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In the play, Arthur Miller uses different literary devices to help highlight his theme, build tension, and engage the audience.

For your response, identify an example of one of the literary terms we researched at the beginning of the year and explain how it is shown in The Crucible (you can summarize or give a quote).  Then, identify the purpose it serves.

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The Crucible ends with John Proctor marching off to a martyr's death. By refusing to lie and confess to witchcraft, he sacrifices his life in the name of truth. At the end of the play, Proctor has in some way regained his goodness.

The last two lines of the play raise interesting questions. It's interesting that, though this is Proctor's story, Miller doesn't give him the last word. Instead, Reverend Hale and Elizabeth Proctor get the honor. Miller writes:

HALE: Woman, plead with him! […] Woman! It is pride, it is vanity. […] Be his helper! What profit him to bleed? Shall the dust praise him? Shall the worms declare his truth? Go to him, take his shame away!

ELIZABETH: […] He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him! (IV.207-208)

Hale does have a pretty good point. Though the character of Proctor is often lauded for his integrity, is he really helping his family by dying? His wife, sons, and unborn child will have to make it in the world without him. This is none too easy in the harsh Massachusetts wilderness. His choice of death could also be viewed as a form of suicide, which is forbidden for Christians. His death might also be interpreted as inherently selfish... because he's placing his own self-image above the good of his family.

Was Hale right to say that Proctor should lie and save himself?  Or is Elizabeth right to allow Proctor to lose his life for what he believes is right?  Take a stance and discuss in your response.

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Read the document below, then apply these characteristics to John Proctor to determine whether or not he was a tragic hero.

For you post, choose one characteristic of a tragic hero and explain how John Proctor fits that characteristic.

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Get access to files anywhere through secure cloud storage and file backup for your photos, videos, files and more with Google Drive.

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Use the link below to read about what the term crucible means.

For your response, discuss whether this is an appropriate symbol for what happened during the Salem Witch Trials.

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What's Up with the Title?

Nowhere in this play is there of a mention of the word "crucible." So where exactly did that come from? And what in the world is a crucible, anyway?

It turns out the word has two definitions.

Humans Were Harmed in the Course of These Laboratory Tests

Let's tackle the first definition, shall we? A crucible is a piece of laboratory equipment used to heat chemical compounds to very high temperatures or to melt metal. It's a little container full of violent reactions. Seems like a pretty good metaphor for the violent hysteria that the little village of Salem contained during the witch trials. With all those folks jammed together in a tiny town, there were bound to be some hot tempers.

Yep, Salem became a crucible for many people living there... when they were brought before the religious court and accused falsely of being witches. If an accused person did not confess, she was hanged. If she did confess, she was spared death but marked for life as a person who worshiped the Devil. Classic Catch-22.

Under such conditions, several characters in this play-especially the central characters, John and Elizabeth Proctor-are forced to face their own internal demons, a process that ultimately leads to internal, spiritual transformation.

Trial By Fire

The term crucible can also be used metaphorically, which brings us to our next definition: a test or a trial. Folks use the term crucible to refer to a difficult test.

And there sure are a lot of tests going on in The Crucible. There are the tests to determine who's a witch. Then there are, quite literally, the trials the accused must undergo. And then, as we mentioned above, there are the more internal trials, where folks' deepest, most powerful beliefs are put to the test by their less-than-ideal circumstances.

20th-Century Salem

The title (and the entire play) is also a metaphor for the anti-communist craze of America's Red Scare, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Thanks to the efforts of McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, the whole United States became a "crucible" in which citizens' beliefs about what it meant to be American were deeply tested in the highest halls of government.

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The Crucible What’s Up with the Title? | Shmoop

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Helping you understand What’s Up with the Title? in The Crucible by Arthur Miller - but, in a fun way.

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The term "witch hunt" is thrown around whenever people say they are being unfairly accused of something.  The Crucible was actually an allegory for McCarthyism that was happening in the 1950s.

For your response, identify another "Witch Hunt" in history or in the present day and discuss some similarities that it has with The Crucible.

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Peripeteia: Reversal of fortune when he had an affair with his wife but later had karma hit him

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Peripeteia: Reversal of fortune when he had an affair with his wife but later had karma hit him

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it was misfortune that he had karma from having an affair, he should reveal the affair to save the wife. 

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it was misfortune that he had karma from having an affair, he should reveal the affair to save the wife. 

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I think its an appropriate symbol because it goes back to the witch trials or tests to admit if they were witches or not.

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I think its an appropriate symbol because it goes back to the witch trials or tests to admit if they were witches or not.