The Collapse Of Morality And The Return Of Humanity

Arthur Miller (1915-2005) is universally regarded as one of the most leading and outstanding American modern dramatists in the20th century. And he entirely devotes his whole life to observing the life of common people living in the bottom of society by means of characters shaped in his works, therefore he is recognized across the world as the consciousness of American society.As Miller’s one of the most representative plays, The Crucible aims at reflecting the violent turmoil in the American society and severe panic among common people under the negative influence and atmosphere of McCarthyism by virture of Salem witch trials which was a true case taking place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during1692and1693. In this play, Miller makes full use of the historical methods in order to show the vivid and ridiculous process of how the villagers get rid of the witch. Thus, this paper applies the psychoanalytical approach to illustrate the villagers’ mental motivation in the process of witch-hunting event. And what’s more, based on "id","ego" and "superego", this paper mainly analyzes mental activities of Abigail, Elizabeth and Proctor under the guide of behavior.This paper is consisted of three key chapters. The first chapter mainly discusses the hunting of Abigail’s id under the absurd accusation. Because of pursing the romantic love, longing for assuring her identity and voice, and being scared of death as well, all these lead to Abigail’s escape, which proves the absurdity of witch-hunting event. From her behavior, we readers could see that in front of death and punishment, the common people is inclined to choose compromise, ignoring the moral principles.The second chapter is concerned with reflecting Elizabeth’s ego awakening behind her contradictory behavior. In the past, her behavior was monitored by superego, however, after the witch-hunting event happened, she is reluctant to speak out the truth because of love and protection towards her husband and family. Her behavior implies that she follows the reality principle, which means her id weighs over the superego in order to achieve the balance between id and superego.The third chapter manifests the harsh victory of Proctor’s superego in front of tempt and threatening. Owing to being responsible for his family, his faith and the villagers and not yield the evil force, he finally shows the great determination to die with self-dignity. And because of his great behavior, we readers could see the brilliance of humanity.To sum up, through digging out the mental activities of these three people, it is obvious to find that The Crucible is not only a simple tragedy, but also behind the tragedy, it reflects the collapse of morality and the return of humanity in front of death. Thus this thesis is filled with reality value. And what’s more, the author of this thesis thinks that Miller fully embodies his moral principles and social duty in this play, that is he is much concerned with the common people, and encourages them to fight against the evil force to reconstruct the new moral order.