Deception plays a big role in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, as many people were able to convince their fellow town’s members that witchcraft was being practiced. When someone in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts felt wronged by a neighbor, they had the opportunity of accusing them of being a witch and they would most likely be hung, taking care of the problem for them even though it was a complete lie. The sad truth was that it was very easy to convict and hang people in the year 1692, a dreadful period in our history. Arthur Miller was able to bring forth many important takeaways from that time period, one of them being about deception and maintaining one’s morals. It is important that people question things before following through with something because doing so blindly can lead to dangerous outcomes, such as the hundreds of deaths during the Salem witch trials. It is also important to not accept an initial claim made by someone else. A claim should be looked into first, before believing it automatically. Three important people from The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor, and Reverend Hale, are all faced with some form of deception that they must overcome.
Elizabeth Proctor deals with the deception from her husband and his affair with one of the younger girls in the town, Abigail. Elizabeth is able to catch on pretty early that her husband seemed slightly standoffish and distant but unfortunately he denies that anything happened with him and Abigail. Initially, Mrs. Proctor tries to give him the benefit of the doubt and not believe that he could be capable of such a sin but eventually she cannot deny himself the truth that her husband had truly done so. The damage caused by his actions are inevitable. After Proctor continues to deny herself of lechery and says he could never persuade her, Elizabeth responds with, “You’ll tear it free—when you come to know that I will be your only wife, or no wife at all!
She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well” (420). She knows that Abigail has created a bond with him and seems to be oblivious. Later however, instead of faulting her husband, she takes on some of the blame herself. Even though she knew what her husband had done, she was still blinded to the truth partially because of her kind heart and because of the social norm that most problems are the wife’s fault. Eventually she is able to see past this and is then able to forgive her husband because of his noble decisions at the end of the play and says to him, “Be sure of this, for I know it now: Whatever you will do, it is a good man does it” (504). Elizabeth knows that John truly is a good man and allows him to make whatever decision he chooses, with no judgement. Ultimately he chooses to do the thing for his wife and himself.
Elizabeth’s husband, John Proctor faces a different deception, coming from Abigail.
She is also somehow able to convince Proctor to cheat on his wife with her, knowing that he will stay quiet about it. Even so, she has a plan in place in case he did decide to expose their secret of lechery. And because of their bond, Abigail trusts him enough to tell him what happened in the woods except for what Abigail’s friend Betty says which was, “You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor” (346). Abigail wants to keep John for herself by means of malicious witchcraft and of course, chooses to keep that to herself. She also uses her deception skills to try and convince Proctor, along with the jury and the rest of the town that she and some other girls had been practicing witchcraft in the woods with a women named Tituba.
She ensures this with a threat by saying, “We danced and Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters and that is all. And mark this, let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (353). Her motive for doing so is to ensure her safety and the safety of her friends, because if she confesses to the crime, she will not be hung for supposedly withholding the truth. She comes up with a whole story that all the girls agree to tell as well as a whole act to perform in front of the jury. They all act as if some sort of devil and sorcery is at play and they have all been struck by it. John Proctor eventually sees passed this and chooses to expose her, which in turn, exposes himself and his unfaithfulness. This does not work out as he had intended, because his wife and Abigail had conflicting stories to his. However, Proctor was able to die, revealing himself, having been forgiven by his wife, and as a good man which is admirable in the end.
Reverend Hale also faces deception throughout the play, but he is a person with a very distinct character arc. Hale, having signed off on about seventy two death warrants, had very much been deceived by many townspeople, as well as the jury. They have all been able to convict people, then come up with convincing enough evidence to back up their claim to be able to present it to Hale where he then approves the hangings. In act one, Hale is much more impressionable and even goes as far to say, “The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone” (753). Hale initially, does not even question the accusations, yet deems them true. Eventually, he finally wakes up and sees the anarchy that has been created and the damage it has caused.
Right after Elizabeth makes the mistake of lying for John Proctor, Hale’s eyes are opened. He is aware of his mistake and tries to reason with the court saying, “It is a natural lie to tell; I beg you, stop now before another is condemned … by my oath to Heaven, I believe him now” (965). He no longer chooses to be apart of any more nonsense and later leaves his position in the trials. He later come back to Salem however, to try and save the life of John Proctor. He knows he had been wrongfully accused and does not want to see him go down for something that is completely false. He does not have much luck though, as Proctor already has his mind set. Hale then tries his luck with Elizabeth, where he is again unsuccessful. Reverend Hale goes from a pompous robot willing to go along with what others want, to becoming slightly reluctant, and then ultimately seeing past the lies and not allowing it to dictate him any longer.
The Crucible is a great example of what not to do when faced with a series of morally challenging events, among other things. It is very easy to get caught up in the hysteria of large groups of people in which one may be surrounded by. It is also very easy to lose yourself and your morals at that point. For example, it can be easy to get caught up in drama and rumors that are spread, but during times like this, one must take a step back and take a look at themselves and everything going on around them. Arthur Miller does a good job in portraying what can happen when a large group of people start to lose sight of their values and what is truly important. Chaos is the result of this, and chaos should always be avoided, if at all possible.
Works Cited
- Miller, Arthur. ‘The Crucible.’ 1953. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Literature Grade 11, by Carol Jago, iBooks ed., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013, pp. 241-344.
