The Crucible
Arthur Miller (1953)
“A play about a 1692 witch hunt that Miller wrote while he himself was being hunted — and they were trying to make him name names.”
Character Analysis
The play's moral center, but not a moral paragon — he committed adultery, kept quiet when others were condemned, and nearly signed a false confession. His tragedy is not that he is innocent but that he finally becomes honest too late to save anyone except himself. 'I am no good man,' he says near the end. He's not. He is a man who finds his goodness at the last possible moment, and that is enough.
Direct, unornamented speech in domestic scenes; capable of formal address when required. Uses profanity ('damned man,' 'the Devil's loose in Salem') — radical in Puritan context. Refuses the court's formal language when it requires him to perform submission.