Themes in The Crucible

The Pressure Cooker
A woman walks into her kitchen to finish her daily task of canning a batch of peas. Without thinking she simply pops the top of her pressure cooker. Within seconds peas and glass lay strewn about on the kitchen floor, and the lady is sprawled out in the floor with severe burns. All this occurs because the lady does not recognize the signs of built up pressure in the pot. The famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller “is patterned in a detail and accurate manner upon the historical records of the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692"(Schlueter and Flanagan 118). The name of the play itself serves as a window into the town of Salem in 1692; the word crucible means a container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures and violent pressures, much like the town itself. The town has been pushed to the absolute maximum pressure point and then it explodes. Arthur Miller uses many themes throughout the play to dramatize this expl...