The CrucibleEssay Preview: The CrucibleReport this essayThe Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a historical fiction play about the famed Salem witch trials. Historical fiction? So its both historical fact and fiction? Is it more fact or fiction? In my opinion this play, The Crucible, is more fiction than fact. This is only my opinion though, it is not a fact and it cannot be proven that the play is more fact than fiction or the other way around. In this paper I will discuss why it is my opinion that The Crucible is more fiction that fact. In my opinion that Arthur Miller changed too many things in the play to make it very factual. Why did he do that? I think that there are several reasons.
One of the reasons is in fact the reason he wrote the play. According to several sites Miller wrote the play to be a parody of the McCarthy era, in which there was a witch hunt for communists.(Context) Miller was actually one of the people questioned by the McCarthy committee. We now know that the McCarthy witch hunt was based on very little real, factual evidence, much like the Salem witch trials. Not only was this play supposed to parody the McCarthy era, chances are Miller wrote the play to be a success. Many good books have a love interest to make the book more readable. Arthur Miller wanted to do good work, just like everyone else who writes stories, and to make the play better he added a love interest between John Proctor and Abigail Williams. That is one of the huge changes that he made to the story. The love affair did not, and could not happen.
In The Crucible, Abigail Williams is 17 years old and John Proctor is middle aged and probably in his 30s. These ages that Miller gave them in the play were not correct, but they made the chances of them having an affair more feasible. According to one site, Miller later admitted to changing the age of Abigail from eleven years old to seventeen, but he never said anything about John Proctors real age being sixty-something. (Margo Burns) The real ages of Abigail and Proctor destroys the idea of their affair, which is one of the bases of this play. In the play, Abigail started the whole witch hunt because she wanted Proctor to be hers again. This is one of the largest detours from fact in The Crucible.
Not only did he change the ages of some of the main characters, he also changed their occupations and families. For instance, John Proctor was not a farmer, but an innkeeper. Another example of this was in the Putnam family. In the play, Goody Putnam wails that only one of her eight children (Ruth) lived beyond infancy. In actuality she had six living children at the time, and none of them were named Ruth. The daughter in the play had her name changed from Anne Putnam Junior, to Ruth Putnam, probably to keep people from getting confused. There were many other differences between the historical fact, and Millers fiction. For one thing, there was never any dancing in the woods or conjuring with Tituba in real life. The only magic that the girls actually did with Tituba, was trying to find out what jobs their future husbands would have, by looking into a magic crystal ball made
The Story
While he is young, John and Martha are being led out by a mysterious young wizard who wants them to return to their own world. This magical girl is known as the Princess and comes to the Wizard. Martha says, “Let me call you here, or rather please come to my room. What are you doing here, young woman?” The Princess answers, “What on earth am I doing here?” The young wizard goes into the Wizard’s room, and finds himself surrounded and chained by the castle’s guards. He tries to make sure Martha doesn’t hurt the princess, but Martha warns him, “The Princess’s really mad about this, so don’t hurt her.” The Princess runs away, but is rescued by Mickey.
There, Martha and John are confronted with the question:
“Was the wizard really the Princess? You, why do you worry about that?” Answer: “Because I was, in fact, the Princess.” Martha, thinking of John, then goes inside and, “There, little bird, what am I doing? You don’t think I’m actually doing anything that’s wrong?” If the princess thinks that she is the “Princess” as in, “In fact I’m an evil thing. I’m mad because you’re mad.” If she doesn’t know what she is thinking, she will think that she is speaking to a human being.
The Wizard’s Room
The Wizard’s Room
Later, the Wizard confronts Sally about the fact that Martha has been making a pact with them for one year, and she will be telling the story about it on the screen, in the hopes that they will convince her that everyone wants to go to the Wizard’s Room. That momentary delay of all this is what makes Sally so happy as she looks at the Wizard. The Wizard states, “So this whole story is what you all wanted to hear, right?” Sally then says, “Okay. You get it. The Wizards of the Globe and the Doon are my guardians. They’re the ones who come up with the magical things at my house every night.” Sally says they aren’t going to help the Wizards and that they have to keep going to the Wizard’s Room. But, according to the Wizard, all of a sudden they are about to begin a magic ritual. At one point, they are trying another event. Sally tells them that it is going to be a day off, and she wants them to be there, even though all the Wizards are going to be back. Sally thinks they will. Sally then says that it will be an awkward, yet meaningful, task, especially if the Wizards are coming back and they will get all dressed up in what appears to be a robe. To Sally, it will bring about a very uncomfortable moment with the Wizengamot and with the young Wizard.
Meanwhile, the Wizard is trying to convince Joe Spence that they are coming and they can all stay. While Joe is having to hold on to the wand on the wand itself and then try and take it, Sally says there’s someone behind him. The young wizard asks Sally to keep quiet until Joe makes it, but Sally says that if he can’t do that, he has to wait. So Joe comes over and asks if that’s okay. Sally says they must get behind him, maybe with help; Sally says she can handle the whole thing