaine: for the LORD will not
holde him guiltlesse, that taketh his Name in vaine.
8: Remember the Sabbath day, to
keepe it holy.
9: Sixe dayes shalt thou labour, and doe all thy worke:
10: But the seuenth day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in
it thou shalt not doe any worke, thou, nor thy sonne, nor thy
daughter, thy man seruant, nor thy mayd seruant, nor thy
cattell, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
11: For in sixe dayes the LORD made heauen and earth, the sea,
and all that in them is, and rested the seuenth day: wherefore
the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and halowed it.
12: ¶ Honour thy father and thy
mother: that thy dayes may bee long vpon the land,
which the LORD thy God giueth thee.
13: Thou shalt not kill.
14: Thou shalt not commit
adultery.
15: Thou shalt not steale.
16: Thou shalt not beare false
witnes against thy neighbour.
17: Thou shalt not couet thy
neighbours house, thou shalt not couet thy neighbours
wife, nor his man seruant, nor his maid seruant, nor his oxe,
nor his asse, nor any thing that is thy neighbours
Act
3
77 vestry:
(Merriam-Webster) 1 a: sacristy [a room in a
church where sacred vessels and vestments are kept and where the clergy
vests (puts on clothes, garments, vestments)]
b: a room used for church meetings and classes 2 a: the business meeting of an
English parish b: an
elective body in an Episcopal parish composed of the rector and a group
of elected parishioners administering the temporal affairs of the parish
Examples of vestry
<the priest returned the chalice to the vestry>
81 Marblehead:
a town in Massachusetts founded in 1629 and was part of Salem until 1648
93 ipso
facto: Latin for, literally, "by the fact itself"
by that very fact or act: as an inevitable result (Merriam-Webster)
Examples of ipso facto
<if we refuse to tolerate bigotry, do we become, ipso facto, as intolerant as those
whom we condemn?>
Latin: By the act itself (duhaime.org)
Bryne's Law Dictionary renders ipso
facto as follows:
"By the mere fact."
Lazar Emanuel's 1999 book includes this description:
"Ipso facto: By that very fact itself. In and of
itself. The inevitable result.
"(Example) The end of a marriage results ipso
facto from a decree of divorce."
102 mark:
102 bedded:
note the pun here, playing on at least two senses of the verb "to bed":
one meaning to put to bed, and the other meaning to have sexual
intercourse with
102 I
have known her: I have had sexual intercourse with her.
know (Merriam-Webster) 3archaic: to have sexual intercourse with
cf. Genesis
4:1: And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain,
and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
104 shovelboard:
a game played on a wooden board, common in taverns during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries
(Merriam-Webster) 1archaic:
shove-halfpenny; also: a coin or table used in playing shove-halfpenny 2: shuffleboard 2
shove-halfpenny or shove-ha'penny:
a game played on a special board in which players drive coins or other
disks with the thumb or palm from the edge of the board into scoring
beds at the other end (Webster's
Third New International Dictionary, vol. 3, 2105)
shuffleboard (Merriam-Webster) 1: a game in which players use
long-handled cues to shove disks into scoring areas of a diagram
marked on a smooth surface 2: a diagram on which
shuffleboard is playe
gull (Merriam-Webster)
transitive verb to take
advantage of (one who is foolish or unwary): deceive
<we were gulled into
believing that if we answered the e-mail, we'd somehow become
millionaires, but instead we just got put on a list for junk mail>
gull (Etymology
Online) noun cant term for
"dupe, sucker, credulous person," 1590s, of uncertain origin. Perhaps
from verb meaning "to dupe, cheat" (1540s), earlier "to swallow"
(1520s), ultimately from gull
"throat, gullet" (early 15c.); see gullet. Or it is perhaps from
(or influenced by) the bird (see gull (n.1)); in either case
with a sense of "someone who will swallow anything thrown at him."
Another possibility is Middle English dialectal gull
"newly hatched bird" (late 14c.), which is perhaps from Old
Norse golr "yellow," from the
hue of its down.
Act
4
116 providence:
a divine act or guidance, an act or sign from God, God's will
(Merriam-Webster) 1 aoften
capitalized: divine guidance or care b
capitalized: God
conceived as the power sustaining and guiding human destiny 2: the quality or state of being
provident
[making provision for the future: prudent; frugal, saving]
Examples of providence
<practicing its customary providence,
the snowbound family was able to make the meager stores last until help
arrived>
<had the providence
to lay in supplies before the storm hit>
"Providence."
The A to Z of the Puritans.
Charles Pastoor and Galen K. Johnson. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007.
The providence of God, by which God was understood to conduct meticulous
governance over all worldly affairs, was a central tenet of Puritan
belief. It provided the assurance that all human activities were
meaningful because they were caught up in the sovereign, though
sometimes mysterious, will of God. [...] The Westminster
Confession of 1644 elaborated, "God the great Creator of all
things, doth uphold, direct, dispose and govern all creatures, actions
and things from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and
holy providence, according to His infallible foreknowledge and the free
and immutable counsel of His own will, to the praise of the glory of His
wisdom, power, justice, goodness and mercy." (258)
The first Puritans to come to the New World had
a very strong sense that they were obeying God's providential calling to
be, as John Winthrop famously
described, a light set on a hill before all the world. William
Bradford's Of Plymouth
Plantation, finished in 1645, described all of the early labors
of Puritan colonists through the rubric of providence. In 1655, ThomasShepard of Cambridge,
Massachusetts, included instruction about providence in his primer, The First Principles of the Oracles of God.
Shepard distinguished common providence from special providence by
teaching that God's providence "is either, first, ordinary and mediate,
whereby he provideth for his creatures by ordinary and usual means.
Secondly, extraordinary and immediate, whereby he provideth for his
creatures by miracles, or immediately by himself." In short, the
Puritans' conviction about divine providence induced them to search all
of life's events for indications of God's will. (259)
"Providence." Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and
America. Vol. 1. Ed. Francis J. Bremer. Santa Barbara:
ABC-CLIO, 2006.
To believe in God's providence was to believe
that the world and history follow a preordained pattern, established by
God for the benefit of the elect. The doctrine, thus conceived, is a
characteristic of Puritan piety, and it can be seen as based on the
desire for security. It could be manipulated to assert the danger of sin
and used as an inducement for good behavior. On a larger scale, belief
in God's providence helped to reinforce the concepts of a theocentric
universe and the teleological order. (497)
Benefits
The conciliatory value of the belief in
providence was tremendous. It offered security from the randomness of
life. No event could occur without a reason. Although the doctrine of
providence makes free will seem illusory, it was also taught that, as
rational beings, human beings could make their own choices, which
themselves brought about preordained consequences. The Puritan was
comforted by the thought that God had willed every event, although why
was not always clear. A believer was surely protected from adversity,
and if misfortune did occur it could easily be interpreted as the will
of God taking the form of a test, or as punishment. It is true, then,
that the doctrine of providence was a self-confirming one. (498)
Decline
The 1690s in America saw the beginning of a
tendency to move away from the doctrine of providence, an intellectual
movement that included figures such as Increase Mather, John Hall,
Samuel Willard, and Thomas Battle. This tendency continued a move
already begun in England in the mid-1600s, and it continued into the
eighteenth century. While early writers in England, such as Thomas Beard
and Samuel Clarke, were interested in interruptions to world order,
later theories of providence emphasized its regularity. There was also a
separation between the beliefs of the educated and the "superstition" of
the uneducated, with the educated coming to reject the common lore of
the wonders of providence. (499)
(Webster's Third New
International Dictionary, vol. 1, 955) 1or gibbet tree a: an upright post with a
projecting arm for hanging the bodies of executed criminals in
chains or irons b:
gallows 2: the projecting arm of
a crane: jib
gallows (Merriam-Webster) 1 a: a frame usually of
two upright posts and a transverse beam from which criminals are
hanged—called also gallows
treeb:
the punishment of hanging 2: a structure
consisting of an upright frame with a crosspiece
Examples of gallows
He was sentenced to death on the gallows.
120 Joshua: an Israelite
leader whom God empowered, cf. Joshua
1:5: "There shall not a man be able to withstand thee all the days
of thy life: as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee: I will not leave
thee, nor forsake thee."
132 salvation:
(Merriam-Webster)
1 a: deliverance from the power
and effects of sin b: the
agent or means that effects salvation cChristian Science: the
realization of the supremacy of infinite Mind over all bringing with it
the destruction of the illusion of sin, sickness, and death 2: liberation from ignorance or
illusion 3 a: preservation from
destruction or failure b: deliverance
from danger or difficulty
Examples of salvation
Tourism has been the salvation
of the island.
We spent the night in the cellar praying for salvation
from the tornadoes.
Etymology
Middle English salvacion, from
Anglo-French, from Late Latin salvation-,
salvatio, from salvare
"to save"
132 beguile:
to trick, bait, trap, tempt, lure; cf. Genesis
3:13: "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat."
(Merriam-Webster)
transitive verb 1: to lead by deception 2: hoodwink 3: to while away especially by
some agreeable occupation; also: divert 2 4: to engage the interest of by
or as if by guile intransitive verb
to deceive by wiles
Examples of beguile
She was cunning enough to beguile
her classmates into doing the work for her.
They were beguiled
into thinking they'd heard the whole story.
Almost everything in the quaint little town beguiles,
from its architecture to its art to its people.
He beguiled the
audience with his smooth and seductive voice.
guile
(n.)
mid-12c., from Old French guile "deceit,
wile, fraud, ruse, trickery," from Frankish *wigila
"trick, ruse" or a related Germanic source (cf. Old Frisian wigila "sorcery, witchcraft,"
Old English wil "trick;"
see wile).
Language
Miller seems to have written the play in a kind of white heat. The
enthusiasm and speed with which he went to Salem underline the urgency
with which he regarded the project, as did his later comment, on returning
from Salem, that he felt a kind of social responsibility to see it through
to production. His achievement was to control and contain that anger
without denying it. Linguistically he achieved that by writing the play
first in verse. Dramatically he accomplished it by using the structured
formality of the court hearings, albeit hearings penetrated by the partly
hysterical, partly calculated interventions of the accusing girls.
Much of the achievement of The Crucible
lies in his creation of a language that makes the seventeenth century both
distant and close, which enables his characters to discover within the
limiting vocabulary and grammar of faith turned dogma a means to express
their own lives. For the British dramatist John Arden, who first
encountered the play at a time when his own attempts at historical writing
had, in his own words, proved "embarrassingly bad," it "showed me how it
could be done." In particular, "It was not just the monosyllabic
Anglo-Saxon strength of the words chosen so much as the rhythms that
impregnated the speeches," that and "the sounds
of the seventeenth century, not tediously imitated,
but...imaginatively reconstructed to shake hands with the sounds and
speech patterns of the twentieth." The language of The
Crucible is not authentic in the sense of reproducing archaisms
or reconstructing a seventeenth-century lexis. It is authentic in that it
makes fully believable the words of those who speak out of a different
time and place but whose human dilemmas are recognizably our own.
--Christopher
Bigsby, "Introduction," The Crucible: A
Play in Four Acts (New York: Penguin, 2003): xxi–xxii.
It was not only the
rise of McCarthyism that moved me, but something which seemed much more
weird and mysterious. It was the fact that a political, objective,
knowledgeable campaign from the far Right was capable of creating not only
a terror, but a new subjective reality, a veritable mystique which was
gradually assuming even a holy resonance...Astounded, I watched men pass
me by without a nod whom I had known rather well for years; and again, the
astonishment was [end of page 39] produced by my knowledge, which I could
not give up, that the terror in these people was being knowingly planned
and consciously engineered, and yet that all they knew was terror. That so
interior and subjective an emotion could have been so manifestly created
from without was a marvel to me, It underlies every word in The
Crucible.
--Arthur
Miller, "Introduction," Arthur Miller's
Collected Plays (New York: Viking, 1967): 39–40.
Study Questions
A crucible, a vessel for melting
substances (ex. metals like copper, iron) at very high
temperatures, is also a test or trial of extreme pressure.
Think about high pressure situations different characters
are put in and how they perform under that heat. How is Hale
tested, for example, and how does he acquit himself? What
about Tituba? How does the Barbadian slave's reaction under
high pressure compare to that of her white masters? How does
Elizabeth Proctor deal with the problems she faces? In what
ways does John Proctor break or not break when severely
tested?
Under
what influences do different characters like Reverend
Parris and Abigail who insisted on no witchcraft at
first (9) change their positions to supporting and even
desperately sustaining it?
In act 3, Danforth warns
Proctor, "We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all
concealment" (83). How prescient or accurate is the Deputy
Governor's statement? What concealments, if any, are
melted down in the heat of the proceedings that follow?
Puritan society is known to be
highly patriarchal, with Puritan law and codes restricting
women more than men. Consider the role of female characters
in this play. Do they act as the codes would have them? How
conforming are they to the Puritan ideal? In what ways have
Puritan laws and conventions shaped them, and in what ways
do they act against those codes? Look closely at some of the
following scenes: the bedroom scene with the girls
interacting with Rev. Parris and other men of the town (act
1), the home scene with Elizabeth and John Proctor (act 2),
the yellow bird scene (act 3), the jail cell scene with
Elizabeth and John Proctor (act 4).
What is the significance of
someone's name or the act of naming? What is the purpose of
Danforth's reciting the effect of his signed name to Francis
Nurse toward the beginning of act 3: "And do you know that
near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to
Lynn, and upon my signature?...And seventy-two condemned to
hang by that signature?" (81)? In what ways is John
Proctor's name "weighty" (131)? What qualities or values are
embodied in someone's name that so many characters will go
to great lengths to defend it? Look, for instance, at
Abigail: "My name is good in
the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled!"
(12)
"so many accusations against
people are in the handwriting of Thomas Putnam, or that
his name is so often found as a witness corroborating the
supernatural testimony" (14)
Proctor: "We vote by name in
this society, not by acreage." (27); "How may I live
without my name?" (133)
Giles Corey: "I will not give
you no name. I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll burn
in hell long enough for that. I state mute." (90)
Mary Warren: "My name, he want
my name." (110)
Consider the different fears
portrayed in this play. What do they mean and what are their
consequences? In what ways are the fears misguided or
justified? Examine what informs the fears of, for example,
Reverend Parris's "Quaking
with fear" (8), "in
deadly fear" (134)
Abigail's "with
fear in her voice" (17)
Rebecca Nurse's "I fear it, I
fear it" (26), "Let you fear nothing!" (133)
Notice Miller's use of words,
terms or ideas. What meanings do they have? How do they
change throughout the play? Consider, for example,
God (30, 76, 94, 95, 110, 111,
120, 127, 133); the Lord (7, 28, 131)
Why are numbers used so often in
this play? What impact do they have?
Review Sheet
Characters
Ezekiel Cheever – "Let
you go to Ezekiel Cheever—he knows you [John Proctor] well" (50);
Martha Corey – third
wife of Giles Corey (67); charged by Walcott for "bewitch[ing] them
[Walcott's pigs] with her books" (68)
Giles Corey – husband
of Martha; "early eighties" (38); "eighty-three...knotted with muscle, canny, inquisitive, and
still powerful" (23); "Great stones they lay upon his chest until
he plead aye or nay...They say he give them but two words. 'More weight,'
he says. And died" (125) Mary Easty –
Rebecca Nurse's sister, also accused of witchcraft (130)
Deputy Governor Danforth
– "a grave man in his sixties, of some
humor and sophistication...exact
loyalty to his position and his cause" (79); see also Character
Profile: Danforth;
Sarah Good – "the
woman's near to sixty!" (56); "smokin' a pipe all these years, and no
husband either!" (56); does not hang because she confesses (54); a
jabberer (54)
Dr. William Griggs –
attended Ruth's illness (8); "cannot discover no medicine for it [Betty's
illness] in his books" (8); "he bid me tell you, that you might look to
unnatural things for the cause of it [Betty's strange illness]" (9); "They
had Doctor Griggs examine her [Sarah Good], and she's full to the brim
[pregnant]" (56)
Judge Hathorne – "in his sixties, a bitter, remorseless Salem
judge" (78)
Reverend John Hale –
minister of Beverly (39); "nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed
intellectual...felt the pride of the specialist" (30); "Coming into Salem
now, Reverend Hale conceives of himself much as a young doctor on his
first call. His painfully acquired armory of symptoms, catchwords, and
diagnostic procedures is now to be put to use at last...He feels himself
allied with the best minds of Europe—kings, philosophers, scientists, and
ecclesiasts of all churches. His goal is light, goodness and its
preservation, and he knows the exaltation of the blessed whose
intelligence, sharpened by minute examinations of enormous tracts, is
finally called upon to face what may be a bloody fight with the Fiend
himself" (34)
Marshal Herrick – "a man in his early thirties" (68)
Hopkins – a guard
(113)
Mercy Lewis – "the
Putnam's servant, a fat, sly, merciless girl of eighteen" (16);
was running through the trees naked in the forest (10, 17)
Francis Nurse –
husband of Rebecca Nurse; "one of those men for whom both sides of the
argument had to have respect...called upon to arbitrate disputes as though
he were an unofficial judge...[he and his wife] had three hundred acres,
and their children were settled in separate homesteads within the same
estate" (24); "The Nurse clan had been in the faction that prevented
Bayley's [Thomas Putnam's man for the Salem ministry] taking office" (24)
Rebecca Nurse – wife
of Francis Nurse; "seventy-two...white-haired" and uses a walking
stick (23); "It was Edward and Jonathan Putnam who signed the first
complaint against Rebecca" (25); "I have eleven children, and I am
twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly
seasons" (25); "if Rebecca Nurse be tainted, then nothing's left to stop
the whole green world from burning" (67); charged "For the marvelous and
supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies" (67); does not confess, "She
is one foot in Heaven now; naught may hurt her more" (124) Goody Osburn –
midwife to Mrs. Putnam three times (44); "I [Mrs. Putnam] feared her. My
babies always shriveled in her hands!" (44); "Goody Osburn—will hang!"
(54)
Reverend Samuel Parris
– widower "in his middle forties" (3); minister of Salem; "spent
some years as a merchant [in Barbados] before
entering the ministry" (7); "preach only hellfire and bloody
damnation. Take it to heart, Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay
away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God any more"
(27); "you are the first minister ever did demand the deed to this house"
(28)
Elizabeth Parris, Betty – daughter of Rev. Parris, age 10
(3)
Elizabeth Proctor –
wife of John Proctor; accused of being a witch by Abigail (69)
John Proctor – husband
of Elizabeth; "a farmer in his middle thirties...powerful of body,
even-tempered, and not easily led...In Proctor's presence a fool felt his
foolishness instantly...the steady manner he displays does not spring from
an untroubled soul. He is a sinner...not only against the moral fashion of
the time, but against his own vision of decent conduct...Proctor,
respected and even feared in Salem, has come to regard himself as a kind
of fraud...a man in his prime...with a quiet confidence" (19); "He
is another man, bearded, filthy, his eyes misty as though webs had over
grown them" (123)
Mrs. Ann Putnam – wife
of Thomas Putnam; "a twisted soul of
forty-five, a death-ridden woman, haunted by dreams" (12);
Thomas Putnam –
husband of Ann Putnam; "a well-to-do,
hard-handed landowner, near fifty" (12); "a man with many
grievances...the eldest son of the richest man in the village" (13);
"regarded himself as the intellectual superior of most of the people
around him. His vindictive nature was demonstrated long before the
witchcraft began...a deeply embittered man...it is not surprising to find
that so many accusations against people are in the handwriting of Thomas
Putnam" (14)
Ruth Putnam – daughter
of Thomas and Ann Putnam (12); "led the crying-out at the most opportune
junctures of the trials" (14); "seems to walk like a dead one since last
night" (17); "fell into a fit at the hearing and pointed to Rebecca as her
attacker" (25)
Tituba – "Negro
slave...in her forties"
that "Parris brought...with
him from Barbados" (7)
Abigail Williams, Abby – niece of Rev. Parris, age 17, "a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with
an endless capacity for dissembling" (8); "drank blood...a charm
to kill Goody Proctor" (18); "I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads
on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at
night" (19)
Susanna Walcott – "a little younger than Abigail, a nervous,
hurried girl" (8)
Mary Warren – the
Proctors' maidservant; "seventeen, a
subservient, naïve, lonely girl" (17); "we've got to tell" (18);
"I never done none of it...I only looked!" (18)
Setting
Place
Salem, Massachusetts –
"Salem had been established hardly forty years before" (3)
small upper bedroom, home of Reverend Samuel Parris – "his house stood in
the 'town'—but we today would hardly call it a village" (3)
vestry room, Salem meeting house – "now
serving as the anteroom of the General Court" (77); near Rev.
Parris's house (3);
a cell, Salem jail
– (112)
Outside of Salem Village
common room, home
of John Proctor – (47)
Time
spring, 1692 – (3); "I
[Proctor] never see such a load of flowers on the earth...Massachusetts is
a beauty in the spring!" (49)
morning – "through its [window of
upper bedroom in Rev. Parris's home] leaded
panes the morning sunlight streams" (3)
evening – "it's almost dark" (47); "Good evening" (60)
day – "sunlight pouring through two high
windows in the back wall" (77)
fall, 1692 – (112)
night – "The place is in darkness but
for the moonlight seeping through the bars" (112)
morning – "the new sun is pouring in
upon her face, and the drums rattle like bones in the morning air"
(134)
Sample Student
Responses to Arthur Miller's The
Crucible
Response 1:
Study Question:
Notice Miller's use of words, terms or ideas. What meanings do they have?
How do they change throughout the play?
Parida Namseni
2202234
Introduction to the Study of English Literature
Acharn Puckpan
Tipayamontri
August 21, 2013
Reading
Response 2
Bad Is Good: Ugly
Equations in The
Crucible
In
the final act of Arthur Miller’s The
Crucible, John Proctor’s words telling
Elizabeth, his wife, of his decision to confess sum
up a distorted pattern that is so disturbing in this
play. Of the tantalizing confession he says, “It is
evil. Good, then” (128), laying out a twisted
equation—bad equals good—one of many that plague
this staging of events that challenges audiences to
rethink simple words as connected to simple
referents.
For
Proctor who considers himself a sinner (19), this
confession is not only bad, and therefore good (a
sin befits a sinful man), it is also life: “You’ll
confess yourself?...I want my life” (127),
presumably also good, presenting yet another bad
equals good equation. Proctor’s confession is bad
because it is a lie, and in lying he is selling his
friends (132), and in selling his friends, gifting
them to a corrupt court and to Parris, a minister
who “hardly ever mention[s] God” 27 (“Would you ever
give them this?” 128). In lying to gain his life, he
is taking away others’. His bad good act is good for
the wrong people. More conflicting equations arise
as the condemned man, urged to sign a public
confession, is torn not only between living in name
or living in person, but also mired in an doomed
equation: to sign is to live, but to sign his name
to a lie also destroys his name. “How may I live
without my name?” (133). If Proctor cannot live
without his name, his lie means death either way.
When
Rebecca Nurse is brought in to learn from Proctor’s
actions, her “Why” (129) breaks down this charade of
an equation. John Proctor finds himself false yet
again, even as he is trying to be truthful. Unlike
others’ true lies, Proctor’s false lie—a lie that is
false to itself as a lie—is not accepted by Danforth
(133).
The
world has turned upside-down. When the adulterer
Proctor becomes a “good example” for Rebecca Nurse
to “witness” (129), when lying is “com[ing] to God”
and bringing a woman who already “has half a foot in
Heaven” to God, the equations’ paradox is stark:
those unable to lie are witches and with the Devil,
and liars are with God. Fear of God equals death,
and fear of death equals murder. There is a crucial
last one: “It is the same, is it not? If I report it
or you sign to it?” (132). Proctor refuses this
equation: “No, it is not the same!” Following
Miller’s relentless showing of the terrible face of
a sick society until it has exhausted its incredible
horrors, one can only hope that, true to its
paradoxical play to the end, the resulting deaths
and killing can come to some good.
.
Works Cited
Miller, Arthur. The
Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. 1953. Introd.
Christopher Bigsby. New York: Penguin, 2003. Print.
Penguin Classics.
Reference
Miller, Arthur. The
Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. 1953. Introd. Christopher Bigsby.
New York: Penguin, 2003. Print. Penguin Classics.
Further Reading
Bigsby, Christopher, ed. The
Portable Arthur Miller. New York: Penguin, 1995. Print.
Boyer, Paul, and Stephen
Nissenbaum. Salem Possessed: The Social
Origins of Witchcraft. 1974. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1994. Print.
Miller, Arthur. Arthur
Miller's Collected Plays. New York: Viking, 1967. Print.
Miller, Arthur. The
Theater Essays of Arthur Miller. Ed. R. A. Martin. New York:
Viking, 1978. Print.
Miller, Arthur. Timebends:
A Life. New York: Grove, 1987. Print.
The
Salem Times (high school student newspaper project
covering the Salem witch trials, period culture and
context including how to tell if someone is a witch,
what happens if the accused confesses or denies, fashion
in Salem)
Amanda
Christy Brown and Holly Epstein Ojalvo, "Teaching
The Crucible
with The New York
Times" (2011; links to original 1953
reviews, articles on the play, on Miller, McCarthyism,
the Salem witch trials, and related lesson plans)
The Crucible,
dir. Yaël Farber, The Old Vic Theatre (Jun. 21–Sep. 13,
2014; includes link to audio introduction [16:30 min.] to
the production and transcript)
Richard Armitage, Interview,
BBC Breakfast (2014 The
Crucible Promo; video clip, 7:33 min.)
The Crucible,
dir. Sam Strong, Melbourne Theatre Company (Jun. 22–Aug.
3, 2013)
Alison Croggon, "The
Crucible," The Guardian (2013 review)
Andrew Fuhrman, "The
Crucible," Time Out (2013 review)
Part
1, The Crucible,
Williams College (2013; 1 h. 22:56 min.)
Act
1, The Crucible,
Bedford College (2011; 27:05 min.)
