The title of Author Miller s play the Crucible fits the story in many ways. There are many definitions for a crucible but mainly two of them fit the story most. The first definition of a crucible is a melting pot that chemist and alchemists used to mix metals, but in order to melt the metals down they had to heat the metals up to a certain point for them to turn to liquids. So in fact a crucible is a container that can withstand high temperatures. In this way the characters of the play have to withstand a lot of heat but like all metals they find their boiling point and just give up. This is evident in the play when John Proctor, the story s main character, becomes so enthralled with the trial and all the pressure that he signs his own death warrant just to get it over with.
The second definition of a crucible is a great test or trial, and as one might know the story unfolds itself to be a great trial of good versus evil. The title serves as a point of departure for the reader and gives the reader a edge into the story even before you start to read the play itself. In a metaphorical way, Miller uses the title The Crucible to potray many points. For example, The Crucible actually intended to be a satire of the anti-Soviet feeling that ran rampant throughout the country. The plays intention was to potray and poke holes into the feeling of the day, and the whole McCarthy trials going on back then. The play connected to that whole era because it showed how the hysteria of a people leads to its downfall and how the only thing we have to fear is our selves.
The Essay on "The 'Yellow Bird' Spirit" – Analysis Of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" Play
One of the most vibrant, deep, and sagacious screenplays of the 21st century is Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” Miller brilliantly comments on human morals, authority, and mass hysteria. He parallels the events of Salem in 1600’s to the blacklisting and the discrimination against those who were labeled as a “communist” in America during the 1950’s. He ...
For his work on this play and his affirmation of once being a member of the Communist party, Miller was put on a Black List. Like the Salem witch trials, many lives were ruined by the McCarthy trials. So Miller portrays himself to be John Proctor, a hard working, respectable, honest man whose life is destroyed by the trials. Connecting this all to the title, one can find that Miller was going through a Crucible of his own and this whole incident influenced his writing. Spiritually, the play s title The Crucible could have a reference to hell if one connects that a crucible is really hot and that hell is perceived to be really hot. One can tell that the presence of hell is found throughout the story.
To find the references to hell one has to connect the whole idea that everything that lives in hell is evil, and everything found in the village at the ending of the story is evil. The presence of Satan is found throughout the story. John Proctor even notices it by saying A fire is burning, I hear the boot of Lucifer. Like a crucible the town is starting to be destroyed by evil found within itself. The heat and presence of Satan and all his creations. As well as this point, the word crucible is taken from the Latin word crucibulum.
The root word of crucibulum is crux. This is important for many reason. First, the word crux has ties to crucifixion. In the story John Procter was crucified for his belief and doing what he though would be honest. He was crucified because he didn t die of old age or cancer, but for believing in what he thought was right. That is what cruxifaction is.
The second importance of this is that most of the people who were convicted of witchcraft were crucified at the stake. They were burned to death. The church was trying to prove its holiness by crucifixion but led to a leading theme of irony found throughout the play. The purpose of a crucible is to melt things down by using very intense pressure and heat. This is illustrated in the play when Danforth says to Proctor in Act Three We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment. The court scenes were times of tension, intensity, pressure, and conflicts between powerful authority type characters to realize they have signed away the lives of many innocent people simply because of a little lie.
The Essay on A Crucible
Crucible is a word that mixes many feelings and emotions where most words tend to be more ambiguous. Because the word crucible has multiple meanings, Arthur Miller chose The Crucible as a title to try to express the subtleties of the plays message. The usual and most widely used definition for crucible, according to the New Oxford Dictionary of English, is: a pot or vessel made of a substance, ...
Also, the severe intensity and pressure of the court scenes also connected to the them of heating things up. The situation in the court is of immense proportions. One can get the hint that the judges are upset because of the way they address the congregation and defendants. The judge s hostility is sensed when he forces Mary Warren to lie in order to live, but instead is killed because she lied.
The harshness of the judge is intense as he forgets about human feelings and just focuses on killing innocent people because of some weak threat. In short, adaptable given title crucible is related to the play in many ways. Miller directly, historically, and metaphorically ties it down and connects it all to the title. In fact the crucible has a another meaning not yet mentioned. Since a crucible melts down metals, I realized that a homophone (or word that has a different meaning but sounds the same) for the word metal is mettle. What mettle is is your spirit, strength, or courage.
This might be pure coincidence but yet has a real tie to the story because the many themes found throughout the play are the characters enduring courage and strength to overcome the hardships at which they faced. So, the title has many relationships to the themes found throughout the play and in my opinion was appropriately titled.
