The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, is set in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692.
The town minister discovers his daughter, niece, and other girls dancing with his slave Tituba in the forest.
His daughter faints because she fears they will be discovered and does not wake.
Although they say they were only dancing, rumors spread that they were practicing witchcraft.
It turns out that Tituba was trying to conjure dead spirits, leading to the Salem witch trials.
The Crucible Quotes With Page Numbers Act 1
“The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect yet that we will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space. Evidently the time came in New England when the repressions of order were heavier than seemed warranted by the dangers against which the order was organized. The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, (An Overture), Act 1, Page 6
“When one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, just as we shall be pitied some day.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, (An Overture), Act 1, Page 7
“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Abigail, Act 1, Page 19
“knowing smile on his face: What’s this mischief here?”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 1, Page 20
“Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I’ll cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 1, Page 22
“I cannot sleep for dreaming; I cannot dream but I wake and walk about the house as though I’d find you comin’ through the door.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Abigail, Act 1, Page 22
“I look for John Proctor that took me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what pretence Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men! And now you bid me tear the light out of my eyes! I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Abigail, Act 1, Page 22
“A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Rebecca, Act 1, Page 25
“Pray calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she’ll wake when she tires of it. A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Rebecca, Act 1, Page 25
“There is prodigious danger in seeking loose spirits”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Rebecca, Act 1, Page 26
“I am sick of meetings; cannot the man turn his head without he have a meeting?”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Putnam, Act 1, Page 26
“We vote by name in this society, not by acreage.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 1, Page 27
“PARRIS: I want a mark of confidence, is all! I am your third preacher in seven years. I do not wish to be put out like the cat whenever some majority feels the whim.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Parris, Act 1, Page 28
“…we conceive the Devil as a necessary part of a respectable view of cosmology. Ours is a divided empire in which certain ideas and emotions and actions are of God, and their opposites are of Lucifer. It is as impossible for most men to conceive of a morality without sin as of an earth without ‘sky’. Since 1692 a great but superficial change has wiped out God’s beard and the Devil’s horns, but the world is still gripped between two diametrically opposed absolutes. The concept of unity, in which positive and negative are attributes of the same force, in which good and evil are relative, ever-changing, and always joined to the same phenomenon – such a concept is still reserved to the physical sciences and to the few who have grasped the history of ideas.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Putnam, Act 1, Page 31
“When it is recalled that until the Christian era the underworld was never regardded as a hostile area, that all gods were useful and essentially friendly to man despite occasional lapsesl when we see the steady methodical inculcation into humanity of the idea of man’s worthlesseness – until redeemed – the necessity of the Devil may become evident as a weapon, a weapon designed and used time and time again in every age to whip men into a surrender to a particular church or church state.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Putnam, Act 1, Pages 31, 32
“Political opposition… is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Putnam, Act 1, Page 32
“Sex, sin, and the Devil were early linked.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Putnam, Act 1, Page 33
“The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone…”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 1, Page 35
“Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises. Here are all your familiar spirits-your incubi and succubi; your witches that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and of the day. Have no fear now-we shall find him out and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 1, Page 37
“HALE, with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 1, Page 37
“What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister.” – Rev. John Hale”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 1, Page 39
Act 2 Quotes
“Some dream I had must have mistaken you for God that day. But you’re not, you’re not, and let you remember it! Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 51
“Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers?”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 51
“Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 52
“Spare me! You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven month since she is gone. I have not moved from there to there without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches around your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 52
“I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicion. But I wilted, and, like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed! Some dream I had must have mistaken you for God that day.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 52
“…an everlasting funeral marches round your heart.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 52
“Oh. Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 53
“I made a gift for you, Good Proctor. I had to sit long hours in a chair, and passed the time with sewing.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Mary Warren, Act 2, Page 53
“What work you do! It’s strange work for a Christian girl to hang old women!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 56
“There is a promise made in any bed.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor, Act 2, Page 58
“Because it speaks deceit, and I am honest! But I’ll plead no more! I see now your spirit twists around the single error of my life, and I will never tear it free!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 59
“Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Reverend Hale, Act 2, Page 68
“…though our hearts break, we cannot flinch…”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 2, Page 68
“If she is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 73
“We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 73
“Pontius Pilate! God will not let you clean your hands of this!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 73
“Elizabeth, with great fear: I will fear nothing.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Elizabeth, Act 2, Page 74
“John – tell me, are we lost?”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Giles, Act 2, Page 75
“Peace. It is a providence, and no great change; we are only what we always were, but naked now.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 76
“we are only what we always were”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 2, Page 76
Act 3 Quotes
“Do that which is good, and no harm shall come to thee.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 3, Page 88
“But if she say she is pregnant, then she must be! That woman will never lie, Mr. Danforth”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 3, Page 93
“In an ordinary crime, how does one defend the accused? One calls up witnesses to prove his innocence. But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature an invisible crime, is it not? The witch and the victim. None other. Now we cannot hope the witch will accuse herself; granted? Therefore, we must rely upon her victims – and they do testify, the children certainly do testify.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Danforth, Act 3, Page 93
“A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you – see her what she is…She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore’s vengeance…”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 3, Page 102
“You are pulling heaven down and raising up a whore”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 3, Page 111
“A fire, a fire is burning! I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth! For them that quail to bring men out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all your black hearts that this be fraud…we will burn, we will burn together!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 3, Page 111
Act 4 Quotes
“it’s the proper morning to fly into Hell.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Herrick, Act 4, Page 113
“I should hang ten thousand that dared to rise against the law, and an ocean of salt tears could not melt the resolution of the statutes.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Danforth, Act 4, Page 119, 120
“Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 4, Page 122
“cleave to no faith when faith brings blood.” – Rev. John Hale”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 4, Page 122
“I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor–cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Hale, Act 4, Page 122
“It is as though they stood in a spinning world.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Elizabeth, Act 4, Page 123
“She catches a weakening in herself and downs it. She will not let herself be drowned in the sea that threatens her.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Elizabeth, Act 4, Page 124
“More Weight”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 4, Page 125
“Great stones they lay upon his chest until he plead aye or nay. They say he give them but two words. “More weight,” he says. And died.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, Elizabeth, Act 4, Page 125
“I speak my own sins; I cannot judge another. I have no tongue for it.”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 4, Page 131
“I am John Proctor! You will not use me! It is no part of salvation that you should use me!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 4, Page 132
“PROCTOR–he knows it is insane: No, it is not the same! What others say and what i sign to is not the same!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 4, Page 132
“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 4, Page 133
“…I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs.
(Elizabeth, in a burst of terror, rushes to him and weeps against his hand.)
Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them. Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor and Elizabeth, Act 4, Page 133
“He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!”
~Arthur Miller, The Crucible, John Proctor, Act 4, Page 134
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