The Crucible Review Questions

1.  Analyze the play's theme, or what you consider to be its major insight into life.  Be sure to discuss how the elements of plot, setting, conflict, and characterization contribute to the theme.

2.  Analyze John Proctor as a tragic hero.  Can John Proctor be regarded as a tragic hero?  Is he a person of sufficient stature and are the issues leading to his death sufficiently universal?  Define a tragic hero first, then discuss whether Proctor meets your requirements.  Support with specific examples from the play. 

3.  The Crucible presents various views of the nature of authority.  What are some of these views, and which characters represent or promote them?  As opposed to some of the flawed concepts of authority, what does Miller imply through the action is the source of true authority?  Explain and Support with quotes.

18.  Did John Proctor reach the right decision at the end of the play?  What other decisions could have been reached?

16.  Although the play centers on the subjects of hypocrisy and hysteria in the court proceedings, we are also presented with several examples of courage and the assertion of integrity.  How are the following characters linked with the subject in this act:  Mary Warren, John Proctor, Giles Corey, John Hale?

14.  This play contains many legalistic scenarios, filled with claims and counterclaims.  Many of the arguments and decisions in the Salem court depend on faulty logic and result in a perversion of justice.  Miller wants the audience to see parallels between many of these actions and the events of the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950's.  For example, Danforth's order to arrest "for examination" those who signed the deposition in favor of Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth Proctor might be regarded as parallel to the notorious smears of the McCarthy period.  When Danforth rejects Hales's request that legal counsel present Mary Warren's deposition, how is the governor's logic faulty?  What do you think about the propriety of Danforth's insistence that Giles Corey name the anonymous informant who accused Thomas Putnam?  How might John Hale be said to identify the major underlying problem with the court's justice when he says, "The is a prodigious fear of this court in this country."