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.seem the more guilty, which would help the judgesAs Hathorne reenters, Proctor declares that he willmaintain their sense of probity, so Parris has beenconfess to stay alive; the judges are elated.helping him.Parris also tells them that AbigailThey plan to write down his confession and postand Mercy have stolen his savings and absconded.it on the church door after he has signed it.As theyA nearby town, Andover, is rebelling against thelead Proctor to admit that he has bound himself towitch courts, and the girls fled in case Salem fol-the devil, Rebecca is brought in to witness in thelows suit.There is fear of riot, and Parris’s life hashope that she will follow suit.She adamantly refusesbeen threatened; he is worried at the town’s reac-and is shocked at Proctor.The judges ask Proctortion to them hanging such citizens as Rebecca.Heto damn the others, saying that he saw them withsuggests that they postpone the hangings, but Dan-the devil, but he refuses to name anyone but him-forth refuses.To pardon others would cast doubtself.He reluctantly signs his confession but cannoton the guilt of the 12 already hanged.hand it over, refusing to accept that it needs to beHaving had no success, Hale enters to ask Dan-displayed, knowing that it will badly reflect on theforth to pardon the prisoners or give him moreother condemned.Overwrought, he admits that histime.Danforth sees any delay as a sign of weaknessconfession is a lie.Proctor realizes that he is not soand insists that the seven marked to die at sunrisemorally bad and rips the confession apart, choos-must be executed.Hale has not seen Proctor, soing to die beside the others rather than become aDanforth suggests using the pregnant Elizabeth tohypocrite.He kisses Elizabeth with passion, tellinglead Proctor toward a confession.While the Proc-her to stay strong.Rebecca offers him support astors are being fetched, Hale relates the sorry stateDanforth orders the hanging to proceed, and theyof the township, with crops and livestock neglectedare taken outside.Parris and Hale beg Elizabeth toand orphans wandering the streets because soget Proctor to change his mind, but she honors hismany have been imprisoned.He is disgusted at hisdecision; knowing that it was the right thing to do,own part in this.Elizabeth is brought in, and Haleshe refuses.The curtain falls to the sound of thepleads with her to get Proctor to lie to save hisdrums heralding the executions.life.Hale explains how he has lost his faith, givenAfterwordthe way religion is being used to destroy so manyIn an afterword titled “Echoes Down the Corridor,”innocents, and tells Elizabeth to choose life overMiller relates subsequent events in which Parristruth.She is suspicious, thinking that this a trick,is voted out of office, Abigail becomes a Bostonbut when Danforth accuses her of lacking pity, sheprostitute, and Elizabeth remarries four years later.offers to speak with her husband.Twenty years after these proceedings, the govern-Proctor is brought in, and the couple is almostment awarded compensation to the victims whoovercome with emotion at the sight of one another.were still living and to the families of the dead;Hale persuades the rest to leave them alone.Proc-although the full truth remains clouded as sometor asks for news of their sons, and Elizabeth tellsbeneficiaries turned out to be informers rather thanhim that they are safe.Elizabeth also tells him thatvictims.more than 100 have confessed, but Rebecca andMartha, like them, remain firm.He asks after Giles,CRITICAL COMMENTARYand she relates how Giles died under torture.HisSalem, Massachusetts, in the spring of 1692 isrefusal to respond to charges meant that his landsdescribed as a newly founded, religiously devoutcannot be forfeited by his death and, therefore, histownship.A communal society has formed, backed023-354_Miller-p2.indd 1145/3/07 12:52:24 PMThe Crucible 115by an autocratic theocracy to help it attain theably at large in the world, and Miller believes thatdiscipline necessary for survival; they are naturallyall people, even the apparently virtuous, have thesuspicious of individuality, seeing it as a threatpotential to be evil given the right circumstances,to their imposed sense of order.Salemites haveeven though most would deny this.Miller offersworked hard to survive, constantly threatened byProctor as proof; he is a good man but one whothe surrounding wilderness.Concentrating on sur-carries with him the guilt of adultery.However,vival has left them little opportunity to misbehave,men like Danforth, Hathorne, and Parris compli-but ironically, although their recent ancestors camecate this category because they do evil deeds underto this land to avoid persecution, they have becomethe pretense of being right.intolerant and are constantly judging each other’sIn The Crucible, Miller wanted to go beyond the behavior.Their way of life is strict and somber,discovery of guilt that has motivated his plots inall dancing and frivolity is frowned upon, and theearlier plays to a study of the results of such guilt.witch trials offer them a release of pent up frustra-He centers this study on John Proctor, a man splittion and emotion.Under the guise of morality, theybetween the way in which others see him and theare given the opportunity to express envy and hos-way in which he sees himself.His private sense oftility toward their neighbors and take vengeance.guilt leads him into an ironically false confessionThe large cast helps convey a community in all ofof having committed a crime, although he laterits diversity, and this communal reaction to eventsrecants.What allows him to recant is the release ofenhances the play’s REALISM.guilt that was given to him by his wife’s confessionMiller insists that while McCarthyism may haveof her coldness and her refusal to blame him for hisbeen the historical occasion of The Crucible, it is adultery.Elizabeth insists that he is a good man,not its theme [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]