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.