The Crucible

Animal Imagery

As a nod to the savage behaviour of the citizens when they are faced with conflict or an illusion to the virgin territory of the frontier settlement of Salem, Miller uses animal imagery in many subtle ways. Abigail’s forward reference to Proctor ‘sweating like a stallion whenever I [she] come near’ (Act 1) supports the fantasy they have of one another that is anchored with an unbridled lust. Proctor confirms this by naming Abby a ‘wild thing’ (Act 1), setting her apart from the other Puritan women who are tame and compliant to the regulations set upon them.

The many animal metaphors allow Miller to foreshadow the events yet to come; a reference within the stage notes to the simmering rabbit stew that is cooking in the Proctor household when John enters the scene helps to build the tension between the two as they converse haltingly with one another. Although John seasons the stew without Elizabeth knowing, he later lies to her saying it is ‘well-seasoned’ (Act 2), his inability to be honest with her expanding past his affair with Abigail. By contrast, Elizabeth’s statement that an animal came into the house and sat in the corner ‘like she come to visit’ (Act 2) may be an allusion to the trap that is later set by the Abby when she plants a poppet in the Proctor household, sitting on a lone shelf hiding the needle in its belly.

Consistent references to the townsfolk as being livestock are used to both reduce the citizens to a base state whilst also reminding readers of the untamed civilisation that Salem has settled in. The culmination of these references occur in the final act, when Cheever notes that since so many of the townsfolk have either been hung or await their execution in the prison, there are ‘cows wanderin’ the highroads’ (Act 4) unclaimed and untethered, hinting that in their efforts to maintain civility in their village, the citizens have become more savage then ever.

Animal Imagery Quotes

‘In – in what time? In what place?’
‘In the proper place – where my beasts are bedded.’ (Danforth questioning Proctor on his affair with Abby) Act 3

‘And yet you’ve not confessed till now. That speak goodness in you.’
‘Spite only keeps me silent. It is hard to give a lie to dogs.’ (Proctor and Elizabeth discuss his potential confession) Act 4

The Poppet

In Act 3, Elizabeth Proctor is arrested and seized on the spot when officials of the court search the house looking for a poppet. Abby had shown up, hours earlier, stabbed in the belly by a needle and exclaimed that Elizabeth’s spirit had inserted it, by the use of some otherworldly magic. Elizabeth denies owning a poppet and says she has not kept one since she was a child, but the officials find one that Mary Warren has given her as a gift. On closer inspection, they find a needle sticking into it, which Abby had snuck into it in order to frame Elizabeth.

The poppet, or doll is a child’s plaything and the use of it in convicting someone of witchcraft symbolises the loss of innocence. The group of girls, young and overwhelmed by the power that they have gained, lose their childish innocence as they condemn innocent people to hang.

The Poppet Quote

‘The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed, she – testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in.’ (Cheever when he comes to arrest Elizabeth) Act 3

Colour

Miller’s subtle use of colour throughout the play is hard to detect in an on-stage performance, but the composition of his masterpiece sees the representation of colour reliably resurface throughout the four Acts.

The oppositional black and white represent the cliché of good and evil, with Danforth questioning Proctor if he ‘keeps that black allegiance’ (Act 3) to which he replies that those that accuse people that they know to be innocent have ‘black hearts’ (Act 3). In the same way, before he pens his false confession, Proctor is asked to ‘prove the whiteness’ (Act 4) of his soul or forever be expelled from the Christian country, by execution. There is however, a subtler message seen by examining the racial undercurrent present in the first Act. Given Tituba’s dark skin, she becomes an immediate target as they suspect her savage ways have led the girls to witchcraft – ‘I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came on you [Abby and the girls]… I heard a screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She were swaying like a dumb beast over the fire’ (Parris, Act 1). It is after this mention of the only black character in the play that Parris questions Abby whether her name is ‘entirely white’ (Act 1) in the village to which she makes a concerted effort to defend the reason she was dismissed from the Proctor household being that she ‘will [would] not blacken my [her] face for any of them’ (Act 1) and become a slave under Goody Proctor’s service.

As well as being synonymous with blood, the colour red is used by Miller in the play to convey the broader idea of danger, sex and violence. The ‘blush’ felt between Abby and Proctor in Act 1 and 2 respectively is used as a reminder that they once shared a bond of an incredibly intimate nature. Abby must defend herself when Parris asks the nature of her dismissal, saying ‘there be no blush about my name’ (Act 1) and Elizabeth reminds John that Abby ‘sees another meaning in that blush’ (Act 2) that he confesses to suffering when he considers his previous sins with the young girl.

Abby’s threats to the girls that she is able to exact revenge on them should they admit to what truly happened in the forest marks her as a terrible danger to them all. The ‘reddish work’ (Act 1) she has experienced as a frontier child, of her parents being killed means she has it in her to exact a ‘pointy reckoning’ (Act 1) and secures not only their silence but also their conformity for the remainder of the play.

Colour Quotes

‘And mark this! Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you… I saw Indians smash my dear parents heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night…’ (Abby threatens the girls to stay quiet) Act 1

‘I blacken all of them [Proctor’s friends] when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!’ (Proctor refuses to allow them to hang his false confession on display) Act 4

The Dressmaker

Clothing

The high fashion clothing that Tilly brings to the small town of Dungatar offer the women an opportunity to transform themselves, even if the transformation is only fleeting. Momentarily, their ruthless ambition, jealousy, bigotry and snobbery are hidden beneath Tilly’s couture creations as they enjoy the sensation of having the fittings ‘so that they knew how it felt to be caressed and affluent and they had an inkling of deportment’ (Part 2). Their vanity however, is insurmountable and their relationships with one another become more destructive. Despite a brief interlude where the high fashion of ‘Paris had made its way to… the rural province’ (Part 2), things return to normal and while the townspeople (the decided villains of Ham’s novel) are dressed comically in Baroque costumes, ironically made by Tilly, she escapes the town dressed in a remodelled ‘white nun’s veiling sent from Spain’ (Part 4) symbolising her righteousness in bringing a well-deserved reprimand to those that wronged her.

The unrefined behaviour of the residents and the ‘few shabby shops’ along the ‘deserted main street’ (Part 3) are illustrated by the stranger that arrives to poach Tilly from the town and sheds a rather unfavourable light on the small town with its outdated fashions. The fierce competition between tradeswomen in the 1950s upon their return to the workplace is touched on by the immediate rivalry that looms when Una comes to visit Tilly and she reduces Tilly’s talents to ‘sewing… it’s all very simple’ (Part 3). The callous instinct that women have to insult one another’s appearance is ever present in Molly when she insults Una for ‘bare[ing] your[her] teeth and curl[ing] your[her] top lip’ (Part 3) when she smiles. As it turns out, Una’s skills are no match for Tilly’s as Lois finds out when she attends a secret appointment with Tilly to have one of Una’s creations ‘fixed up’ (Part 3).

Clothing Quotes

They [the women of Dungatar] have been renovated, European-touched, advanced to almost avante-garde by Tilly Dunnage. Part 2

The couturiered ladies of Dungatar arrived late and entered the hall at three-minute intervals, poised, their noses aimed at the lights and their mouths creased down. They moved slowly through the gaping guests from Winyerp. Part 2

She [Tilly] prompted them to order new lingerie, and quoted Dorothy Parker – Brevity is the soul of lingerie. She told them about body shape and what complimented theirs and why. She constructed patterns and designs especially for them and warned them that they would need three fittings each, and then she told them they must choose fragrances that reflected the mood of their clothes. Part 2

She [the visiting stranger] wondered how Paris had found its way to the dilapidated confines and neglected torsos of banal housewives in a rural province. Part 2

Macbeth

Illusions to the famous, yet ill-fated Shakespearian play of Macbeth increase as the text reaches its climax. In addition to the suspicious concoction of ‘sweet burned scent’ (Part 4) that renders Councillor Pettyman impotent, Molly’s taunts that Tilly would be able to advance her social life if she ‘weren’t always stirring away at your [her] cauldron’ (Part 2) couples with the insult that many within the town see Molly and Tilly as ‘witches’ (Part 3).

The interesting reference to the three witches in Macbeth that serve a dangerous prophecy over the ambitious Scottish soldier foreshadows Tilly’s emotional and intellectual superiority to the other women in town and therefore, her ability to escape the mire unscathed. In addition to this, Tilly lets it slip that she is familiar with the play by reciting the infamous witches spell of ‘double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble…’ (Part 4) whereas those that will be acting in the play have yet to read it through.

As self-appointed director, Trudy assigns herself the role of the ill-fated Lady Macbeth; the conniving wife and possibly literature’s most deserving villain. Her unexpected allocation of the role of Macbeth (her on-stage husband) to Lesley Muncan, with the ill-fated role of King Duncan being awarded to William hints at the possibility that William will soon be cast aside by his selfish wife in favour of Lesley. Predictably, the play is a fiasco and renders the already fractious relationships between the citizens virtually irretrievable as Trudy turns mad and the realisation of her character slipping slowly into insanity comes true, she is sedated by the doctor to tame her mania and Mona must step in as her understudy.

Macbeth Quotes

‘Tagetes patula’, said Tilly. ‘They deter white fly from tomato plants, and they’re good for repelling eelworm in roses and potatoes as well. The roots have a component that deadens the detector that triggers eelworm release – numbs it completely.’ (Tilly explaining to Marigold what her flowers will do) Part 4

When they came up thirteen seconds later for Act 2, Banquo and Fleance swept onto the stage to find their audience had vanished. Part 4