Crucible

5 Pages 1259 Words

A Major Theme of The Crucible According to the Webster’s Dictionary, a crucible is “a vessel in which metal is heated to a high temperature and melted for the purposes of casting”. It can also be referred to a situation in which a person has to make a decision that can be critical to his morals and principles. There are many interpretations of the word crucible as there is for the theme of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Closely related to the word “crucifixion”, The Crucible is about a man put in a crucible situation, who is forced to choose between life and morality, just as Jesus Christ did. Miller interweaved these scenarios to form the main themes of the play – the problem of making the right moral choice and the necessity of sacrifice as a means of redemption. Both of these themes can be abridged to form one main theme, good versus evil. Based on the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century, The Crucible explores the vulnerability of a society and the difficulty of doing ‘good’ in the face of evil and tremendous social pressures. The play is about a town, Salem, Massachusetts, and the hysteria its residents go through because of the witchcraft accusations made by the young girls and countless other people of the region. These accusations, we learn in the novel, are not true and are merely stories to put the blame of someone’s mistakes or wrongdoings to someone else. The accusers are just trying to find scapegoats for their shortcomings. This is where good versus evil takes place. There are numerous “good” characters in the novel that try to prove that there are no such things as witches, as well as “bad” who use the trials for their own gain, and the plot revolves around their struggle against each other. One of the many cases where good versus evil is portrayed is through the situation between Elizabeth Proctor and Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is the niece of Reverend Parris, a renowned preache...