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Let’s face it: Some pretty twisted stuff happens in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. False accusations, people pressed to death with stones. We could go on but we prefer to focus on redemption. Yes, there is some in The Crucible. Watch and see for yourself.

Video Transcription:

I’m not gonna lie. This play is disturbing—but in a good way. Stay tuned.

You could say that the craziness in The Crucible started because Abigail Williams didn’t want to get in trouble for having a little fun in the forest.

You could say it kept going because she also wanted revenge on John Proctor … and her uncle wanted respect … and some of the townsfolk wanted land.

You could also say that underneath it all was a serious lust for power.

But in the end, what’s so incredible about this play is not just the way it wakes us up to the causes of hysteria and groupthink. It’s the fact that it redeems us from those horrors.

Yep. Ultimately, The Crucible is a play about redemption.

Think about the choices John Proctor makes.

He admits his own sin, in public, to save his wife.

But that’s not all.

Even when Proctor’s life is at stake, he refuses to name names. He won’t implicate others to save himself. And he won’t sign his name to a confession, either. He won’t give power to a lie.

And that’s the redemption. Because John Proctor makes the right choices, he is morally redeemed and so is his community. Not immediately. But Proctor’s courage does turn the tide.