Arthur Miller's "Weight of Truth" in The Crucible

Arthur Miller's "Weight of Truth" in The Crucible STEPHEN MARINO One of the more intriguing historical events Arthur Miller included in The Crucible was Giles Corey's refusal to answer his indictment for witchcraft in order to preserve his land for his sons' inheritance. In punishment, Corey was pressed with great stones, still refusing to confess to witchery. Corey died, still in defiance, uttering as his last words. "More Weight." Miller assigns great significance to Corey's words for he uses them in Act Four at a decisive moment for his protagonist, John Proctor. In hearing about Giles's death, Proctor repeats Corey's words, as if to consider their meaning for himself. In fact, Miller intimately connects the word "weight" to the theme of the play by employing it ten times throughout the four acts. Tracing the repetition "weight" in The Crucible reveals how the word supports one of the play's crucial themes: how an individual's struggle for truth often conflicts with society. Some critics have conducted similar language studies of The Crucible. In "Setting, Language and the Force of Evil in The Crucible," Penelope Curtis maintains that the language of the play is marked by what she calls "half-metaphor ," which Miller employs to suggest the themes. For example, she examines the interplay of language between Elizabeth and Abigail which indicates reputation, such as "something soiled," "entirely white," "no blush about.my name.'" John Prudhoe, in "Arthur Miller and the Tradition of Tragedy," notes how the characters use Biblical imagery in their language because "a large context of traditional beliefs gives meaning to their words.,,;2 Stephen Fender, in "Precision and Pseudo-Precision in The Crucible," refutes Prudhoe's analysis and argues that the language of the Salemites actually reveals "the speech of a society totally without moral referents."3 Leonard Moss, in "Arthur Miller and the Common Man's Language," discusses how Miller as a playwright has a "talent for expressing inward urgency through colloquial language."4 . Among the articles which discuss the importance of "name" in the language of·the play are Ruby Cohn in Dialogue in American Drama, Gerald Weales in. Modern Droma, 38 (1995) 488 Arthur Miller's "Weight of Truth" "Arthur Miller: Man and His Image," and Michael J. O'Neal in "History, Myth and Name Magic in Arthur Miller's The Crucible.'" The only critic who makes a similar linguistic analysis is Edward Murray. In Arthur Miller, Dramatist , Murray examines how in The Crucible Miller "in a very subtle manner , uses key words to knit together the texture of action and theme." He notes, forexarnple, the recurrent use of the word "soft" in the text.6 Certainly the struggle for truth is at the center of the play's conflicts. Jean Selz believes "the avatars of truth" are the most important of the underlying themes: "We see truth - at first forceful and sure of itself - get enmeshed in the ways of uncertainty, falter and grow pale and transform itselflittle by little into a mean and sorry thing.... whom everyone refuses to accept." Selz argues that truth is at odds with the very people, the judges and ministers, who are supposed to discern it. "Those imposters who call themselves judges," Selz thinks, are particularly indictable because they force truth to become the "invisible heroine" of the play.' Similarly, Miller's thematic use of weight is intimately connected to the conflicts that occur when an individual's struggle to know truth opposes society's understanding of it. For the dramatic tension of the play is based on the clashes of truth between those characters who profess to speak it, those who profess it, those who live it and those who die for it. Miller's initial use of "weight" in the first scene immediately connects it with truth. Reverend Parris, trying to discover the cause of his daughter Betty's unnatural sleeping fit, pleads with, and then threatens, his niece Abigail: Now tell me true, Abigail. And I pray you feel the weight of truth upon you, for now my ministry's at stake, my ministry and perhaps your cousin's life. (I I) The "weight of truth" Parris implores Abigail...