1. Themes and Motifs
The Crucible

2. Individual vs Society
Salem is a tight-knit community where there is no such thing as private business.
Puritan society required that its members follow strict guidelines of social order. These rigid rules of conduct helped the Puritans endure the persecution they faced in Europe and, after they came to America, created a close-knit community able to withstand the harsh weather and Native American attacks common to New England in the 17th century.
Such communities that focus primarily on social order thrive or perish?

3. Individual vs Society
An excessively strict social order also provides no outlet for personal grievances.
Over time, unvoiced resentments build up among individuals, primed to explode. The witch trials depicted in The Crucible can be considered an attack against individuality: those accused and convicted of witchcraft were mostly people who prioritised their private thoughts and integrity above the will of the community..

4. Examples and Quotes
In act 1 The gathered crowd downstairs in Parriss’s house suggests a uniform social order asserting itself.
Witchcraft isn't just a sin, it's a threat against Parris's job and reputation (threat of the society). Parris – feels isolated from community over pay and lack of respect
Rebecca Nurse – the voice of reason, doesn’t believe girls under any kind of spell
Parris says that if the girls were conjuring spirits, he needs to know because his "enemies" will surely find out and ruin him. He says there's a group in the town that wants to drive him from his job as minister.
“Take it to heart, Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God any more.” John Proctor
“You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between.” Danforth

5. More examples
Community – supporting Abigail and the girls – belief in their accusations
Individual: Proctor – not attending church regularly / his conflict with Parris over money and his style of preaching
Hale – as an outsider – begins to have doubts about those accused
Mary Warren – is part of community BUT is being forced by Proctor to step outside their influence which she believes will place her in danger

6. More examples
Elizabeth – individual as an accused – but allows the community to be caught up in the hysteria – she doesn’t stand against it.
Hale – individual – voice of objection to the way proceeding being carried out – demands Proctor be allowed a lawyer.
Giles Corey – individual – refuses to give name of source, strength of character – protecting the innocent – gets arrested for his actions.

7. Judgement and Justice
A fair justice system is non-existent in Salem. People judge each other based on their own whims and rational thinking is missing most of the times. The trial is used by individuals for seeking revenge rather than for solving problems.
Even though many of the accused characters are innocent, the absence of a just and truthful court system means that innocence becomes less important than what those in power want for themselves.

8. Quotes

9. The Meanings of “Judgement”
In what ways is the word “judgement” used in these quotes?
Trial – legal
Judging others – moral
The Last Judgement – religious

10. More Examples
Justice – Hale strongly believes in the justice of the court, that the innocent will be exonerated (their names cleared)
Proctor – doesn’t believe the court is just, but believes in justice in the wider sense
Think about following to understand the theme of justice in ‘The Crucible’ and write your ideas in your notebook or add in the notes section on this powerpoint.

11. Think about following to understand the theme of justice in ‘The Crucible’ and write your ideas in your notebook or add in the notes section on this powerpoint.
Danforth – the way he conducts proceedings
Danforth’s argument about not needing lawyers
His belief in Abigail, against a reasonable defence which shows motive, by Proctor
Elizabeth’s belief in the system

12. Ignorance vs Wisdom
One of the many themes in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is the contrast between ignorance and wisdom and how one or the other is constantly mistaken for its opposite.
Ignorance of a traditional society keeps snubbing the wisdom of individuals throughout the play ‘The crucible’. The lack of wisdom in majority of characters leads to struggle in Salem, which results in the loss of various lives.

13. Examples Act 1 Ignorance: Giles Corey – his wife Marth reading books
Goody Putnam – deaths of babies
Belief in girls flying
Wisdom: Rebecca Nurse not believing girls ‘witched’

14. Act 2
Cheever – ignorant as he totally believes in Abigail’s story and witchcraft
Wisdom
Could argue that Abigail has this as she is aware of her influence over the court and that she would be believed, wise to her own power
Hale shows that he is thinking, he is not totally convinced by the accusations, but at this point is not ready to take a stand or speak out against the proceedings. He still has a strong belief in the church and justice.

15. More Examples
Hale – knows it’s wrong to allow proceedings to go ahead as they are but feels unable to force change.
Danforth – uses his education and position of power to manipulate the situation to prevent himself from looking like a fool / to patronise and take advantage of those less educated
Giles Corey – wise – because of his deposition and experience in court, his knowledge of what will happen to his source if he gives him up.
Mary Warren – ignorant as she chooses the easy path although she knows it to be wrong and a lie

16. More Examples
Parris – ignorant as still trying to protect his own reputation by undermine Proctor
Abigail – wisdom – because she is clever enough to realise that threatening Danforth is not a good idea and turns on Mary instead, who she successfully manipulates to return to her ‘community’.

17. Reputation vs Integrity
Reputation is the way that other people perceive you. Integrity is the way you perceive yourself.
Extremely important in theocratic Salem
Guilt by association: their sins will taint your name
Several characters in The Crucible face a tough decision: to protect their reputation or their integrity.
Parris, Abigail, and others to protect their reputations. Rebecca Nurse and, eventually, John Proctor, choose to protect their integrity.
To what extent is Salem’s rigid society responsible for driving people to choose reputation over integrity?

18. Examples
In Act 1 Parris and Abigail both try to protect their reputations when Susanna Walcott suggests Parris look for spiritual causes: Parris by stopping Susanna from talking about what she's seen in his house, and Abigail by warning Susanna not to mention what happened in the forest.
Parris turns to Abigail, who admits Ruth and Tituba conjured spirits, but insists she wasn't involved. Abigail continues to lie to protect her reputation.

19. Examples
Proctor admits he has some feelings for her, but says the affair is over. Proctor's outward morality hides immoral thoughts and actions. Yet Proctor's self-hatred regarding his affair with Abigail actually proves his integrity.
Betty and Ruth act sick to save their reputations.
Accusations against neighbors to try and make self look ‘good’.
Hale- integrity in searching for evidence.
Find some quotes related to this theme.

20. Hysteria
Hysteria replaces logic and reason in the play and tears apart their society.
enables people to believe their neighbours are guilty of committing absurd and unbelievable crimes
people become active in the hysterical climate for 2 reasons:
out of genuine religious faithfulness
chance to act on long-held grudges

21. Hysteria How do these characters thrive on hysteria?
Abigail: uses situation to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and has her jailed
Reverend Parris: strengthens his position within the village (temporarily) by making scapegoats of those who question authority e.g. John Proctor

22. Examples Act 1 Abigail The girls join in the chorus Act 2
Proctor’s response to Elizabeth’s arrest
Ripping up the warrant
Mary Warren’s response to the thought of challenging Abigail
The number of accusations of witchcraft having risen so as 14 were in jail

23. Examples Act 3 Abigail and the girls accusing Mary Warren
Mary Warren’s accusation of Proctor
Proctor’s outburst at the end of the act

24. More themes
Find examples related to these themes and your notes in the themes table.
Good vs Evil
Human cruelty vs righteousness
Power and Authority
Adults vs children

25. Motifs
The Doll
The doll found on Elizabeth Proctor's shelf is a traditional symbol of voodoo and witchcraft. In The Crucible, the doll (as well as Rebecca Nurse) symbolizes the transformation of good to evil: dolls, in a normal society, represent childhood innocence and bring happiness. In Salem, dolls represent evil. This extends to the Puritan government and church, both being entrusted to protect its citizens, yet both doing the opposite.

26. Motifs
The Stones
Giles Corey refuses to make an official plea in court. In order to persuade him to make a plea, officials of the court stack concrete stones on him and eventually crush him. The stones symbolize the weight of Salem's sins that are crushing the good in its society.

27. The Boiling Cauldron
The controversy begins with Salem girls running wild through the forest around a cauldron of boiling water. This cauldron symbolises the wildness of the girls, or more specifically, their repressed sexual desire bubbling over.

28. The Forest
The Forest
Puritans believed that the forest was the devil's dominion. They failed to recognize, however, that Salem's evil and destruction came from within. The forest, therefore symbolizes the evil present in all humans.