CONFLICT IN THE CRUCIBLE

ACT ONE

Miller’s notes in the first few pages explain that:

·  Pleasure-seeking and entertainment were frowned upon or even forbidden.

·  Life was hard and all energy went into wresting a living from the land.

·  Everyone knew everyone else’s business.

·  The tightly controlled society needed to survive initially was no longer so necessary. People had accepted the extent to which they were governed because the result was safety, but as life grew safer, some people may have wanted more individual freedom. (See the bottom of p.15 where Miller explains that their ‘communal society’ would have begun as an ‘armed camp with an autocratic and very devoted leadership...... an autocracy by consent...’ Miller sees this unity of purpose as the reason they were able to conquer this harsh land.) See also Miller’s reference on p.16 to the need for a balance between order and freedom.

·  Indians were ‘heathens’ and the virgin forest/wilderness was ‘the Devil’s last preserve.’

·  The witch-hunt was a chance to openly express negative feelings such as long-held hatred of one’s neighbours or ‘land-lust’.

CHARACTERS ENCOUNTERING CONFLICT

Parris fears his reputation and authority will suffer as a result of Abigail and Betty’s actions. He fears rumours and accusations of witchcraft/ ‘some obscene practice’ in his own household. ‘There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit.’ ‘They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house. Parris has a lot at stake here.

Abigail must conceal what she has done to avoid punishment. (Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis, Susanna Walcott, Mary Warren, Ruth Putnam, Betty Parris and Tituba are all implicated and fear the consequences if the truth is known.) Abigail is willing to confess to dancing and Tituba performing a charm to raise the spirits of Ruth’s dead sisters. She is not willing to have it known that she drank blood as part of a charm to kill Goody Proctor. It also seems best to conceal that Mercy danced naked. Abigail threatens the others with ‘a pointy reckoning’ if they tell.

The Putnams are eager to attribute Betty and Ruth’s condition to witchcraft and Reverend Parris is frightened of not being able to restrain them from publicising this. He feels he should have some control/authority over them as their minister, but they are pressuring him to detect witchcraft and he seems unable to assert this authority decisively. Goody Putnam wants to blame witchcraft for the infant deaths of seven of her babies. Parris strongly condemns her decision to ‘conjure the dead’ as ‘a formidable sin.’

Abigail loves Proctor and believes he loves her. As a married man, he is unavailable to her, so what she wants and what she can have are in conflict. Her actions are motivated by her desire to take his wife’s place. Proctor himself has resolved his past feelings for Abigail and set them aside. They cause him no internal conflict in terms of lust or longing, although clearly this was the case while Abigail was the Proctors’ servant. We see that he has resolved this from lines like ‘Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby.’ Abigail’s enduring feelings are not just the result of desire. She also has an emotional involvement with Proctor as a person, as seen by her speech ‘I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretence Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men!’ Despite his firm rejection, she believes that he loves her and cannot forget her. When he says, ‘Abby, I never give you hope to wait for me.’ she responds, ‘I have something better than hope, I think!’

Miller’s note on p.32 points out that the Putnams may have coveted the land owned by Francis and Rebecca Nurse. Also, there may have been past disputes and hostility between the two men/families that could have motivated the charges of witchcraft against Rebecca.

Rebecca Nurse is a calm and wise presence in this act. She offers practical solutions like letting children grow tired of what they are doing (pretending to be ‘witched’) and not to worry if they don’t eat – they will when they are hungry. She cautions others of the danger of looking for ‘loose spirits’ and advises prayer. It is evident that past conflicts have been a problem when she says, ‘Mr. Parris, I think you’d best send Reverend Hale back as soon as he come. This will set us all to arguin’ again in the society, and we thought to have peace this year...... There is a prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it.’ She believes that ‘good prayer’ is the answer and that they must ‘go to God’ for the cause of the situation. Note that Rebecca may have views that are in conflict with those around her, but she expresses them without aggression. This has the potential to help avoid escalating the conflict. She chooses not to stay to observe Hale’s proceedings, telling Parris, ‘I go to God for you, sir.’ When he responds, ‘I hope you do not mean we go to Satan here.’ her response is non-confrontational (‘I wish I knew.’) even though she clearly does not support what they are doing.

Proctor tells Putnam ‘We vote by name in this society, not by acreage.’ When challenged over his attendance at Sabbath meeting, he expresses his dislike of Parris’s tendency to ‘preach only hellfire and damnation.’

Parris responds angrily and it becomes apparent that financial matters have caused conflict. He quibbles over his salary and firewood, asserting that he is poorly paid. He has demanded the deed to the minister’s house, which has caused resentment in the congregation, but feels he is entitled to it so that he can have some security as minister. He clearly wants to be treated with more respect for his authority as the minister. ‘You people seem not to comprehend that a minister is the Lord’s man in the parish, a minister is not to be so lightly crossed and contradicted...’

Putman argues with Proctor over who owns the land by the riverside where Proctor is felling lumber.

Reverend Hale arrives. Miller’s note points out that he takes pride in his knowledge/expert status. Regarding witchcraft as a crime, Miller writes, ‘Normally the actions and deeds of a man were all that society felt comfortable judging. The secret intent of an action was left to the ministers, priests and rabbis to deal with.’ In the play, it is not people’s actions that are being judged, but rather, their supposed intent.

Hale seems to be an admirable character, putting Thomas Putnam in his place when he claims that Betty cannot bear to hear the Lord’s name and this is a sure sign of witchcraft. He responds, authoritatively, ‘We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are as definite as stone, and I ...... shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruise of hell upon her.’ If Hale does not find evidence of witchcraft or the work of the Devil, he won’t have a problem with saying so.

Hale questions Abigail closely about what the girls were doing in the forest. When it becomes apparent that the ‘brew’ in the kettle was not an innocent soup of lentils and beans, Abigail saves herself by blaming Tituba. She accuses Tituba of making her drink blood, making her laugh in church, sending her spirit on her and making her dream corruption.

Tituba denies the accusations, but when Putnam says, ‘This woman must be hanged!’ she finds it simpler to confess to consorting with the Devil, to repent and to incriminate others. This way she can save herself – if she continued to deny the accusations she would not be believed and would hang. Tituba is the first of many who choose to confess rather than be sentenced to death.

Tituba, Abigail and Betty accuse eleven others in a hysterical frenzy of confession and accusation: Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, Bridget Bishop, George Jacobs, Goody Howe, Martha Bellows, Goody Sibber, Alice Barrow, Goody Hawkins, Goody Bibber and Goody Booth. Abigail fervently protests her desire to open herself to the light and sweet love of Jesus. Betty speaks to accuse George Jacobs and Goody Howe.

SUMMARY

·  Parris fears loss of status, authority, power and reputation. He wants security and respect in his role as minister and fears what the reaction will be to the presence of witchcraft in his home.

·  Abigail lives in a society that forbids her to love Proctor – her feelings are in conflict with the rules of her community. Also, Abigail has little status or power as a young girl in this society. Her role in the witch hunt confers both of these upon her.

·  The Putnams are jealous of families that have not lost children and greedy for land and wealth. These negative emotions conflict with the values they are supposed to live by.

·  Proctor has experienced conflicting feelings – his attraction to Abigail and his desire to be a faithful husband. He continues to struggle internally with feelings of unworthiness, caused by committing adultery, which was a departure from his values.

·  Parris has experienced conflict with his congregation because he wants to be paid the full salary and given the firewood as well as the money allowance for it. He also wants them to defer to him more, assure him of security in his position and not contradict him.

·  There is conflict between Proctor and Parris because Proctor cannot respect his minister.

·  There is conflict between Proctor and Putnam because Proctor will not let Putnam’s greed and grasping ways go unchallenged.

·  Rebecca Nurse is able to encounter conflict without becoming angry or aggressive.

·  Abigail and Tituba both choose to incriminate others rather than be punished for their actions. Tituba tries to tell the truth, but faces certain conviction and hanging if she is not believed.

CONFLICT IN THE CRUCIBLE - ACT TWO

We see potential friction between Proctor and Elizabeth over minor matters, such as whether Proctor approves of her housekeeping (stew needs salt, she ought to bring some flowers into the house) and whether she should allow Mary Warren to go into Salem, but this is more of a symptom of the tension between them over his adultery with Abigail. Some of Proctor’s lines reinforce this, such as, ‘I mean to please you, Elizabeth’ and ‘It’s winter in here yet’ (metaphorical/symbolic) and ‘I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she is gone. I have not moved from here to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches around your heart.’ (Proctor may judge himself more harshly than Elizabeth does, given that she says, ‘The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man.’)

This conflict intensifies when Elizabeth reacts suspiciously to finding out that Proctor was alone with Abigail. We see that she cannot completely forgive, forget and put it behind her. Proctor is defensive, guilty and angry, believing that she judges him and is watching him with suspicion. He argues that his reluctance to tell the court what Abigail admitted (‘naught to do with witchcraft’) is because he may not be believed with no one to corroborate his word, not because he still has tender feelings for Abigail.

Mary Warren brings news that thirty nine women have been arrested and Goody Osburn will hang, as she will not confess. Elizabeth discovers that Abigail has ‘cried her out’. She urges Proctor to convince Abigail that she should not hope that he wants her. Proctor responds angrily. Mary Warren tells Elizabeth that she has saved her life by testifying in her favour.

Reverend Hale comes to establish for himself whether the Proctors are good Christian people, particularly as Elizabeth has been ‘mentioned’ in court. His authority as a minister clearly makes him feel entitled to interrogate/question them about their attendance at meeting house services and whether their youngest child is baptised. Proctor’s conflict with Parris is evident here, resenting Parris’s desire for ‘golden candlesticks’, saying, ‘when I look to heaven and see my money glaring at his elbows – it hurt my prayer..’. He has not asked Parris to baptise his youngest son because ‘I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man.’ Proctor is setting his own will up in opposition to the authority of the church by feeling this way.

Hale judges Proctor. ‘there is a softness in your record, sir, a softness.’ He asks Proctor if he knows his Commandments – Proctor knows nine of the ten, but forgets ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery.’ Hale regards this ‘small fault’ as a ‘crack in a fortress.’ Elizabeth, sensing that he is not completely satisfied, urges John to tell Hale what Abigail said – that ‘it had naught to do with witchcraft.’ Hale challenges this – the accused have confessed to dealing with the Devil. Proctors counters with ‘And why not, if they must hang for denyin’ it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you never thought of that? This touches on Hale’s own suspicion and he admits ‘I have. I – I have indeed.’ At this point, Hale is still convinced of his own expert ability and the justice of the court. As doubt grows within him over this, he will experience internal conflict.

Proctor seems justified in wondering whether the court will believe his word in times ‘when such a steady-minded minister as you will suspicion such a woman that never lied, and cannot, and the world knows she cannot!

Hale accuses Proctor of not believing ‘that there may even be witches in the world.’ Proctor has wondered about this, but thinks whether or not there are witches he ‘cannot believe that they come among us now.’ Elizabeth, with quiet certainty goes further, telling Hale ‘if you believe I may do only good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it’ and ‘If you think that I am one, then I may say there are none.’ Hale responds, ‘You surely do not fly against the Gospel’. The conflict we are seeing here is between Hale’s belief in his expert knowledge and his ability to identify witches and Elizabeth’s personal view, formed from faith, common sense and self-knowledge.