The Crucible Allusions Quotes

There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. Ann Putnam uses metaphorical language to describe what she believes to be the web of hidden plots and powers manipulating the fates of people in Salem. Malevolent forces and not God’s work, she believes, are behind her losing seven babies and her daughter and Betty Parris falling ill. She earlier admitted to asking Tituba to communicate with her dead babies to find out who murdered them. Mrs. Putnam’s paranoid idea about people in league with the Devil foreshadows the mass hysteria that will grip the panicked Putitans of Salem and fuel the Salem witch trials. "Wheels within wheels" is also an allusion to what the Hebrew prophet Ezekiel said in the Book of Ezekiel. In a spectacular vision Ezekiel saw four angels, each with four wings and four faces. There were four wheels beside the angels sparkling like diamonds in the sun, each with another wheel inside it – "wheels within wheels." Ezekiel was one of the Jews exiled to Babylon after the fall of his city of Jerusalem. His vision was a sign that God had not abandoned him or his people.

The Deputy Governor promise hangin’ if they’ll not confess, John. The town’s gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear her. Abigail brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel. And folks are brought before them, and if they scream and howl and fall to the floor – the person’s clapped in the jail for bewitchin’ them.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth quotes Mary Warren on how Abigail is seen as a prophet since she confessed. In a simile, Abby is compared to a saint. Using another simile "like the sea for Israel," Mary Warren describes how the crowds part for Abigail whenever she leads the other girls into court to give evidence. This is an allusion to a story from the Book of Exodus about Moses using his power to part the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross. The hysteria of the witchcraft trials is evident here in a town "gone wild" and where the accused are given the choice: confess or be hanged! Justic1e in the Salem trials means confessing or be put to death. Even if you’re innocent, you must confess to avoid being hanged

You’ll tear it free – when you come to know that I will be your only wife, or no wife at all! She has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Elizabeth Proctor uses allusion and metaphor when she tells her husband that Abigail still has a hold over his heart. The arrow is a reference to the Greek mythological love god Cupid’s arrow, shot at lovers to inspire love. Despite John’s infidelity Elizabeth still clearly loves him and gives him the choice of being with her or Abigail.

He plow on Sunday…I think it be evidence, John. I am an official of the court, I cannot keep it.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. Here John Proctor’s practice of his Christian faith is called into question. Ezekiel Cheever, the tailor turned clerk of the witch trials court, attempts to undermine Proctor’s credibility. He provides the court with "evidence" that Proctor has been seen plowing his fields on Sunday. The Puritans of Salem don’t tolerate people who disrespect the sabboth in this way. Puritan society demanded that people follow the teachings of the Bible and not work on the sabbath or Lord’s day. This passage is an allusion to God’s Fourth Commandment, from the Book of Exodus: "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy."

PROCTOR: I – I have once or twice plowed on Sunday. I have three children, sir, and until last year my land give little.
GILES: You’ll find other Christians that do plow on Sunday if the truth be known.
HALE: Your Honor, I cannot think you may judge the man on such evidence.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. When Cheever attacks John Proctor for failing to observe the Bible teaching by working on the sabbath day, Proctor admits that he has "once or twice" plowed on Sunday because he had children to feed. Giles Corey and Reverend Hale come to John’s defense, suggesting that this doesn’t prove he isn’t a true Christian. This passage is an allusion to God’s teaching about the sabbath in the Book of Exodus: "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work."

PARRIS: Do you read the Gospel, Mr. Proctor?
PROCTOR: I read the Gospel.
PARRIS: I think not, or you should surely know that Cain were an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Proctor has been trying to persuade the court to consider the upright reputations of the people being accused of witchcraft. But Reverend Parris tries to undermine John’s argument with an allusion to the Bible story of brothers Cain and Abel. Cain may have been an honorable man, but that didn’t stop him from committing the terrible deed of killing his brother. Parris is making the case that even seemingly good people who lead a blameless life are capable of doing evil.

Do that which is good, and no harm shall come to thee.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. John Proctor give this advise to Mary Warren, quoting what the angel Raphael said to the boy Tobias. This is an allusion to a story from the Book of Tobit, one of the books of the Apocrypha, which form part of the Catholic Bible but are omitted from the Protestant. The story tells of two Israelite families, that of the blind Tobit in Nineveh and of the abandoned Sarah in Ecbatana who is plagued by a demon. The archangel Raphael helps Tobit defeat the demon. There is a tragic irony in what Proctor advises Mary. The audience knows that good people are being arrested and accused, while evil continues and those doing harm are free to point fingers at the innocent.

Remember the angel, what he say to the boy. Hold to it, now; there is your rock.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. John Proctor uses the metaphor of a rock to advise Mary Warren to be strong. He asks her to remember that archangel Raphael advised Tobit and his son Tobias to "Do that which is good, and no harm will come to thee." He is alluding to the story from the Book of Tobit, one of the books of the Apocrypha. It tells of how Tobias fell in love with Sarah, a woman plagued by a demon that killed each of her seven previous husbands. With the help of Raphael the demon is exorcised and Tobias and Sarah marry.

HALE: Excellency, if you postpone a week and publish to the town that you are striving for their confessions, that speak mercy on your part, not faltering.
DANFORTH: Mr. Hale, as God have not empowered me like Joshua to stop this sun from rising, so I cannot withhold from them the perfection of their punishment.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. When Danforth is asked to delay the hangings, the Deputy Governor uses the language of religion in his reply to Reverend Hale. The passage is an allusion to the prophet Joshua who with God’s help stops the sun from rising. Hale is a man transformed who now wants to save lives instead of taking them unnecessarily. But the stubborn Danforth is not for turning.

HALE: Goody Proctor, I have gone this three month like our Lord into the wilderness. I have sought a Christian way, for damnation’s doubled on a minister who counsels men to lie.
HATHORNE: It is no lie, you cannot speak of lies.
HALE: It is a lie! They are innocent!
DANFORTH: I’ll hear no more of that!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. Reverend Hale has undergone a spiritual metamorphosis after spending some time away from the frenzied atmosphere of Salem’s witch hunts. The allusion to Christ’s 40 days and nights in the desert is used by Miller to portray Hale’s period of reflection away from the madness of Salem. Hale tells Elizabeth that he is counseling the accused witches to lie and confess to witchcraft, which is ironic for a clergyman. He wants her to persuade husband John to do just that to escape hanging. Hale is telling the court that he now believes the witchcraft accusations are a complete fraud. Judges Hathorne and Danforth refuse to accept that.
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