The Symbol Of Black In “The Crucible” Essay, Research Paper

The Symbol of Black in “The Crucible”

When Ezekiel Cheever walks in the atmosphere turns dreary and black.

After all why would he be coming unless there was nothing important to say. One,

maybe not so obvious reason why darkness enters the room is because Cheever as

it says was a nice tailor that now might burn in hell. The more obvious

presence of of dreariness and blackness is that Ezekiel has come on the business

of the court to arrest the “witches.”

This color of black also relates to Abigail although in this scene she

doesn’t talk, she is a part of it. Abby is a knows how to blackmail people (no

pun intended.) For example if Mr. Proctor went against Abigail then she might

charge him on lechery. Abby is a black and dark person, like an assistant of

the devil. If she wants something bad enough she will get it.

Although blue signifies sadness I believe that Elizabeth is feeling

black in this portion of the play. What I mean by black is that Elizabeth

probably felt like dying instead of going through all this. Since black

symbolizes death I figured that Elizabeth maybe felt black, like putting herself

out of the misery of all this charging rather than go along with it. She gets

blamed for many things that she did not do. For example she is accused of

poking Abby with a needle by a poppet.

Mary must also feel black because she meant no harm by putting a needle

inside of the poppet and yet she gets in trouble also. The black signifies

Elizabeth’s anger hate for Abby. It is clearly shown when she says that Abby

should be ripped out of the world and that Abby is murder.

Black also signifies confusion. First of all when all the colors are

mixed together they form black. When everything is mixed it causes chaos and

confusion. Mr. Proctor is confused towards the end of Act Two. He doesn’t know

whether or not to tell about Abby and the needle, because she might charge him

on lechery yet he wants to tell about who stuck the needle in. Almost everybody

is confused and everything is chaotic. Everybody is charging everybody and

nobody might even be a witch. Nobody even knows who is telling the truth and

who isn’t.

These are just a few of the many examples that Black can be used in this

play. Sorry if I didn’t convey what I meant clearly I did the best that I

could.