Good or bad? – A Literary Analysis by Arthur Miller "the crucible"

In “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller plays two women whose characters, when juxtaposed, seem to be in stark contrast to one another. Although the exact words are not used, one woman is basically presented in the story as “good” and the other woman as “evil”. Such black and white failures of these characters would be ironic, considering that Arthur Miller wrote his play to expose the dangers of judging people with different mindsets or belief systems. Miller portrayed that such illogical reasoning is dangerous or, at least, counterproductive.

By exploring the characters and motives of the two main women, Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor, a rough microcosm emerges, paralleling the message of the story as a whole. The reader begins to recognize that there is more at stake than a superficial portrayal of “good” versus “evil.”

Abigail Williams, the “bad” girl, is introduced in the play as the ringleader who led other girls to a taboo gathering; Her main goal was to bewitch Elizabeth Proctor, the wife of John Proctor, with whom she had an affair when she lived with them as a servant. Clearly, what for John was a slight detour from the path of morality was for Abigail the doorway to a new world. Abigail was confused and her reasoning was illogical, but that was no different from the logically affected perspective of many in the city of Salem, even the most powerful and well-educated. Abigail’s reasoning that if Elizabeth died, she would get John, fits well with the illogical perspectives of many characters in the play. Her motives were, in a morally safe world, wrong; yet they were so well hidden that few saw through her veneer of haunted innocence.

If Abigail’s reasoning was illogical and her motives impure, her methods definitely tipped the scales against her character. She was willing to let numerous innocent people get accused and die. In many cases, she sat in the accuser’s seat. Having the story written as a novel might have been helpful at this point, because the only glimpse into Abigail’s point of view is the argument she had with John Proctor, which Arthur Miller cut out for a while from the story.

In that conversation, the young woman seemed completely convinced of the rightness of their cause as well as entranced by her fantasy that she would have John once his wife died: “God gave me strength to call them liars… Oh, John, I will such a wife from you when the world is white again” (150). Maybe Abigail was really set up, or maybe she was just too good at playing the part, even for John Proctor. It’s almost like she, at that moment, she had gone so far that she, whether she believed her lie or whether she was deliberately faking it all along, she knew it would be suicide to stop there.

At the end of the story, the “evil” woman escaped, flawless in the eyes of many, into the night, having stolen her uncle’s money to get her out of the volatile situation. Here again the reasoning of the men in power can be questioned. If the main accuser was gone, having stolen money – which in those days must have been a more tangible crime than sending the spirit of one to hurt another in the night – wouldn’t it stand to reason that perhaps his testimony should be disputed? However, such an idea never arose and the men who sustained the lives in the domain of his trial continued on their unwitting path to false sentences and ultimately murder.

Elizabeth Proctor, by contrast, was the “good” woman. She plunged right into the story in the first scene of Act II, an awkward scene to read. The unnatural speech between husband and wife looks like a thinly stretched eggshell covering over a wound. When John Proctor exploded towards the end of their dialogue, his words acted like a crack in that taut covering, yet Elizabeth simply handed over the power of judgment to him, saying, “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart. who judges you. I never considered you anything but a good man” (55). This heated exchange brings to light the problems that surfaced beneath the surface of her in her marriage, which do not fully surface until the end of the play.

The clearest insight into Elizabeth’s mind and heart comes from a conversation that took place at the last meeting between her and John: “I have read my heart these three months, John. I have my own sins to tell. A wife is needed.” cold”. to incite lust… I counted myself so vulgar, so badly done, that no honest love could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did; I never knew how to say my love. It was a cold house that I kept” (137).

Here, Elizabeth’s heart was exposed in a way no other character’s was, showing the deeper reason why they had a strained marriage. Elizabeth always considered herself inferior, unpleasant. One can only imagine the world of her younger years, possibly a child of many, forgotten and overlooked, most likely harshly judged for misdemeanors. One represents little joy in such a community and a one-sided approach to Christianity, which was a form of Old Testament legalism without the promise of love and forgiveness. Not once in history were concepts such as permanent joy, abundant life or forgiving love mentioned. It was all judgment and harsh sentences, the very element that Jesus questioned when he expounded the motives of the religious class of his day, the Pharisees.

Elizabeth’s character represented, in a way, all those who grew up under the yoke of distorted belief systems. Her outlook and existence were a product of that upbringing, though she probably didn’t know it herself. In this sense, Elizabeth’s character was not very different from Abigail’s. Raised with little love and little true understanding of the world around them, these women’s only survival was their obedience to rules that in many cases were neither logical nor biblical. Both women were plagued by fear: Elizabeth by the fear of not being loved and could never be truly loved for who she was; Abigail, fearing that if she didn’t take matters into her own hands, she would spend her life alone and unhappy.

In the end, Elizabeth discovered that they really loved her. Perhaps it was too little too late, but her husband loved her. Her husband was willing to give her life, perhaps not exactly or entirely for her, but in a way her act represented that selfless love. John Proctor’s love for his wife gave him the strength to confess his deeds to Abigail, and though he put him in a bad light and brought him death, he would rather die for the love of his wife than live without her One analysis states that “Elizabeth’s noblest act comes at the end when she helps the tortured John Proctor forgive himself just before his death” (Shmoop).

The story reveals that Elizabeth Proctor, although charged, was not convicted. If Arthur Miller was accurate in her portrayal of her character, one can only hope that her life was transformed by the fact that she knew she was loved. Maybe she didn’t feel so simple and act so suspicious, because true love transforms the heart in ways that cannot be explained but only experienced. Abigail, on the other hand, escaped the situation, running from her fear in the end. It can only be assumed that she followed her to the end of her days. Her story was not a happily ever after as she never faced the things she most feared.

The “good” woman and the “bad” woman were both products of her upbringing. Still, they had the power to choose whether this would determine their decisions or whether they would rise above and take the harder path of truth, acceptance of even their deepest fears, and love. One is not surprised, considering the actions of these two women throughout history, by the decisions they made in the end. There was no character arc for Abigail, but there was for Elizabeth, who came to understand love and forgiveness in ways she never had. Presumably, hopefully, she freed her to live for real.

Works Cited

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: Screenplay. New York: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Shmoop Editorial Team. “Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible”. Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., November 11, 2008. Web. March 17, 2014.