The Crucible McCarthyism Quotes

Like Reverend Hale and the others on this stage, we conceive the Devil as a necessary part of a respectable view of cosmology. Ours is a divided empire in which certain ideas and emotions and actions are of God, and their opposites are of Lucifer. The concept of unity, in which positive and negative are attributes of the same force, in which good and evil are relative, ever-changing, and always joined to the same phenomenon – such a concept is still reserved to the physical sciences and to the few who have grasped the history of ideas.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. In this explanation, Miller says that we live in a divided world of extremes, black and white, positive and negative forces that constantly oppose one another. One side sees their ideas and actions as being of God, and those of the other side being the work of the Devil. The author is touching on the themes of good vs evil and intolerance in this passage. Miller is saying that good cannot exist without evil, and vice versa. He is providing the context in which religion and politics are played out in the rigid Puritan society of Salem, where if you are not seen to be with God you are with Lucifer. The 1950s McCarthyism is also seen here, the play being an allegory for the Red Scare led by Senator Joe McCarthy in which people were unjustly hounded over their supposed communist loyalties.

When the Devil comes to you does he ever come – with another person? Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you know…You are God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chosen to help us cleanse our village. So speak utterly, turn your back on him and face God – face God, and he will protect you.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. We see the themes of power, good vs evil and hysteria here, as Reverend Hale attempts to get Tituba give up the names of others in league with the Devil. Having herself confessed, the lowly black slave’s status is suddenly raised up when asked to be an instrument of God to help root out Satan’s agents. The word instrument is personified by Hale. He offers Tituba the power to accuse and condemn others to death. The language of Hale’s questioning of Tituba amplifies further the hysteria among the Salem townspeople. There are also strong echoes of McCarthyism here. During the 1950s Red Scare people were pressed to name names of people with communist affiliations before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Playwright Miller himself was convicted of contempt of court when he refused to name suspected communists to the committee. This was later reversed by the Supreme Court.

Oh, how many times he bid me kill you, Mr. Parris…He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man, Mr. Parris mean man and no gently man, and he bid me rise out of my bed and cut your throat! But I tell him "No! I don’t hate that man. I don’t want kill that man." But he say, "You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free! I give you pretty dress to wear, and put you way high up in the air, and you gone fly back to Barbados!" And I say, "You lie, Devil, you lie!" And then he come one stormy night to me, and he say, "Look! I have white people belong to me." And I look – and there was Goody Good…and Goody Osburn.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. After being pressured by Parris and Hale to confess to dealing with the Devil and to reveal the names of others, Barbados slave Tituba lies and does so. She makes up a story of how Satan ordered her to kill Parris, quoting the Devil’s words of how bad and mean her master Parris is. Then she offers false testimony that she saw homeless beggar Sarah Good and town drunkard Sarah Osburn in the company of the Devil. In confessing and naming these unfortunate women as "witches," Tituba is hoping to save herself from death. This mirrors events during the witch hunt of communists led by Senator Joe McCarthy during the 1950s, when people were pressured to confess and name names.

Take courage, you must give us all their names. How can you bear to see this child suffering? Look at her, Tituba. Look at her God-given innocence; her soul is so tender; we must protect her, Tituba; the Devil is out and preying on her like a beast upon the flesh of the pure lamb. God will bless you for your help.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. Hale, pointing to Betty on the bed, uses emotional and intimidatory tactics to pressurize Tituba into giving up the names of other "witches." For good measure he uses a vivid animal simile to compare the Devil’s possession of Betty to a beast preying on an innocent lamb. He bribes Tituba with the promise of God’s blessing and forgiveness if she gives up names. Characterizing this as a battle between good and evil, Hale appears to throw objectivity to the wind. As he buys into the idea of the Devil running loose in Salem, he only adds to the panic and hysteria. Those who fell foul of the McCarthy witch hunt for communists in 1950s America had similar pressures applied to them to name names of others.

I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 1. The act ends in dramatic fashion when the Parris house erupts into a fever of hysteria as opportunistic Abigail displays her power as a puppet master. She has just seen the slave Tituba win praise from Hale for her witchcraft confession. To get herself out of trouble, Abby decides to confess also and shout out the names of women she saw with the Devil. This triggers Betty to rise from her bed and cry out hysterically and name more names. Between them they falsely accuse eleven women of consorting with Satan. From then on Abby is the leader and master manipulator of the group of young girls who provide false testimony to the witch trials. There are considerable parallels between this scene and the false accusations and mass hysteria that surrounded the McCarthy era communist witch hunt.

For murder, she’s charged! (Mockingly quoting the warrant:) "For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies." What am I to do, Mr. Hale?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. A deeply upset Francis Nurse announces that his wife Rebecca has been charged with the unbelievable crime of the "supernatural murder" of Ann Putnam’s babies. The seven babies died on the day they were born and Mrs. Putnam became obsessed with finding who "murdered" them. She also resented the fact that all of Rebecca’s eleven children lived and only one of here did. Add to that the historic land disputes between the Nurse and Putnam families, and it becomes clear that motives of jealousy and vengeance are behind the Putnams instigating these charges. The accusations against Rebecca Nurse parallel the way Senator Joe McCarthy accused people of being communists without any substantial proof. In the McCarthy era false accusations based on the flimsiest of evidence was leveled against innocent Americans.

There is a misty plot afoot so subtle we should be criminal to cling to old respects and ancient friendships. I have seen too many frightful proofs in court – the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 2. There had been an expectation that Hale was a reasonable man who would not try to find witchcraft where it doesn’t exist. In his own parish of Beverly he determined that an accused woman was not a witch, but merely a "pest," and the child allegedly afflicted was back to normal after a few days rest and care. However, that now seems a forlorn hope as Hale now succumbs to Salem and the court’s witchcraft hysteria. He claims that there have been "frightful proofs" seen in court of the Devil alive in the town. The rising hysteria is personified in "the accusing finger points." The irrational mob mentality and climate of fear created is frightingly conveyed here by Miller, calling on his own experience of the Red Scare trials of the McCarthy era.

PARRIS: This is a clear attack upon the court!
HALE: Is every defense an attack upon the court? Can no one – ?
PARRIS: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem!

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. Puritan intolerance is on full view in the witch trials courtroom, where any defense or appeal to reason on behalf of the accused is labeled an "attack upon the court." Ninety-one people have signed a petition that the accused Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor and Martha Corey are not witches. But Parris insists that all 91 should be hauled into court and questioned. When Hale speaks up as the voice of reason, Parris make the highly ironic comment that all innocent people are happy with the courts in Salem. The audience knows that the women charged with witchcraft are innocent and have been accused as the result of the wicked and personal motives of other people. Parris’s attempt to stop evidence for the defense being presented has echoes in the way Senator Joe McCarthy saw resistance to his crusade against left-wing individuals as being un-American.

GILES: He’ll lay in jail if I give his name!
HATHORNE: This is contempt of the court, Mr. Danforth!
DANFORTH: You will surely tell us the name.
GILES: I will not give you no name. I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute.
DANFORTH: In that case, I have no choice but to arrest you for contempt of this court, do you know that?

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. The court pressures Giles Corey to provide the name of a man who heard Thomas Putnam admit to getting his daughter to accuse neighbors of witchcraft in order to acquire their land. Giles shows his integrity and refuses, saying how he mentioned his wife had read strange books and she was imprisoned for witchcraft. Judge Hawthorne accuses Giles of contempt and Judge Danforth threatens him with arrest. There are parallels with the McCarthyism Red Scare era, when people were similarly accused on the basis of flimsy evidence and pressured to name the names of other communists.

HALE: There is a prodigious fear of this court in the country.
DANFORTH: Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!
HALE: But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it.
DANFORTH: No uncorrupted man may fear this court, Mr. Hale! None! (To Giles): You are under arrest in contempt of this court.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 3. There are echoes of McCarthyism in this exchange between the top judge in the Salem witch trials court Danforth and Reverend John Hale. Hale speaks of the climate of fear create by a court that has imprisoned and hanged so many innocent people for the crime of witchcraft. But Danforth, with great irony, insists that no innocent person may fear the court. The truth is that many innocents have been condemned by his court of so-called justice. Just as Danforth fears a "plot to topple Christ in the country," Senator Joe McCarthy believed that communists wanted to topple democracy in the United States.

They think to go like saints. I like not to spoil their names.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. Proctor refuses Danforth’s demand that he name other people he saw with the Devil, including Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty and Martha Corey. While Proctor is willing to lie that he took part in witchcraft to save his own life, he is not prepared to blacken his innocent friends’ good names and lie about them. Using a simile, he says they believe that they are going to their death "like saints." The demand to name names was a feature of the McCarthy political witch hunt of the 1950s. At the time Miller wrote the play America was in the middle of the McCarthyism Red Scare.

I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.

– Arthur Miller

The Crucible, Act 4. After Proctor falsely confesses to binding himself to the Devil’s service, Danforth asks if he saw Rebecca Nurse, Mary Easty and Martha Corey with the Devil. But Proctor refuses to name names and incriminate others. He can only speak of his own sins, he says, being guilty of the sin of adultery. Proctor cannot point the finger of blame at others, showing his integrity. Many witnesses who appeared before Senator McCarthy’s House Committee on Un-American Activities were also pressed into naming names and suffered greatly when they refused.
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