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4-5-2021

Bewitching the Blame: the Crucible's Legacy of Appropriation and Bewitching the Blame: the Crucible's Legacy of Appropriation and

Sexual Shame in Popular Culture Sexual Shame in Popular Culture

Hope Kristine Morris

Illinois State University

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BEWITCHING THE BLAME: THE CRUCIBLE’S LEGACY

OF APPROPRIATION AND SEXUAL SHAME

IN POPULAR CULTURE

HOPE MORRIS

61 Pages

popular culture depictions of the Salem witch trials including the movie adaptation of The

Crucible and the television shows Salem and American Horror Story: Coven. These depictions

appropriate and sexualize women’s stories in order to fulfill the male gaze. This thesis also

explores how three contemporary women playwrights are writing new plays that address the

sexism of Arthur Miller, show how The Crucible perpetuates abuse, and encourage women to

confront sexism by creating their own works about the Salem trials. These plays are Abigail by

Sarah Tuft, John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower, and Becky Nurse of Salem by

Sarah Ruhl. Finally, I argue that in order to have a true feminist redemption of the Salem witch

trials in popular culture, there must be more creative and scholarly analysis of Tituba, a woman

of color who has been most silenced in these depictions.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

HOPE MORRIS

for the Degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE

© 2021 Hope Morris

IN POPULAR CULTURE

HOPE MORRIS

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:

Ann Haugo, Chair

Kee-Yoon Nahm

Kyle Ciani

i

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

continued feedback and support. Thank you to Cheyenne Flores, Breeze Pollard, Hannah

Sellmyer, Col Connelly, Ari Garcia, Kristi Morris, and anyone else who I have swindled into

reading chapters and offering feedback. Thank you to Sarah Ruhl for allowing me to read and

analyze Becky Nurse of Salem. Thank you to Molly Briggs-Yonke and Kelsey Fisher-Waits for

about the “a-ha!” moments, and who told me not to give up when I really thought I might.

H.M.

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CONTENTS

Page

1

INTRODUCTION

In colonial America, at least thirty-three people were executed for witchcraft. Twenty-

five of these people died during the infamous witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts. To

summarize the trials as explained by Salem scholar Mary Beth Norton in her book In the Devil’s

Snare and Stacy Schiff in her book The Witches: Salem, 1692, in the cold winter of early 1692,

the household of Reverend Parris of Salem village was disturbed by the strange behavior of his

named their bewitchers: Tituba, an enslaved Indigenous woman of the Parris household, and two

impoverished local women, Sarah Good and Sarah Osbourne. In response to the accusation,

Tituba spun an elaborate confession where she spoke of the devil’s great force that caused her to

bewitch the children. After some painful persuasion, she began to name other cohorts of the

devil. Soon many women and girls (and some men) of Salem caught on and began to accuse their

neighbors, enemies, and even their own families. Schiff explains the panic in these words: “The

youngest of the witches was five, the eldest nearly eighty. A daughter accused her mother, who

in turn accused her mother, who accused a neighbor and minister. A wife and daughter

denounced their husband and father. Husbands implicated wives; nephews their aunts; sons-in-

law their mothers-in-law; siblings each other. Only fathers and sons weathered the crisis

There is speculation over what truly caused this witch craze. Was it the desire for

property? Was it economic greed? Was it an attempt to rid Salem of its less desirable citizens?

Scholars have dedicated entire books in an attempt to explain the hysteria of the trials. Schiff

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presents a list of many common theories: “generational, sexual, economic, ecclesiastical, and

class tensions; regional hostilities imported from England; food poisoning; a hothouse religion in

a cold climate; teenage hysteria; fraud, taxes, conspiracy; political instability; trauma induced by

Indian attacks; and to witchcraft itself, among the most reasonable theories” (4-5). Regardless of

intention, Salem’s afflicted community members accused men, women, and children, both old

and young of the devil’s work, leading to the execution of many.

midwives, marry again, or even be poor without being accused of being under the devil’s

influence. The social systems supported by the Puritanical accusations towards women still have

effects today, as Kristin J. Sollee explains in her book Witches, Sluts, Feminists: Conjuring the

Sex Positive. She quotes the Sabbat Cycle mission statement, saying, “Nearly four hundred years

after the first execution of the American ‘witch,’ many in our nation still call for the

establishment of an American theocracy and a return to the puritanical delusions of old (47).”

The witch trials were a grave tragedy primarily against women, and the theocratic oppression

that they established continues to affect the way women’s autonomy is revoked in contemporary

America specifically through anti-abortion legislation, lack of representation in government, and

refusal to believe women. The witch trials deserve to be and need to be remembered and

are tempered through a misogynistic lens that perpetuates abuse of women.

The most influential representation of the Salem witch trials in the 20th century is

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible which was written and first performed in 1953 during the Red

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Trials, the podcast Unobscured by Aaron Manke, In the Devil’s Snare by Mary Beth Norton,

Devil in the Shape of a Woman by Carol F. Karlsen, and Records of Salem witchcraft, copied

from original documents. These sources each offer a unique perspective on the comprehensive

history of the Salem trials.

The Crucible offers insight into Puritanism as well as McCarthyism. However, in the

process of creating these perspectives, Miller disparages the true oppression suffered by the

women whose truths have been skewed and sacrificed in order to achieve Miller’s narrative and

agenda. These tropes affect popular culture’s depictions of Salem still today. In becoming aware

of current popular culture misunderstandings and redeeming the truth of these women, modern

feminists can better understand the circumstances that solidified the patriarchal structure of

America’s society from a young age and create new works that elevate the silenced stories.

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CHAPTER I: MILLER’S MISREPRESENTATIONS OF THE WOMEN OF THE TRIALS

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible has become one of the foremost works of literature

about the Salem witch trials. It is often used in educational settings to discuss Puritanism and is

widely produced onstage in its original setting. The play was not written primarily as an

educational source about the trials, however. The play was intended to allegorically address the

characters of Abigail and Tituba. I will illuminate how Miller’s demonization and sexualization

of these women functions as his plot device, his fulfillment of the male gaze, and his personal

valorization.

This appropriation of women’s stories paints Miller as the overcomer and hero of the Red

Scare. In Communists, Cowboys, and Queers, David Savran explains Miller’s leftist role in the

“witch-hunt” against communism and calls The Crucible “his [Miller’s] heroic indictment of

McCarthyism, in 1953” (20-21). Miller, who was accused of being a communist during the Red

Scare, places himself as the tortured hero of the Red Scare through the allegory of John Proctor

on trial. Though The Crucible is arguably one of the greatest American plays--Miller is certainly

regarded as one of the greatest American playwrights--and does accomplish its goal of speaking

America’s painful atrocities are objectified in achieving this. This begs the question: when does

allegory become appropriation? Appropriation is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary in two

ways, both of which I believe apply here, “the act of taking something for your own use, usually

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without permission” and “the act of taking something such as an idea, custom, or style from

a group or culture that you are not a member of and using it yourself” (Cambridge Dictionary),

Alternatively, an allegory is defined as “a story, play, poem, picture, or other work in which the

characters and events represent particular qualities or ideas that relate to morals, religion, or

politics” (Cambridge Dictionary). While the events in The Crucible do represent the political

ideas of Miller, they are events and ideas taken from real people and their trauma. These real

While Miller never claims that The Crucible is completely factual, he does make a few

major claims to justify his decision to rewrite Salem’s story. First, he claims that the information

needed to make the play completely accurate does not exist: “As for the characters of the

persons, little is known about most of them” (Miller 2). This note makes the assertion that

thorough records do not exist--or at least not enough to assist in telling the story. However,

records have existed since the trials about what occurred, including detailed transcripts of the

court proceedings, diary entries of the prominent men in Salem, and letters written by the women

and accused. Many authors have used those to craft the story of Salem. Acknowledging the

existence of some sources, Miller reassures readers that he is as accurate as possible and uses his

imagination to fill in the gaps, saying, “I believe that the reader will discover here the essential

character is exactly that of his historical model, and there is no one in the drama who did not play

a similar--and in some cases exactly the same--role in history” (2). Miller justifies warping the

facts by asserting that his play captures the essence of the truth, which is more real than

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verifiable evidence. In Making of Salem: The Witch Trials in History, Fiction, and Tourism,

Robin DeRosa discusses this authorial power. She states, “For although this play is fiction, it

(and not “real history”) contains the ‘essential nature of what happened.’ In other words, Miller

tries both to offer a disclaimer about the imaginative aspects of his work, and to claim a higher

level of veracity for the play’s authority” (DeRosa 133). Miller grants himself authority to

reshape history by raising the importance of “dramatic purposes” (Miller 2). However, it is

While the changes Miller made may be acceptable to apply to the male characters in the

play, I argue they greatly misrepresent the women. Miller starts his notes with helpful factual

evidence about Salem and its inhabitants to aid the reader. The notes seem to be his way of

differentiating fact and fiction in the play. He writes that his play is truthful “except as indicated

in the commentary I have written for this text” (Miller 2). He gives evidence such as: “At the

time of these events Parris was in his middle forties” and other very basic facts (Miller 3).

However, this transforms when he begins his descriptions of Abigail Williams and John Proctor.

No longer are the notes factual materials to read along with the play; instead, they are his

personal opinions and choices about the characters. He says of John Proctor, “the steady manner

he displays does not spring from an untroubled soul. He is a sinner” (Miller 20). Before he

Because of this, his change to fictional creation is so subtle that it is easy to mistake it for truth.

Though Miller has not claimed to be entirely factual, he has set a precedent for truth. When he

breaks this precedent, he forces the reader into a false view of Abigail, one that identifies her as a

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sexual temptress and of Tituba, one that claims she is equipped with exotic powers. While it may

seem innocent enough to change a few historical details to create a work of fiction, the effects of

Miller’s depiction of the Salem witch trials have been lasting. Because of his presentation of the

details, popular culture has continued to adopt the notion that the trials began because of Abigail

and Tituba.

To any Salem scholar or student, the most obvious factual slip of Miller’s play centers

(Miller 9). All sources from the trials indicate that Abigail Williams was actually eleven years

old, hardly more than a child, though she likely carried many adult responsibilities even at the

early age of eleven (Schiff ix). It is possible that Miller conflated Abigail with another accuser,

seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, who was orphaned during Wabanaki attacks in the King

Philip's War (Norton 49). Like Abigail, Mercy also was one of the key accusers of Elizabeth

Proctor during the trials. However, in The Crucible, Mercy herself is portrayed as a character in

the play as one of the accusers. Regardless of his reasoning, the age difference of Abigail, as well

as the sultry description, immediately calls into question Miller’s driving point to the plot of The

Crucible, the affair between Abigail Williams and John Proctor.

Sources indicate that John Proctor was in his sixties at the time of the trials (Schiff xii).

of body, even-tempered, and not easily led...In Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness

instantly” (Miller 20). Not only has the age been changed to justify the affair, but the description

also inserts Miller’s personal characterization of Proctor that has no historical proof backing it.

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In the article “The Crucible of History,” William J. McGill Jr. argues that the affair is a

possibility. He says, “it is not implausible that an Abigail, even if only eleven, could develop a

romantic fixation on her employer. Furthermore, the likelihood that such a fixation might have

issued in a sexual relationship cannot be dismissed” (McGill 260). Yet even McGill

acknowledges that the change of Proctor’s age from sixty to thirty implicates a likelihood that

history does not. McGill’s argument shows that The Crucible’s legacy of misogyny has lived on

Regardless, drawing a conclusion from these age differences, as well lack of historical

record, the affair between John Proctor and Abigail Williams most likely never happened. In her

book, The Devil in the Shape of a Woman, Carol F. Karlsen argues that Miller began this sexual

implication through The Crucible. She says, “the idea that the possessed were sexually

“promiscuous...stems in part from the popularity of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible….Miller

changed the age of Abigail Williams, from 11 to 17 and made sexual motives the basis of her

accusations” (Karlsen 344). While Abigail did accuse John Proctor and Goody Proctor of being

witches, her allegations probably had more to do with her uncle’s resentment of the Proctors than

with her sexual agenda or grudge. John Proctor, like many other prominent citizens in Salem, did

not support Parris’s ministry and believed him to be greedy and selfish. He refused to pay him in

this and could very well have used his niece to exact revenge. Despite this knowledge, Miller’s

depiction of Abigail as a sex-hungry temptress with a “confidential, wicked air” and “endless

capacity for dissembling” places the blame for a major tragedy on her shoulders--which, in

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reality, are the shoulders of an eleven-year-old orphan (Miller 342, 333).

In the article “Scapegoating Non-Conforming Identities: Witchcraft Hysteria in Arthur

Miller’s The Crucible and Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom,” Tarih Kültür and Sanat Araştırmaları

Dergisi explain that Abigail “is described as the ultimate femme fatale with tempting physical

appearance” and “is denied a chance to explain her real motives behind her actions by the

author” (7). The femme fatale was a popular trope by the time Miller wrote the play. In an article

culturally pervasive one... like Circe and Clytemnestra...like succubi and yuki-onna...like

Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia, and Mata Hari.” He goes on to explain that this iconic woman who

uses “her unapologetic sexuality as a kind of blunt cudgel against the male protagonist” gained

popular traction through Noir films of the early 20th century (Meslow). This misogynistic trope

has often been regarded as a thrilling plot device, which could easily indicate Miller’s decision to

depict Abigail in such a way. In some of his other works, like After the Fall, he depicts women

as these whorish characters. By portraying Abigail as a seductive villainess, Miller appeals to an

audience’s desire to “have it both ways, enjoying the vicarious, prurient sexuality while knowing

she'll eventually be punished for it” (Meslow). This theory leads me to argue that Miller adapted

Abigail’s character to create a crowd-pleasing plot and character trope. Unfortunately, this

and demonizes female sexuality as the cause of the fall of not only Salem but of Miller’s political

climate as well.

Another major tweak to reality made by Miller is found in his depiction of Tituba, the

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woman enslaved by Salem’s reverend (Abigail’s uncle) and the first person to be accused of and

confess to witchcraft. According to Arthur Miller’s story, Reverend Samuel Parris “brought her

with him from Barbados” (8). Tituba’s descendancy is in reality widely debated. In original

transcripts of the trials, she is referred to as a “Tituba Indian,” “the Indyen woman,” “titibe an

Indian Woman,” suggesting that she was from a tribe indigenous to America (Norton 21). The

majority evidence supports this idea that she is of “Amerindian descent,” and Mary Beth Norton

were familiar with in their area. Despite many scholars arguing that she is likely of Arawak

descent, Tituba is almost always portrayed as a Black Caribbean or African woman in

documentaries, television shows, books, and even museums. Tituba was likely captured from the

Americas and brought to work on a plantation in Barbados. Because the number of enslaved

Amerindian people in Barbados was relatively small, it is possible for scholars to trace the

personal history of Tituba. Records trace the sale of a young enslaved Indian girl named

“Tattuba” to distant relations of Samuel Parris (Breslaw 22). Though there are no records

directly stating that this is the same woman, the rare nature of the name has led scholars to

assume it is the same Tituba. What is known for certain is that Parris, after a failed mercantile

career in Barbados, moved to Boston taking Tituba with him as his servant. After their arrival,

household, John Indian. It is supposed by some scholars that she also had a daughter named

Violet, but there are no formal records of this.

I was surprised in my research to see how often the media claiming to be historically

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accurate depicted Tituba as Black. This depiction of Tituba as a Black woman has become

common due to Arthur Miller’s changes in The Crucible. In the article, “The Metamorphosis of

Tituba, or Why American Intellectuals Can't Tell an Indian Witch from a Negro” by Chadwick

Hansen, he argues that “the last vestige of Tituba's actual race withered away Arthur Miller's

play, The Crucible, leaving her a "slave." And in Miller Tituba's magic is blacker as well as her

race” (10). Norton says, “Every surviving piece of contemporary evidence identifies her as an

receive the blame of the trials. Tituba is considered an outsider, someone from a foreign land

bringing her culture’s dark magic with her. Unlike the “civilized” white protestants, Tituba,

portrayed as a Black woman, is expected to know magic and voodoo. In the introduction to her

book, Tituba, Reluctant Witch of Salem, Elaine Breslaw states, “There is no reference anywhere

in the seventeenth-century documents to Tituba as an African or as someone of an African

background. Like the mythology of Tituba as a voodoo priestess, there is no indication in the

extant records that either Tituba or her husband had African ancestry” (xxi). Why did Miller

choose to depict Tituba as a Black woman rather than Indigenous? Breslaw argues that this

change began before Miller stating, “The gradual metamorphosis of Tituba from an Indian to an

African since the nineteenth century is an unfortunate mistake based on embellishment,

that Miller’s perpetuation these myths to appeal to preconceived notions of Blackness and

witchcraft.

One effect of Miller’s depiction of Tituba as Black is to appeal to the familiarity of the

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popular perception of enslaved Black women in his time period. A well-known depiction of an

Black enslaved woman that has permeated American culture is the “mammy” figure--an

offensive imagining of the Black nursemaid in the Old South who dotes upon her master’s

children. This iconic character can be found anywhere from dishware to film, and even

museums. A perplexing reality is that even the Salem Witch Museum in today’s Salem, MA has

a wax figure portraying Tituba as Black and in stereotypical mammy garb. In her article,

through scenes of alleged witchcraft. The aproned and corseted Tituba effigy at the wax

museum...evokes a mammy figure in racist 19th- and 20th-century iconography” (149). In

portraying Tituba as a mammy figure, Miller turns her into a more “palatable” character and

refuses to recognize her uniquely oppressive situation. He describes her love for Betty: “she...can

no longer bear to be barred from the sight of her beloved” (Miller 32). By embracing the

sentimentalized and inaccurate depiction of enslaved women as beloved by their owners, Miller

ignores the traumas suffered by them and erases the many Indigenous women who were enslaved

in the colonial era.

However, I argue that the most resounding effect of Miller’s change of her race is to

add further mystery and intrigue to his play by exoticizing the witchcraft. How could such

an outside source, particularly from a world already associated with dark magic. By making

Tituba a Black Carribean woman, he implies an association with voodoo that places the blame of

Salem’s mysteries on her shoulders. Breslaw explains, “Interest in Tituba and her role in the

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CHAPTER II: BLAMING FEMALE SEXUALITY AND BLACK MAGIC

Miller’s transformation of the trials into the battle against female and foreign

malevolence has echoed throughout popular culture depictions of Salem since its publication.

Even in contemporary culture, which claims to be empowering women and abolishing

xenophobia, the Salem witch trials are still surrounded by sexual allure and exotic witchery. The

distorting historical fact and sexualizing and exotictizing real women. The highly gendered roles

affirmed by Miller’s play continue to be seen in representations of the women of the trials, and

the truth of the trials continues to be appropriated for the male gaze. In this chapter, I will expand

upon the ways modern depictions of the Salem witch trials sexualize women to fulfill male

desire, specifically in my analysis of the movie adaptation of The Crucible and the television

show, Salem. I will use Laura Mulvey’s analysis of the male gaze to deconstruct these shows. In

analyzing American Horror Story: Coven, I will argue that these adaptations continue Miller’s

pattern of appropriation by fetishizing and villainizing women, especially Black women.

ideology that controlled Salem, women are blamed for the fall of mankind because of their

inability to resist the devil’s temptation. In her book, Witches, Sluts, and Feminists, Kristen J.

Sollee states, “Christian women were indoctrinated with narratives about the lurking evils of

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womanhood from their youth, so it stands to reason they could succumb to the belief that they,

too, were the Devil’s handmaidens” (25). Depictions of women during the witch trials fed into

this doctrine. There are graphic portraits from the era of women having sexual intercourse with

the devil—these women are labeled as witches. Sollee explains this connection of witchcraft and

female sexuality in both history and contemporary culture: “For centuries, the word “witch” has

been used to punish women and to police female sexuality” (13). An exploration of one of the

accused of being witches, women were in the majority of the accused for this reason. Witchcraft

has been attached to female sexuality since the witch hunts’ beginnings, and this clearly makes

its way into Miller’s writing.

In Laura Mulvey’s essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” she explores the

concept of scopophilia in film. She defines scopophilia as, “pleasure of looking at another person

as an erotic object” (Mulvey 67). Mulvey argues that the way women are depicted in film is an

indulgence of male scopophlia. Women are portrayed as sexual beings to be possessed by male

characters. By seeing a reflection of himself within the male characters, the male viewer can

possess the woman as a sexual object as well. This act of implementing the male gaze in film can

be seen in the following examples of films and television shows about the Salem witch trials:

pinning the blame for the trials on the shoulders of women. The women are not just portrayed as

overly sexual beings, but also use their sexuality to manipulate a community into its downfall.

These depictions represent the way society has aligned its perception of the Salem witch trials,

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but more so, they show again the appropriation of female trauma to satisfy the male agendas.

In The Crucible, the connection between witches and female sexuality is made

through Miller’s depiction of Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams is depicted as a seventeen year

old girl who is the niece of Reverend Parris of Salem. She is portrayed as temperamental and

seductive with “an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller 9). She is obviously the leader of

the group of girls accusing people of witchcraft in Salem in the play. She even threatens the other

has sexual sin attached to her name. She had an affair with a married man in Salem Village

named John Proctor. When he attempts to tell her he will no longer sleep with her, she continues

to seduce him. She says, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like

a stallion whenever I come near!” (Miller 22). When he continues to refuse her, she will not

accept it. Soon after, Proctor’s wife and eventually Proctor as well are accused of witchcraft by

Abigail. Miller makes it clear that Abigail accuses Goody Proctor out of lust for John, in hopes

he will abandon his wife once she is outed as a witch. In this way, Miller blames the downfall of

Salem on Abigail’s sexuality, reinforcing patriarchal control and shame in the play.

This approach is unsurprising considering Miller’s culture of the 1950s that scorned

women for premarital sex while giving men a free pass. This is obvious through social, political,

cause for unwanted pregnancies, venereal disease, and even rapes. In the book, Good Girls by

Amanda Littauer, she describes the condemnation of parents and experts in the 1950s and quotes

a study where a parent said, “It’s the girls’ fault, this early dating. They grow up too fast. Dress

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and live faster” (130). This culture of blame and shame of female sexuality likely influenced

Miller’s shaping of the female characters in his play, which continues to find its way into more

modern depictions of the Salem Witch Trials.

In these modern depictions, this view of evil female sexuality is emphasized by casting

choices. The film version of The Crucible produced in 1996 is directed by Nicholas Hytner and

stars Winona Ryder as Abigail and Daniel Day-Lewis as John Proctor. The casting choice of

Crucible, she had already established a reputation of playing an unconventionally beautiful

character with a dark side. She was often typecast as the “femme fatale” as described in chapter

one. In Marvin Carlson’s book, The Haunted Stage: the Theatre as Memory Machine, he

presents his theory of “ghosting,” the idea that theatre will always be impacted by remembrances

of past performances. This argument can specifically be applied to typecasting. Continuously

casting a certain actress in similar roles can carry the impression of her into other performances.

In this instance, because of Ryder’s previous work, audiences are more likely to associate her

character with female deception. Abigail, already matching the femme fatale persona, became

another one of Ryder’s sexy, brooding roles. Though she may be dressed like a Puritan, Ryder’s

legacy as a glamorous object satisfies the male gaze. Likewise, the casting of Daniel Day-Lewis,

(Mulvey). Day-Lewis was known for playing dashing, heroic gentlemen before his role in The

Crucible; he starred in movies such as The Last of the Mohicans (1992) and The Unbearable

Lightness of Being (1988). In The Crucible he is portrayed as rugged and brooding, and as in

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Miller’s play, comes out the hero who has conquered the temptation of a woman’s evil wiles.

Another way the movie’s casting promotes the sexualization of Abigail is by downplaying the

age gap between Abigail and John. While the actual Abigail Williams was eleven at the time of

the trials, Miller’s Abigail is seventeen. To a twentieth century audience, casting a seventeen-

year-old walks a fine line of acceptability. However, if Abigail is not portrayed as a young girl,

she can assume guilt for the affair while John Proctor is free of shame. By casting Ryder, who

caused the accusations, she caused the tragedy of Salem.

Visually, the movie surrounds the female characters with darkness, intrigue, and sexual

symbolism by including additional scenes in the movie that are not found in the play. The first

scene of the film, which is not found in Miller’s play, depicts Abigail waking up her cousin and

meeting the other girls in town to conjure spells with Tituba. There are shots of the girls running

and giggling together as they go deeper into the misty forest to do their forbidden fun. Tituba

welcomes them, and they stand in a circle, anxious to see the magic she will perform. Tituba

sways as she sings her “Barbados songs” and mixes items into a cauldron. The spells that are

conjured are love spells to make boys and men in town fall in love with the girls. As the girls

drop their magical offerings into the cauldron, they speak the names of the men. The girls tease

escapades are no secret. Tituba takes a live chicken and swings it around her head, ready to put

in it the cauldron, when Abigail whispers in her ear. In broken English, she says, “No, Abby, that

bad thing!” Out of impatience, Abigail takes the chicken, breaks its neck and smears the

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chicken’s blood across her face. The girls scream and begin to dance wildly, letting down their

hair and stripping their clothes. As Reverend Parris approaches the scene, a woman’s naked body

is seen from behind. The naked girls dancing represents the use of unbridled sexuality to defy

patriarchal forces, which is immediately deemed a great sin by the reverend. The women not

only break the rules of performing witchcraft and dancing, they also commit the sin of rejecting

the patriarchal control of a woman’s sexuality. The depiction of the naked women in such close

Through these images, the occurrence of witchcraft in Salem is associated with the lust of the

young women. Likewise, it fulfills the scopophilia of male viewers, who know the sexuality will

soon be punished.

Another way that The Crucible movie contributes to the blame of female sexuality is

through the physicality between Abigail and John when they meet in the movie. Unlike many of

the movie’s other scenes between John and Abigail, this scene is found in Miller’s original text.

The shot shows Abigail sneaking up to John from around the corner of the barn. When they

speak, they stand close to each other, and she leans against the wall, sighing with desire. She

appeals to John and speaks to him of their sexual history using the same words from the play.

Unlike the stage directions indicate in the play, however, she then kisses him passionately and

on screen strengthens the connection between the witch trials and Abigail’s sexuality by

explaining her lustful motive. In a later scene that is not found in the play, Abigail attempts to

force John to touch her sexually, and he responds by shoving her away. She warns him that he

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will regret his mistreatment of her. Later, another scene is added to the movie, after John has

been accused and imprisoned. Abigail begs him to run away with her so they can be together.

The movie makes it continuously apparent that Abigail’s intention for starting the witch trials is

to win John’s love. John’s larger struggle with the government of Salem is represented through

his struggle with Abigail. When Salem’s leaders beseech him to save himself and sign a

confession to witchcraft, he is tempted to confess. However, in doing so, he loses his integrity

town. Female sexuality becomes not only the catalyst for the trials but a metaphor for temptation

and control. The movie clearly appeals to a male audience who long to place themselves in

Proctor’s role by not only lavishing in the sexual attention of Abigail, but also dominating and

punishing her as the villain.

Female sexual temptation and power continue to be associated with the Salem witch

trials in other representations as well, even those that don’t discuss Abigail specifically. In the

television show, Salem, there is no Abigail Williams mentioned. However, the main character,

Mary Sibley (named after another real woman of the Salem trials) is portrayed as a dangerous

sexual being. Both of the main characters of the show, Mary Sibley and John Alden, were real

people living in Salem and associated with the witch trials. However, the true figures are related

that does not even remotely resemble known history. Numerous other historical names are

associated with the show’s characters including Mercy Lewis and Cotton Mather, but it is

important to note that the show is fully fictionalized.

32

The first episode of Salem introduces the idea that the problems in Salem are centered

on sexuality before witchcraft even enters the town. The first scene of the series begins with a

man and woman in the stocks being whipped and humiliated as the man is branded as a

“fornicator”. Quickly afterwards, Mary Sibley and John Alden’s relationship is introduced as

they secretly exchange a kiss in the night. Soon we find that Mary is pregnant with John’s child,

though they are unmarried with no intent to wed, a great sin in Puritan society. In an attempt to

feminine vice brings evil to Salem, this time through a woman exercising her autonomy over her

body and her place in society. When Mary chooses to accept this abortion, which is presented

more as a paranormal phenomena than a physical procedure, she allows the devil to enter Salem

through her.

The connection between pregnancy (or lack thereof) and evil is a long-standing one.

According to Sollee, in The Malleus Maleficarum, one of the most important sources during the

witch hunts, there is a chapter titled “That in Various Ways Midwife Sorceresses Kill the Fetuses

in the Womb and Cause Miscarriages, and When They Do Not Do This, They Offer the New

Borns to Demons” (39). Because the female body is considered inherently evil—based on the

Christian perspective of the first woman, Eve, bringing sin into the world—and only women can

many midwives in Europe were executed as witches. In Sollee’s book, she says, “During the

witch-hunting era, the female figure most intimately acquainted with sex, birth, and fertility was

the midwife. Armed with knowledge of herbology, biology, and in particular, reproductive

33

health, these predominantly poor, peasant women were easy targets for accusations of sorcery”

(Sollee 39). In another play of the twentieth century, Caryl Churchill’s Vinegar Tom, a local

witch is contacted by a young woman to help her end her pregnancy. When the town discovers

this, both the woman and the witch are deemed witches and tortured.

To a modern audience whose society has a long history of conflict about abortion

rights, this parallels many conservative mindsets that believe abortion is the cause of evil in

right to bodily autonomy perpetually under siege” (43). For an audience familiar with this

demonization of women’s reproductive rights, the abortion in the first episode of Salem

continues the attachment of the characters to great evil. In this way, Salem uses the witch trials to

symbolize the downfall of America and placing blame on women who take control of their own

bodies. Rather than recognizing the suffering religious oppression brought to the town of Salem,

especially women, the creators of the show continue Miller’s tradition of appropriating female

pain for male agendas.

Beyond this abortion, we see other indications of the villianization of woman’s bodily

autonomy through Mary’s sexuality. Not only does Tituba promise Mary with the abortion that

she will escape the scorn of being an unmarried mother, she also promises her that if she allows

power through sexually manipulating the wealthiest man in town into marrying her, then taking

control of him. Her sexual prowess is seen in her seduction of the men around her and accounts

for the downfall of Salem's leaders. As the show continues, John Alden returns and it becomes

34

clear that the plot is centered on the relationship between Mary and John, as well as various other

sexual relationships and indiscretions. A final indicator of the sexual nature of the show is found

in the costuming. The actresses in the show are dressed in sexy, revealing clothing, even as

peasants and Protestants. They are adorned in blacks and reds, with corsets accentuating their

cleavage. This is one of many ways Salem continues to situate female sexuality as the center of

the Salem witch trials. Even though the show does not connect directly to The Crucible, the same

Studying the popular culture representations of Salem witch trials opens another

discussion on the appropriation of female suffering—the suffering of Black women. In The

Crucible (1996), Salem (2014-2017), and American Horror Story (2013), multiple women are

blamed for their role in the trials, but the greatest victim of this heaping of shame is the character

of Tituba. As a Black woman, she is portrayed as wicked and unholy, but she is also deemed by

creators of these shows as unworthy for a full storyline and dynamic character development. In

Miller’s play and these more recent representations, Tituba is given the blame of ushering

witchcraft into Salem, but not given the power that seemingly comes with it for the white women

is still disenfranchised as that power is stolen by the white characters.

In the movie version of The Crucible, Tituba is blamed directly for bringing evil to

Salem, because she is not just implicated in the witchcraft but is actually seen performing it. In

41

#MeToo movement was founded by Black activist Tarana Burke in 2007 and has provided a

healing community for survivors and provided resources to promote their well-being. In 2017,

the movement gained nationwide attention after white actress Alyssa Milano began the hashtag

that encouraged women to share their stories of sexual assault (Garcia). From this, many cases of

sexual harassment have come to light, including prominent politicians.

The response to this from Republican lawmakers has been aggressive and defensive.

article, “Donald J. Trump and the rhetoric of ressentiment,” Casey Ryan Kelly explains, “white

victimhood rhetoric is largely unconcerned with adjudicating the structural nature of injustice.

The long-standing effort to paint white Americans, white men in particular, as victims erases the

material distinction between real structural inequality and indignation that arises from felt

intensities'' (8). This idea of the white man as the victim was seen especially during the trial of

Supreme Court justice, Brett Kavanaugh. Rather than empathizing with the woman Kavanaugh

assaulted, conservative supporters claimed that the judge was being treated unfairly because of a

liberal trend.

In response to this victimized backlash to the #MeToo movement, Katie Gentile in the

article “Give a Woman an Inch, She’ll Take a Penis,” explains that many of these leaders have

term: “Witch hunt might feel an appropriate term because there is a similar manic quality, but

witch hunts targeted women who had overstepped heteropatriarchal boundaries” not men who

committed acts of violence on the female body (242). Even Trump himself has referred to any

42

anti-Trump rhetoric as a “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!”

which is a blatant misunderstanding of history and the 16th and 17th century witch trials’ unique

and targeted persecution of women (Harriger 181).

Trump’s use of “witch hunt” to describe American politics is not a first, as we have seen

in these previous chapters. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory for his own

experiences with government “blacklisting” for communism in Hollywood. However, I argue

women around the world into one of male victimhood and female malice. This revised history

continues to shame and police women in the misogynistic, Trump-era culture of today.

However, this is not the only way Miller’s play has set the framework for the story of the

trials. The Crucible has recently been used conversely by contemporary playwrights to address

these long standing issues of sexism. Women playwrights are reclaiming the narrative Miller

created and using it to confront sexism head on in his work, life, and influence in American

culture. By exposing the play’s disparaging portrayal of women, these playwrights are able to

connect the misogyny of the Puritans in the 1600s, of Hollywood in the mid-20th century, and of

the politics of today. The plays, Abigail by Sarah Tuft, John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly

Belflower, and Becky Nurse of Salem by Sarah Ruhl discuss The Crucible in light of modern

necessarily to correct or demand historical accuracy, these plays still shed light on the gaps and

discrepancies in Miller’s text and their continued effects on popular culture. All three plays

expose what society has chosen to accept as the norm in both the witch trials and women’s lives

43

in general and to expose the way men have appropriated the suffering of 17

century women and

modern women to achieve their own goals and desires. All three of the plays end with a call to

action for women to create their own works that redeem the women of Salem and modern

women living under the oppression of the patriarchy.

In the play Abigail by Sarah Tuft, a male director recently accused of sexual assault

decides to stage a production of The Crucible in order to make a comeback in society. A famous

rehearsals with questions and concerns about the script, criticizing Miller for his sexist portrayal

of women. Soon Ashley also connects what she learns of Miller’s personal life to the text and

critiques his misogyny towards his former lover and salacious Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe,

and its relationship to the play’s characters. Rather than encouraging her curiosity, the director

and other cast members are frustrated by her concerns. The director offers to work on the play

with her personally, but he instead gets her drunk at his home and assaults her. She is at first

ashamed about the incident but as she continues to connect with the oppressed women in

Miller’s script, she becomes empowered to speak her truth. She reveals the rape, quits the play,

and writes her own one-woman show about Miller’s disparaging of Abigail Williams and

Marilyn Monroe.

sexual assault on women’s bodies. The play takes place primarily in a high school English

classroom where students are reading The Crucible in 2019. A group of students want to form a

feminist club but are discouraged from doing so because of recent sexual assault allegations in

44

their community. The school counselor calls it “a tricky situation with everything that’s been

going on in the community… people are—tensions are high” (Belflower 10). The students are

finally granted their club when their male English and sex education teacher volunteers to be

their sponsor if they use it as an opportunity to discuss The Crucible too. The discussion of The

Crucible becomes very personal when a student’s father is accused of assaulting multiple

women, then even more so when it is revealed that the English teacher has preyed on many of his

History who rarely uses the “script” they give her. She claims to know the history better than

anyone else, because she is a descendant of Rebecca Nurse, one of the executed women. This

gets her in trouble, however, and she loses her job. Things quickly go awry when Becky is

arrested for stealing the wax statue of Rebecca Nurse from the museum. Meanwhile, Becky’s

granddaughter is in a high school production of The Crucible where she and other girls are

sexually harassed by their director. The play ends with them sharing a post-performance ice

cream cone and reflecting on the women before them whose lives have been sacrificed literally

and figuratively by the trials and by popular culture.

Each of these plays works to expose the historical inaccuracies Miller uses to

accomplish his sexist goals in The Crucible. For instance in Abigail, Tuft addresses the age gap

play. Doing this in a contemporary setting shows just how inappropriate the creation of the affair

between John and Abigail is, especially through a modern lens. She says, “Abigail’s desperately

coming on to Proctor like some sort of unhinged seductress. I mean, Proctor and Elizabeth

45

literally refer to Abigail as a “whore” eight different times...But you know what? In real life,

Abigail Williams was eleven years old. Eleven. John Proctor was sixty” (Tuft 31). While the

other actor playing John Proctor is shocked, the director and his wife merely brush it off as an

artistic liberty. Ashley describes the play as “inherently misogynistic” and argues with the

director about its role in modern society (26). By taking Miller’s changes out of the context of

the play and into the world of 2019, Tuft illuminates the crude deception of Miller’s choices.

behind The Crucible. While it is widely known that Miller wrote the play as an allegory to the

Red Scare, the knowledge of Miller’s more personal ties to the story are lesser known. As Ashley

says, “it’s a bad allegory” (Tuft 34). Her thorough pre-rehearsal research on The Crucible reveals

to her and the audience that Miller’s personal life permeates every inch of the play, but

specifically through the affair between John and Abigail. At the time he wrote the play, Miller

was attempting to return to his wife, Mary Slattery, after having an affair with Marilyn Monroe

(Abbotson 18). Ashley connects the two saying, “Abigail is Marilyn. So by making her

hypersexualized and the aggressor, he’s saying his infidelity is all her fault, not his. He’s

projecting his shame onto his invention” (Tuft 36). She explains further that what she learned

from Miller’s biography showed her just how much Monroe was demonized by Miller. The play

screen. Ashley describes the movie The Misfits that Miller claims to have written for Monroe that

sexualizes her pain and sadness. She also describes the role Miller modeled after Monroe in his

play After the Fall where he realizes she is a “whore” (Tuft 40). Ashley uses these disparaging

46

portrayals of Monroe as supporting evidence to argue that Miller wrote the play with sexist

intentions. Beyond his political agenda, Miller also appropriates the stories of the women of

Salem to shame women in his own life. He attempts to clear himself of guilt, like John Proctor,

by demonizing a character representative of Monroe.

Abigail also addresses a concern that I myself have encountered writing this thesis. Miller

is regarded as one of the greatest American playwrights, and for many scholars and audiences,

both a disservice and irrelevant to the argument. Miller, though a highly regarded artist, is still

human thus still has personal biases and agendas that make way into his writing. Deeming him or

his work as infallible is a flawed way of thinking as it does not allow for the necessary feminist

deconstruction. In Abigail, both men and women defend Miller when Ashley calls his work

sexist. Tuft uses this part of the play to show that glorifying Miller beyond reproach is to

contribute to the oppression of women and their stories. This can be applied to other

representations of history as well and asks us to question why we allow powerful men and what

they deem as truth to live beyond reproach.

In a similar way, Becky Nurse of Salem addresses and condemns these pseudo-historical

changes made by Miller that show his misogynistic agenda. The play begins with Becky giving a

introducing herself as a descendant of Rebecca Nurse, a fact she is very proud of, and leads them

around the museum. She stops at a wax figure of John Proctor and briefly explains the plot of

The Crucible to the students. She calls it, “our goddam Christmas pageant in Salem,” then begins

47

to explain its historical inaccuracies, specifically noting the relationship between John and

Abigail (5). She scoffs at the idea that Abigail could possibly be seducing John. She says, “Now,

in the play, the reason Abigail wanted to get revenge on John Proctor’s pregnant wife (this is

what I could never really wrap my head around) is that this young girl wants to fuck an old

man...More likely that John Proctor molested...Abigail” (6). These “editorial” notes made by

Becky are later the cause of her removal from the tour guide job. Though she is correcting

though the subject itself matches the vulgarity of her language, she still loses her job for

choosing indignation over decorum. By showing Becky getting fired for this, Ruhl shows how

intrigue is valued greater than truth, especially in regards to the Salem witch trials. She also calls

out Arthur Miller for allowing the young girl in his pedophilic plot to be considered a “whore”

and the downfall of Salem. However, Ruhl also makes a unique point about human nature and

society by expressing the ways people refuse to accept the truth when it is uncomfortable or

places the cis white male as the oppressor. This is not limited to the Salem witch trials but rather

spans throughout American history which is often glorified into a patriotic fantasy that

eliminates the stories of the oppressed.

These plays go beyond calling out Miller, however. They also bring to light modern

contemporary women’s issues, specifically the #MeToo movement. The director of the play

within the play has already been accused of sexual harassment when he decides to direct the

play. He believes that he must redeem his name, like John Proctor, and believes directing The

48

Crucible is the way to do this. Once Ashley reveals to the rest of the group that John Proctor

would actually be a pedophile if Miller’s story were true, it becomes even clearer how the stories

parallel one another. The play uses Miller’s misappropriation to the tell the story of sexual

assault in show business, an issue that has become widely discussed in media. This includes a

“rehearsal” between the director and the young actress where he rapes her. This rape leaves her

insecure and lost, causing her to quit the play as well as her YouTube channel. Having painful

very decision of the director to produce The Crucible is based on his belief that he is a John

Proctor himself as his good name is smeared by villainous women. The Crucible is not even

regarded as a story about the Salem witch trials. To him, the play is meant to represent men who

must overcome the dangers of female sexuality and hysteria. In the play, the director even calls

his own scandals a “witch hunt,” equating paying for his crimes of assault with the murder of

innocent women, men, and children. This common strategy of men to allude blame for their

crimes is a shameful misappropriation of the deaths of over 10,000 women who were convicted

and executed as witches through the 15

against the truly oppressed to allow their pain to be an allegory for male “victimhood” that is

based in sexism and toxic masculinity.

The connections between the atmosphere at the school and the atmosphere of 1600s Salem are

apparent in the play through the religious zealotism and hypocrisy of both communities. While

the 2019 school is obviously much less extreme than 1600s Salem, there is a sense of religious

49

oppression through the “purity culture” established in John Proctor is the Villain. The English

teacher doubles as their sex education teacher which preaches abstinence instead of protected

sex. The teacher reminds the students, “there will never be any kind of birth control that teaches

faithfulness trust responsibility or commitment” and uses examples to convince students that the

more they have sex with others, the less faithful they are to their eventually partner (Belflower

41-42). Despite preaching this to his students, he has had sex with multiple young girls in his

Another way we see the studying and production of The Crucible continue a cycle of

abuse is through the way the English teacher preys on his students. He uses the play to get close

to his students by sponsoring their The Crucible centered feminist club and by having “after-

hours” conversations with his female students. In these conversations, he plays himself as the

victim of a witch-hunt, much like John Proctor. Also like Proctor, he calls into question the

character of the girl making the accusation. This is supported by the perception of other

characters in the play. She is called a whore by her classmates and is not believed by the school

board when she attempts to report the crime. The characters use The Crucible as a weapon

against the young girl by equating her (and the other women who come forward about abuse) to

Abigail.

watches the news on a TV at the bar and hears a Trump rally chanting “lock her up!” about

Hillary Clinton. During the 2016 election, conservative Republicans used a scandal over

Clinton’s use of a personal email address for government work to condemn her as a “crook” and

50

“criminal.” Similar to the outrage against women and cry for their imprisonment in the Salem

trials, conservative leaders today demonize powerful women. During the trials, this act of

demonizing helped keep the powerful in power, mainly men. Kristin J. Sollee explains that one

of the first reasons witch trials surfaced in Western culture was because at the time, women were

dominating the medical field as midwives and herbalists. As modern medicine began to develop,

men began to take over the field and found their work threatened by these women. Thus, they

accused of multiple crimes that have been brushed aside by his supporters. It is clear that just as

women were more likely to be accused in the witch trials, the flaws of women today are

amplified and broadcast more than those of men. Again, the witch trials are twisted by men into

a story of a woman’s criminality. Ruhl associates The Crucible with sexual exploitation in other

ways as well. Gale, Becky’s granddaughter, auditions for the local school’s performance of The

Crucible where she is cast as Betty. The director makes uncomfortable advances to the young

women, encouraging them to dance naked in the woods for “character work,” then show him

pictures. Like the two plays analyzed earlier in this chapter, this play shows how The Crucible

continues to be used as an abusive tool by men against women.

However, these plays do more than just associate The Crucible with sexism and abuse;

by men. Abigail concludes with Ashley’s performance of a one woman show that exposes the

faults of Miller and shines lights on the true history of Salem. She also exposes the director’s

malfeasance by using the technology her generation is familiar with, YouTube, to broadcast his

57

depict them as heroes rather than oppressors. In the Salem trials, men in power dominated the

court and spurred on the trials by their greed for property and revenge. However, the story of

popular knowledge has been warped to depict a heinous woman’s lust and a foreign witch’s

devilry. Similarly, the history of the oppression of enslaved Black people and slain Indigenous

people has been molded into a history of economic progress and manifest destiny. While the

Salem witch trials may not be America’s greatest tragedy, it is a tragedy that has been grossly

significance should not be discredited. However, I do argue that an examination of the

consequences of Miller’s work is necessary for its continued reproduction onstage and in

classrooms. There is little other media that depicts the Salem witch trials in an accurate and

alternative nature to Miller’s white male gaze. I argue that new works about the witch trials of

both nonfiction and fiction are needed to create a more comprehensive understanding of the time

period. These works must be mindful not to reproduce the tropes Miller enforced like many

works have but rather use creativity to remember the lives that were lost in the tragedy and to

offer alternative understandings of the mystery of Salem.

My final argument concerns the normalization of the phrase, “witch hunt,” in common

conversation. A sexual assault scandal is not a witch hunt. An examination of a leader’s crimes is

tragedy that led to the execution of thousands of people. It is the oppression of female

independence by patriarchal leaders. To use it to describe anything different is a disrespect and

misunderstanding of history. Miller’s use of the Salem witch trials as an allegory helped

58

establish the precedent that this is an appropriate comparison to modern political turmoil. Unless

thousands of women and girls are murdered, I refuse to accept “witch hunt” as a political term.

In conclusion, I dedicate this thesis to the women of Salem. I dedicate it to those who

were hanged for their refusal to confess: Bridget Bishop, Sarah Good, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah

Martin, Sarah Wildes, Martha Carrier, Martha Corey, Mary Eastey, Mary Parker, Alice Parker,

Ann Pudeator, and Margaret Scott. I dedicate it to the men who died defending them: George

the countless young girls manipulated by a patriarchal society into convicting their friends and

neighbors. I dedicate it to Dorcas Good, the five year old who went mad in prison. I dedicate it to

Tituba, who sat forgotten in prison for years after the trials ended. I dedicate it to the women who

have been forgotten by history. May we not forget what a society based in fear, religious

radicalization, and oppression can create.

59

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