Here in my third post on Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, we will look at the courtroom scene and the insanity that unfolds in Act Three. In this post, though, I will be putting my comments directly into the overview. Buckle up…and when I say that, I mean, be a good Puritan and buckle up the buckles on your hat and shoes!
An Overview (and Commentary) of Act Three: The Opening
In the course of Act Three, we learn that about a week has passed since Elizabeth’s arrest. The entire Act takes place in the courtroom in Salem, with Judge Danforth presiding over everything. The essence of what happens in Act Three is that John Proctor, Giles Corey, and Francis Nurse all make appeals to Judge Danforth to save their wives and to alert him to what’s really going on with all the supposed witchcraft accusations.
At every turn, though, the Reverend Parris—yes, the same one who caught the girls dancing in the woods, who saw a girl naked, who clearly had suspicions of Abigail’s reputation in town, and who was the first one to say he was sure there is no witchcraft afoot—he now is trying to squash anything that might challenge all the accusations of witchcraft. Why such a change? Well obviously, it’s because (as Miller told us himself) Parris is a villainous man who only cares about his own reputation!
In any case, when Proctor, Nurse, and Corey come to see Judge Danforth, we learn that Eliabeth claims she is pregnant. Danforth tells Proctor that means they won’t hang her for at least a year, so she’s safe for now, and then asks Proctor if he wants to really continue with his complaint, and wonders if Proctor really is just trying to undermine the court. Proctor says he wants to continue because the other people accused are his friends and he believes the court should be interested in getting to the truth.
Early on, he challenges Danforth by saying, “Excellency, does it not strike upon you that so many of these women have lived so long with such upright reputation…?” –meaning, “Doesn’t it seem weird that so many godly women are all of a sudden accused of witchcraft?” Then there is a brief exchange between Proctor and the Reverend Parris.
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.”
I’m sorry…what? Call me a bit of a Biblical Studies snob if you will, but (A) the story of Cain and Abel is not in any of the Gospels—it’s in Genesis; and (B) at no point anywhere in Genesis 3 is Cain ever described as “an upright man.”
An Overview (and Commentary) of Act Three: The Three Main Appeals
In any case, the rest of the Act plays out in the following way:
- Proctor, Corey, and Nurse provide Judge Danforth with a list of 91 names of people in town who vouch for the good, Christian character of Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse. Danforth’s response? Arrest them all for questioning!
- Corey provides Danforth with a sworn deposition that a man in town heard Thomas Putnam encourage his daughter Ruth to accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft, so that he would hang, his lands would be sold at auction, and then Putnam could buy his lands. They bring in Putnam, ask him if it is true, he says, “No way!” So, the judge’s response? “Tell me the name of the man who heard this.” But when Giles Corey refuses to name him (after all, why would he want to do that when he just saw how the court treated the names of the 91 people vouching for Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse!), Danforth orders for Corey to be arrested for contempt of court!
- Proctor then brings in Mary Warren and her deposition that claimed she never saw any spirits and that she and the other girls had made it all up. Danforth brings in the other girls and asks Abigail if Mary Warren is telling the truth. Abigail obviously says Mary Warren is lying, and so Judge Danforth decides he’s going to really dig for the truth. He challenges her about the poppets and says Mary Warren claimed Abigail sat beside her in court when she made the poppet and saw her make it and then put the needle in it. Abigail says that was a lie. Judge Danforth moves on and asks…
Let’s stop right there! Yes, Judge Danforth simply moves on? If I’m judge (or just a rational human being), I realize there is a very easy way to check that claim. Mary Warren claims she made the poppet in court and Abigail saw her making it; Abigail says that’s a lie. How about we then ask the other people in court that day if they saw Mary Warren making a poppet? Surely, if Mary Warren is telling the truth, someone would have seen her making a poppet. Alas, Judge Danforth doesn’t do that and just moves on. Again, another unbelievable plot hole.
Proctor and Mary Warren then bring up the whole “dancing naked in the woods” thing, and how the Reverend Parris caught them doing just that. Danforth says, “WHAT?” Parris says, “Well, I didn’t see anyone naked!” The Reverend Hale (who now is on Proctor’s side) says, “Oh, Parris told me he saw them dancing naked in the woods!” Parris replies, “Okay, dancing yes, but I never saw anyone naked!”
Let’s stop right there! Parris is outright lying. In Act One he did tell Abigail he saw someone naked, and he did tell the Reverend Hale that very thing. Now, we have Mary Warren make that claim, and we have the Reverend Hale testify in court that Parris told him that very thing. Yet, Parris lies in court…and Judge Danforth just passes over all that! Again, another unbelievable plot hole.
Instead, another judge, Judge Hathorne, says, “Hey Mary Warren, before, when you were claiming to see spirits, you and the other girls would suddenly faint. Well, if you were lying then, could you pretend to faint now?” To which Mary Warren essentially says, “No, I can’t! At the time, I just got caught up in the hysteria and played along!” It doesn’t make any sense that Mary Warren can’t fake this, other than if she did, Miller’s play would be over…case closed–and Miller can’t do that. And so, Danforth then asks Abigail if it was possible that she just thought there were spirits, but that there really were none? To which Abigail then says, “How dare you question me! Don’t think you’re so mighty that the power of Hell can’t get you too!” Translation? “If you question me, I’ll accuse you of working for Satan too!”
At that point, Abigail claims Mary Warren is sending a cold wind to torment her and the other girls. All of them start shivering on command…and Danforth immediately accuses Mary Warren of “witching” them! Well, Proctor has had enough, and he confesses in open court that Abigail Williams is a whore, and he knows it because he has committed adultery with her. He says Abigail has cooked all this witchcraft stuff up so she could get Elizabeth killed, thinking that then she could get back together with him. “WHAT?” says Danforth. “Is this true, Abigail?” Abigail says, “I don’t have to answer that! I’m leaving!” “Oh, I don’t think so!” says Danforth.
He then calls in Elizabeth to ask her why she fired Abigail. If she says it was because John slept with her, then that would prove Abigail is lying about everything, case closed. But when Elizabeth comes in, she tells Danforth she suspected John fancied Abigail and threw her out on that suspicion…but that John was a godly man and he hadn’t really committed adultery.
WHAT??? I’m sorry, that is completely unbelievable. Consider this: if you were Elizabeth, called out of the blue out of jail to the courtroom, and Judge Danforth tells you, “Hey, it has been told to this court that your husband committed adultery with Abigail, is this true?” what would be going through your mind? As far as Elizabeth knows, the only people aware of the adultery are Elizabeth, John, and Abigail. So, how would Danforth be made aware of it? Elizabeth obviously didn’t tell; there is no way Abigail would be told; so obviously, the one who told Danforth about the adultery was John! Surely, Elizabeth would have figured that out. And surely she would know that if Abigail were exposed for sleeping with John, that would be the end of the entire witchcraft allegations! But for some reason, Elizabeth says, “No, John didn’t commit adultery”??? That…makes…no…logical…sense.
At this point, as if the play isn’t a lost cause enough, Abigail looks up in the rafters, starts screaming and claiming there’s a yellow bird up there, and that Mary Warren is sending her spirit in the form of a yellow bird. Immediately, the other girls follow her example and they all start screaming. Danforth and Parris immediately believe them, even though they can’t see anything, and start ordering Mary Warren to draw back her spirit from them. Mary Warren says she’s not doing anything, but every time she says something, the girls repeat what she says. Danforth then says to Mary Warren, “You have seen the Devil, you have made compact with Lucifer, have you not?”
Again, it is astounding that Danforth applies a supreme suspicion when it comes to good people’s testimony, sworn depositions, and open admissions of adultery, but when it comes to the outrageous claims of a young woman accused of adultery and whose credibility is questioned from another girl–no, Danforth blindly believes outrageous claim after outrageous claim. Simply put, The Crucible doesn’t faithfully show what actual paranoia and hysteria within a community can look like. Instead, it shows poor storytelling on the part of Arthur Miller. His plot and storyline simply strain credulity. It doesn’t hold together as a coherent, believable story.
Well, after the sheer onslaught and attack of the court, Mary finally cracks and tells the court that John Proctor had put her up to all this, that he threatened to kill her if she didn’t lie…about lying…about lying before, and that Proctor was doing the Devil’s work. She then rushes into Abigail’s arms and they embrace.
And, as should be no surprise to anyone at this point, it is then that Danforth chooses to blindly believe Mary Warren! He then says to Proctor, “You’re combined with anti-Christ! Will you confess to being allied with Hell?” Proctor then says, “GOD IS DEAD! There’s a fire burning in Salem! I see Lucifer in my face, and your face! God is damning us all because you are pulling Heaven down and raising up a whore!”
The Reverend Hale denounces the ridiculous proceedings…AND SCENE!
Miller intends the end of Act Three to be moving and shocking and horrifying, but I find it unintentionally comical. Indeed, as I read through the play (and watched the 1996 movie), and especially here in Act Three, all that kept popping into my head was the “She’s a witch” scene in Monty Python’s The Holy Grail. The idiocy and lack of any coherent logic is purely comical. The difference between Monty Python and Arthur Miller’s play, of course, is one is presented as silly comedy, and the other is expecting to be taken seriously…which actually makes it even more comical.
