Salem-1692: ruled by the zealous and fanatical iron fist of theocracy; corrupted by power and motivated by wealth. There are many characters who exploit and manipulate the events that occur in Salem and use them for their own personal gain. There are numerous ways that characters exploit the situation in Salem, belligerent and subtle, but in my opinion the most dramatic displays of human motivation are shown through desire for lust, revenge, wealth and, ultimately, excitement- a source of escape from the boring way of life that existed in Salem in 1692.

The plot of the play “The Crucible” revolves around the key figures caught up in the prosecution of the “Salem witch hunts” . It follows the main character, John Proctor, as the tragic hero of the play and looks at the persecution and hysteria around him: namely the love triangle between him, his wife Elizabeth and his ex lover Abigail. It follows in depth the official court prosecution of all those accused.

Millers influences for writing “The Crucible“, vary from themes, people, and historical events. He incorporated realism into his plays and was possibly influenced by John Steinbeck, a successful American writer, who focused on poor, working class people; both men are similar in the fact that they are both very socially aware writers.

Miller would also have been motivated by the parallel between the “Salem witch hunts” ,and the “McCarthy witch hunts” that were causing mass hysteria through the persecution of communists in 1950s America, when the play was written. Certainly, the fact that Miller himself was accused of being a communist will have motivated him through anger and frustration. I believe that the McCarthy witch hunts and Millers persecution were the most motivational events that influenced him to write “The Crucible”

Migration from Britain in the 1600s was a major event in the establishment of the Salem theocracy . The migration was caused by James I’s moderate religious policy which caused extremist factions, known as puritans, to flee to Holland. However, poor conditions soon led to a full scale emigration to America and Australia. The zealots and fanatics who emigrated claimed that it was to ensure that religion survived. Miller was obviously fascinated by the idea of Puritanism and portrayed the village of Salem to be very religious and theologically motivated; thus, he based the characters personalities to be puritanical and zealous too. Did Miller mean to show Puritanism to have an allegorical connection with McCarthyism?

Finally, Greek tragedy would have motivated Miller with its art of moving the audience to pity and terror. Miller uses a tragic hero, John Proctor, whose hamartia is lust, an idea taken from Greek tragedy.

Salem would have been a sleepy, religious and law abiding town; life is simplistic, and ultimately dull. However, underneath this innocent image lies a vicious undercurrent of desire, corruption and fear. The play shows what the various characters are motivated by and the different, often idiosyncratic, ways they exploit the situation in Salem.

Mans desire is a key issue in “The Crucible”, it is clearly portrayed as the main source of motivation for most of the characters; this desire is shown in many forms. Wealth is seen as very desirable and motivates many characters, notably Parris- a man who has “cut a villainous past” and was motivated by the thought that he could gain money through exploiting the situation unravelling before him.“I see no light of God in that man”

Proctor’s hypocritical view of Reverend Parris is evidence that he was corrupt, and abused his position of power in order to get money. Ironically, towards the end of the play he had nearly all his wealth stolen from him by Abigail, who was fuelled by fear and the desire to flee the towns nightmarish reality that she, herself, had created.

Mans desire for power is a reoccurring theme and throughout the play miller shows various characters to be gripped and heavily motivated by power and control over others. This could relate back to McCarthy’s struggle for power and control over the communists in 1950s America, indeed the “echoes down the corridor” is easily distinguished between the two events. The events that happened in Salem were seen as a window of opportunity by some people, in the fact that they could seek revenge on old adversaries or gain power and control over others. One such example of this is the Putnam’s, they wished to seek revenge and gain power over the Nurse’s because of a long feud over the ownership of land. They are motivated by power and wealth to manipulate and exploit the situation and to turn it to their advantage.“For murder, she’s charged! For the marvellous and supernatural murder of goody Putnam’s babies”- The Putnam’s exploit the situation by claiming Rebecca killed Mrs Putnam’s babies, an attempt to win back some of the Nurses’ land that they believe to be “rightfully theirs”.

However, not all the characters are motivated by greed and personal gain, some, like the wise and religious “voice of reason”, Rebecca Nurse, are motivated by their desire to gain justice and to do what is just, so much so that they are prepared to die instead of becoming “unjust”.“ I have given my soul: leave me my name!” John Proctor doesn’t want to lie and he knows death is the punishment, however he would rather die than have his name recorded with a false confession of practicing witchcraft. Mr Hale is motivated to bring justice to those wrongly accused, he is faithful to the bitter end and says-”Goody Proctor, I do not judge you, my duty is to add godly wisdom to the court”; this is evidence of his desire for justice to be brought forth to those wrongly persecuted.

Abigail, whilst being “strikingly beautiful” is also subtly manipulative and an adept liar, however her motives are unclear: is she motivated by power or a deep unfathomable love? Could everything she does be a desperate grab for attention or because of her troubled and violent past? Alternatively, could she just be a very bored teenage girl who has been seduced by a far older, more responsible man who has lead her astray and now she, quite rightly, feels bitter and betrayed by him? Abigail is portrayed by Miller as a very sexually attractive and beautiful girl; I believe that he tried to make her embody female sexuality and relates her to his wife, Marilyn Monroe. When he expresses Abigail in “The Crucible” he is definitely commenting on female sexuality and the effect it has.

Pre 1692 Salem was dismal. When the villagers were not working in the fields or at church they were praying in solitude: could it be that the sheer amount of boredom motivated Abigail to do something different, something….exciting? Perhaps, also, she was motivated to exploit the events that followed because of excitement, power or fear of what she had done. Miller could be commenting on the parallels between Salem and America: The fact that people crave excitement, even at the expense of others’. He could be trying to explain to the audience the “echoes down the corridor”, the fact that throughout American history peoples craving for excitement is seen as a reoccurring theme. This has a modern resonance today with extreme chat shows, where the audience are entertained at the expense of the contestants who are openly mocked and ridiculed. It is true to say that once the situation in Salem escalated we begin to see Abigail gripped with fear; she tries to lay the blame onto other villagers in order to save her own life. Evidence for this is when Abigail says-”I saw Goody Sibber with the devil”, she also tries to pretend that she is under the other villagers control, a blatant attempt to prove her innocence. Hiding her pretence Abigail lets off “a weird, wild, chilling cry…” she is obviously acting, this is further proof that she is a very adept liar and wins the hearts of many characters with the art of hiding her pretence and portraying herself to be something she’s not. It has to be said that to the audience, who are aware of her pretence, she is portrayed as being manipulative and subtly volatile, not innocent and truthful. In an attempt to escape persecution Abigail cleverly exploits the chaos around her in order to show herself as being pure and holy in front of the court, especially in front of the ever-watchful supreme judge, Danforth. Knowingly under the eyes of the judges Abigail wails-”I want to open myself!… I want the light of god, the sweet love of Jesus!”. shockingly, she is even motivated so much by fear and revenge that she harms herself in order to sustain her image as the “exploited and manipulated little girl” evidence for this is given when Hale says “Abigail were found tonight, a needle in her belly”. Abigail put the blame on the Proctors servant, Mary, but it is obvious that she herself did it to gain revenge on the Proctors for sacking her, John betraying her and Mary Warren for taking her place as the new servant. This is an example of Abigail’s power, she wanted it to appear as though Elizabeth had done this because she was envious of her relationship with her ex-lover John, and she wished Elizabeth dead.

Fear of death, fear of change, fear of the unknown…Fear motivates nearly all of the characters in “The Crucible” and is shown to spread, like a disease, throughout the town. It is a constant factor and perhaps the fear of change is the most noticeable. In the play, to be different is to be evil and this is shown through the gossip and suspicion surrounding the black slave, Tituba. The fear of change is shown especially in those characters with high ranking positions in the theocracy. Danforth, for example, has to persecute for fear that if he does not he will be denying the fact that witches exist and contradicting theocracy, thus his position of power within the theocracy could potentially be lost because there would be no theocracy.

Proctor is seen to be fearful of losing his name and therefore his honour, towards the end of the play he becomes almost transfixed with this. He is seen to be so powerfully motivated that he is prepared to die rather than live on in shame. At the very end of the play Rebecca Nurse says to Proctor “Let you fear nothing! Another judgement awaits us all!”-the other “judgement” refers to “judgement day”, the time when God judges us for our sins. Rebecca says this to motivate john and to reassure him that he’s doing the right thing. This is not the same for the majority of the townsfolk in Salem, as they, motivated by fear of death, desperately attempt to avoid dying in the gallows by means of belligerency, trickery and deceit. At the very end of the play when John Proctor is about to be hung Mary is asked to tell the truth and save him but, gripped by fear she denies as she says-”(sobbing constantly) I cannot, I cannot, I cannot!”. the level of fear in the town is evident as Mary Warren seems almost hysterical with fear. Abigail is extraordinarily clever and manipulative and uses fear as a weapon to control the other girls, also to stop them from exposing her as a liar and ruining her “clean-handed” and “un-censurable ” image. She has an untarnished reputation and will do everything she can to keep it that way. Mary shouts-”she’ll kill me for saying that!” This shows the fear that circulates around Abigail, almost as if she thrives off the other girls fear. Mary- “(with hysterical fright) what’s got her?” -taking advantage of the existing fear, Abigail uses it to exploit and manipulate the situation and the characters involved. Living in a theocratic society influences and motivates characters to do what the theocracy tells them is right, the theocracy told them that the bible had instructed them that “witches” and “devil worshippers” were to be killed. Basically, this meant that any idiosyncrasies or people with different ideologies and beliefs were branded the devils work.

“The inhabitants of Salem believed in witches and the devil and also believed that the bible had instructed them that witches must be hanged”, this extract further proves the theocratic influence on the townsfolk. The leaders of the theocracy believed that as long as witches, or different people, were exterminated and deterred from the town the community would hold together and strive. The point of theocracy is explained in the play “The people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function is to keep the community together. Many characters such as Danforth and Hathorne were motivated by their power within the theocracy to keep it together and thus preserve their status and power within the theocracy. They believed that their positions in power, source of income and, in some cases, the downfall of Salem were under threat from lack of theocratic order; they also believed that Salem was powered by religion and trusted fully in theocracy to maintain order. An example of how theocracy motivated various characters to uphold it and prosecute the “witches” is- “the only safeguard against evil of all kinds was felt to lie in a strict code of laws imposing conformity on all the inhabitants”

John Proctor, however, is seen to reject theocracy and, in my opinion, he brandishes theocracy as the cause of the “witch hunts”. He is motivated by the anger he feels as he realises that the people at the head of the theocracy are corrupt and that they are prosecuting innocent people; “I say-I say-god is dead!” Proctor rejects the idea of theocracy as he believes that the people in power, like Parris, are corrupt. Proctor also refused to go to church because he believed Parris to be unholy, greedy and a corrupt minister. Evidence of his mistrust of Parris is revealed when he says “why do you never wonder if Parris or Abigail be innocent?… were they born this morning as clean as gods fingers?”

Theocracy influences people to have a strong sense of justice, yet when reverend Hale proclaims: “let you rest upon the justice of the court” there is a strong sense of irony in it because he has begun to believe that the court is corrupt and that they are persecuting innocent people in the name of god. The strong notion of justice definitely motivates characters to “do the right thing”, although some characters have different ideas on what they think is just…

Jealousy is a key factor in “The Crucible”, linked with the continual theme of persecution, we are left to wonder whether jealousy was one of the root causes of the “Salem witch hunts”. Jealousy is used as a dramatic device by Miller but there are many characters who are also shown to be motivated by it. Many of the events that happen in the crucible are a consequence of jealousy; Elizabeth’s persecution is a direct consequence of Abigail’s jealousy. In “The Crucible” when we think of jealousy we automatically refer to Abigail and Elizabeth’s reflecting jealousy for each other. Abigail is jealous of Elizabeth because she is married to her secret lover, John Proctor, she envies him and tries to manipulate and steer the “witch hunt” scenario in order to gradually emotionally and physically destroy her.

There are numerous extracts from the play showing Abigail’s hatred and jealousy for Elizabeth but I have chosen these two quotes because they show her true emotions and feelings about Elizabeth, “(with a bitter anger) oh I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife…” Abigail shows a “bitter anger” at how Proctor chose Elizabeth over her. Abigail- “Goody Proctor’s a gossiping liar!” -further evidence that Abigail loathes and despises Elizabeth. The jealousy is reciprocated and mirrored by Elizabeth who, in a rare fit of rage, says- “The girl is murder! She must be ripped out of the world!” she is jealous of Abigail because she enticed her husband, John Proctor, with her young and luscious attraction. Evidence that Elizabeth knew of the affair is shown when she says- “I came to think he fancied her. And so one night I lost my wits, I think, and put her out onto the highroad. ” Elizabeth also realises that Abigail is intent on splitting her and John apart, she announces- “She will cry me out until they take me!” not only does she realise Abigail’s malicious scheme but also she recognises that Abigail is so motivated and invigorated by her jealousy for Elizabeth she is even prepared to bring John down in order to emotionally hurt Elizabeth. “she has an arrow in you yet John Proctor!” – Abigail’s mentality is that if she cant have Proctor, then neither can Elizabeth…

At times Elizabeth seems fearful of Abigail- “ she wants me dead!” Elizabeth’s fear of Abigail is confirmed. Nevertheless, Abigail occasionally seems fearful of “Goody” Proctor’s stoical, almost virginal attitude.

Abigail-” she is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, snivelling woman!” Did the hatred between Abigail and Elizabeth cause the situation in Salem to escalate? Perhaps all three members of the “jealousy-love triangle” are to blame. Abigail was foolish in the fact that she sought love with a married man; John was foolish to accept her, and Elizabeth feels she is to blame because she “kept a cold house”. Jealousy is clearly very influential with characters such as Abigail and Elizabeth.

Miller wanted to study human motivation because he wished to show the link between persecution and the motivation behind it in Salem, and how it mirrors the “McCarthy witch hunts” in 1950s America. Miler himself was persecuted for being a communist, and he wanted to show the audience how wrong the persecution was, by subtly showing a situation that effectively embodied the “McCarthy witch hunts”. Miller tried to show the inhabitants motivation being mirrored with the motivation in 1950s anti-communist America. He effectively reflects the hysteria between the two events. The play is relevant to modern audiences because the themes and issues the play addresses are going on in our modern society today, especially the theme of persecution. For example, even in our modern age, people are still being persecuted and discriminated against for their race, beliefs and appearance. Millers study of human motivation is very real and easily related to. The play is a successful study of human motivation, we learn that its a powerful thing, and that without it the tragic events in Salem and 50s America would never have occurred.

In conclusion; “sex, sin and the devil were early linked”, an example of the corruption and exploitation within the town. “The Crucible” is a study looking into what motivated the characters and how the situation was created and exploited by each individual character’s motives. It would be true to say that every character was motivated by something and without elements of the extremist theocracy there would have been no horrific persecution, and we would not remember the deaths of many innocent people who died in 1692 in a town, called Salem.