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Personification
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts, which was a small Puritan town during the early days of American colonial settlement. The cultural context of the play revolves around this 17th-century Puritan society. Towns like these were governed by strict religious beliefs, a deep-seated fear of the devil, and a rejection of anything perceived as unknown. This cultural backdrop is an effective breeding ground for topics to become forbidden and resentments to bubble away below a calm façade. Issues like theft, infidelity, and jealousy couldn’t be discussed in polite society but happened just as often as they do nowadays. Despite the outward display of piety and rejection of sin, everyone in Salem is acutely aware of their neighbors' affairs, leading to a climate ripe for suspicion and gossip.
The physical settings of the play are mostly the small, smoky interiors of homes and farms. These intimate settings show Miller’s audience how the cramped circumstances of life in Salem might exacerbate tensions and personal conflicts within families and small communities. In a town scraping an existence out of almost nothing, fitting in and being supported by Salem's community is vital for survival. The simplicity and austerity of Puritan homes—which didn’t permit for decoration or luxuries—reflects the plain lifestyle of people like Proctor and his family. Although everything looks simple, this plain surface hides the tangles of all the conflicts in Salem.
The church is a central gathering place for the community, reminding all the townsfolk of its spiritual authority and social control. It is within this setting that public accusations and confessions take on a ritualistic intensity; witches are “found” here and confessions extracted. The rigid application of religious law goes alongside the community’s departure from the rational. People are so frightened of one another that they whip each other into a frenzy.
The forest that surrounds Salem is the opposite of this tightly controlled environment. It represents the unknown and the feared, as it lies outside the manicured boundaries of Salem itself. The girls perform their pretend rituals in the woods before the events of the play begin as a way of releasing the tensions and restrictions of their highly regulated lives.
