Thesis For The Crucible

Andrew McIntosh

12/10/2015

Thesis Paper

In this thrilling play directed by Arthur Miller, The Crucible portrays the incidents of the Salem Witch Trials during the late 1600’s. This action packed drama shows the struggle between John Proctor and Abigail Williams. Their relationship leads them down the wrong path. While Proctor is having an affair with Abigail his wife Elizabeth Proctor becomes suspicious with John’s distant behavior. Throughout the play, Abigail struggles to become close to John but John tries to revert his wrong doings and apologize to Elizabeth but Abigail still wants a relationship. Abigail begins to forge lies about others, committing witchcraft and accuses many innocent people who soon met their fate. John Hale is summoned to evaluate Salem and rid the town of evil but, his journey eventually leads him down the opposite path and actually encourages an alignment with evil.

Reverend Hale is a “spiritual doctor” whose job is to rid Salem of any evil or spiritual people in this small town. He comes to Salem with full intentions to help others and devotes all of his time to “clean” this infected town. Entering this overwhelming situation, Hale wants to gather as much information as possible but is soon bombarded with details he can’t fathom. Overloaded with evidence, he attempts to decipher fact

He was cocky and ignorant going off what people said instead of investigating the situation on his own. Manipulated and confused he begins to revert from being a holy and single minded man to an open minded thinker. He soon discovered how corrupt the court system is and this leads him down a better path. Hale is a changed man, he sought out witches and in the end discovered corruption. Evaluating Salem with witch hunting skills and an narrow minded Hale was manipulated and transformed from what he believed to be holy to quite the