This weekend at The College of Wooster, the theater department put on The Crucible. The play, for those who haven’t seen it, is about the Salem Witch Trials where innocent people were condemned to death for witchcraft by a group of girls who claimed they were under spells from people. In the play, they emphasize the role that they played in which they made up lies about the other people who condemned people to witchcraft for personal gain. Once someone was condemned for witchcraft, they could live by confessing that they worked with the devil and giving up the rights to their land that would go up for sale to be bought by the town aristocrat, Mr. Putnam. One of the girls has a crush on Mr. Proctor and convicts his wife of witchcraft so that she may replace her. This play reflects the lies and deceit that circulated around the Salem Witch Trials and expose how so many good people were out to death for no more than personal gain, and I wanted to share some reflections I had after watching the play.
One of the main things that struck out to me is the strict judicial system, and how thin the line was between guilty and innocent. In the play, the judges talked about how the people who are innocent should have nothing to fear, but yet no one was willing to come before the court. People feared for their right to speak, because if anyone challenged the authenticity of the court they were tried for witchcraft. This created such a rift between the townspeople and their government out of fear for their lives.
A large common theme of the play is how words and stories can run wild in society or just a small group of people. The entire play was one story of girls running through the woods and Abigail Williams taking part in witchcraft. One person dragged in everyone together and created a stir in the whole community, and rather than come clean about it, they created a wall of lies to hide what they had done which began to spiral out of control as they claimed more and more cases of witchcraft in Salem. The belief in simple superstition and the lies of only a handful or girls caused so much strife for the community.
One of the main points at the center of the story was being true to yourself as well. So much happens in the play between introducing the girls who first started claiming witchcraft and the night John Proctor’s wife is placed under arrest. The only reason that those girls had been able to get so far and do so much damage is because John did not have the courage to go into town and confront the court about what Abigail said to him in private. Because John faltered, he allowed Abigail to gain power in the court. The same can be said for how when John failed to stay true to his wife and began to fall for Abigail, sparking the whole event because he played with a woman’s emotions.
The Crucible was a play about the truth and willingness to act on that truth. It shows how when people falter to do what is right or fix the wrong that they have done, that situations can grow wild and out of control. Once these events begin to gain momentum, everyone around them begins to be dragged in as it expands and brings ruin to the community.
