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Amanda McQuade

Mr. Walters

English III Honors

26 October 2017

Hell and The Crucible: The 9 stages of Inferno and Salem’s self-destruction.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible demonstrates many themes of thought and makes many

connections to the historical retellings of the collective sociology, corruption of the hierarchy,

and destroying a name by labeling. This is a common theme throughout history, such as during

The Red Scare of the 1950s and the threat of communism in America, and the Salem Witch

Trials of the 1690s, into today’s modern society in our own entertainment business. What do

these three historical and modern examples all have in common? The people who are

considerably “good” become the heroes and suppress the vocation of the accused, and slandering

names of people who are deemed “wicked”. According to Colonial Massachusetts, the enemies

were the witches. During the Cold War, politicians and people in power, attempted to rid

capitalist America of communist thought. And in modern times, Hollywood has become the

bottomless pit of conspiracies involving sexual assault. This is not only an informative intention

on Miller’s part, but The Crucible is a reflection on Miller’s personal hell. As said in the earlier

stated examples, collectivist societies want to get rid harmful ideology through process of

cleansing the community of these so-called “bad” morals and ideology. This desire for the

perfect, angelic society becomes so strong in the community that they begin attempting to “rid”
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society of these liabilities, and the entire community enters disruption. Arthur Miller models this

construction through the inspiration from the storytelling of Dante’s Divine Comedy to convey

the message that in these communities’ “good” will do the opposite of their intentions. Although

an Atheist, Miller conveys that the Puritan Society in The Crucible descends Salem into a

metaphorical hell. Although most people desire to follow the morals and sociological system of

the collective, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and Dante’s Divine Comedy demonstrate that

darkness and temptations are warned against, while the people who consider themselves the just

ones are really causing true torment to their opposers. And in this way of reflecting on Dante’s

personalized hell in the Divine Comedy, Miller creates the world The Crucible as his own

personal hell.

In Dante’s Inferno, there is a complexity to hell, and Dante describes it to have 9 levels

the sinner must pass through to suffer eternal damnation. These nine levels are as follows: limbo,

lust, gluttony, greed, anger, heresy, violence, fraud, and ultimately, treachery. In The Crucible,

there are very noticeable parallels to these nine stages as the drama progresses. As discord ensues

in Puritanical society, the complexity and sins committed become greater as well. The severity of

the sin follows a very similar chronological order to the nine circles.

The very first three of these nine stages follow as Limbo, Lust, and Gluttony as Dante

descends into the circles of his own personal hell in Inferno. In a close look at the events of The

Crucible, the book opens as Abigail Williams and other girls in Salem are questioned for their

behavior and the first accusations of witchcraft are placed. To further enhance this, the 1996

Crucible film gives a better explanation of why the girls had danced in the forest- in order to

make certain men of the town their husbands. “I want Jacob Poole to love me forever.”(The

Crucible). Although this is never shown in the the novel itself, Salem is in the beginning stages
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of Limbo. According to Dante, Limbo is where they “ yet they are, unhurt, but unable to see

God.” (Canto IV). It is described to function as a waiting room. There is no physical torture, yet

there is lingering psychological terror during this stage, and this is perfectly demonstrated at the

very beginnings of Miller’s The Crucible. Specifically, limbo can be seen in Act 1, Scene 1 from

Corey, who claims he had tried to say his prayers, yet was unable to and provided his wife,

Martha, as the scapegoat to his own disorder. “I tried and tried and could not say my prayers.”

(The Crucible, pg. 21). Many claimed that they had this problem in the presence of a witch; that

when they see disorder in their society, fear strikes within them. This intense fear of evil causes

the townspeople of Salem to feel withdrawn and unable to seek God or goodness. Lust, the

second circle of hell, is one of the most obvious of signs in The Crucible, especially the

relationship between Abigail Williams and John Proctor. Lust is strong sexual desire, and John

Proctor continually struggles with lust, as he had an adulterous relationship with Abigail. He

even admits to his struggles with lust in Act 1 Scene 1; “Abby, I may think of you softly from

time to time.”(pg.14) These struggles concerning the absence of God in their prayers and the

lustful acts of Proctor and Abigail all lead into gluttony. Gluttony has several meanings in

accordance to Inferno, and the easiest to understand from it is overgorgance of food. Yet,

gluttony can be linked to an even stronger desire for certain objects or things. Many Puritan folk

in the town of Salem have a deep yearning, or gluttony for God, while some very specific

characters struggle through this circle, depending on the desire. Abigail craves and desires an in-

depth relationship with John Proctor, who is a married man, and this gluttony for a deeper

relationship with John leads her and the rest of the town deeper inside the circle of gluttony.

“Glory to God! It is broken and they are free!” (Act 1, Scene 1, pg. 26 ). The other girls of the

town follow this example, as shown in the above line, as the other girls who agreed to dance in
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the forest were also desiring relationships with the men in the town. Their gluttonous actions

caused accusations that lead the rest of Salem to deception, corruption, and eventual violence.

The next stages show Salem’s descent into the fourth, fifth and sixth circles of hell: the

previous discord of Limbo as struggling to pray, the lustful acts of John Proctor and Abigail, and

the gluttonous greed of the Salem girls cause greed, anger, and heresy in the formation of the

trials and accusations exhibited by the higher powers who only want true virtue to be exhibited in

theocratic Salem. Greed, according to Dante, is lust of material gain, which is generally similar

and already seen in the present conflicts with the Puritan people of Salem. Greed shows itself in

many forms; notably Abigail’s desperate measures to get John Proctor widowed to fulfill her

lustful imagery of him, Parris becomes desperate to save his own reputation as a preacher, and

the girls of Salem who are willing to put others in harms way for the sake of themselves. As

more people of Salem fall to greed, this greed is not only to save reputations, or make plans such

as Abigail’s, but the townspeople of Salem begin to form Dante’s envisionment of anger. Anger,

simple as the emotion is, runs rampant in Salem, quickly souring the relationships between

characters, and the inevitability of proper judgement. Anger can be seen often in John Proctor’s

conversations he has with his wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s own struggles with hostility against

John’s lustful wrongdoings lead the two into a spiraling downpour of anger. “PROCTOR: (with

a violent overtone) You doubt me yet?!” (Act 1, Scene 2, pg. 30). Anger is one of the more

noticeable features in the town of Salem, as well as Dante’s Heresy. Heresy is the sixth circle of

hell; Heresy is, in short, any other religious views that are seen as opposing, and this main circle

is emulated in Salem. As Salem descends deeper and deeper through the remaining circles of

hell, it becomes more and more evident of Arthur Miller’s attempted warning to society begin to

unfold more….
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It has become increasingly evident that Salem and Dante’s Inferno are very clearly

connected by Arthur Miller as an attempted warning to society, and the last three circles

presented in the conclusion of the play confirms Salem as a place of deceit, unfair judgement,

and corruption. The last three circles Dante names as he journeys to the ending destination

include Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. The seventh circle, Violence is among the most easy to

spot as Salem erupts into complete disruption, especially when watching the film. Especially in

the second and last acts, after the accusations have been placed, and the lynchings begin. One of

the most cruel uses of torture is used on Giles Corey, in which he is slowly pressed to death with

stones and begs for “more weight” as he is an innocent man, yet the accusations and group

acceptance of condemning those who have an opposing opinion pays the price of it. Along with

fraud and violence, The Crucible concludes with the final stage of hell: Treachery. Treachery,

according to Dante, is described as hatred against those of their community. As the lynchings

continue, those who attempt to purify the town exercise hatred against innocent people and

condemn them to death in the name of fairness. This finalizes Salem’s destination to hell through

the condemnment of John Proctor. These finalized stages in the Crucible signify that Salem has

abandoned its past as a fairly peaceful living due to collective religious beliefs. At this time,

Salem has become what they had originally feared: In the eyes of Arthur Miller, Salem has

become a metaphorical hell, and a smiteful pool of hypocrisy amongst the characters. Fear turned

the seemingly righteous into the witches they feared the accused had become. I have personally

faced some aspects of my own personal hell before in a shorter amount of time. Arthur Miller,

who is an atheist, and Dente, who believed in an afterworld, have their personal versions of hell

as I have had my own. During my own sophomore year, the morning of the results for the 2016

presidential election, I happened to be wearing a sweater with the British flag on it. Not as a
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political statement, but because I simply wanted to wear a sweater for the November weather.

While walking from a classroom, a girl, I suspect a year or two older than me directly

approached me, and angrily asked me if I “believed in slavery?”. Taken aback by the question, I

told her no, not understanding why she would want to approach a much smaller girl as myself.

She believed that I was wearing a confederate flag. I knew she was incorrect, and I shakily

replied that she was mistaken. I went through a long period of self-loathing. The more I thought

about the situation, I noticed she and I had differences in melanin in our epidermi. And I felt

guilty. Even though I had no direct connection to the slave trade, (my grandparents came to

America later in time, they lived in the northern states, and I had family that fought for the

Union) I still felt that I had contributed to her misfortunes. The word “slavery” sent me into

despair. My own personal hell. In my time living in Minnesota, I had many friends who were

different, and we never thought much about colors and privileges. And I realized that

relationships between people were shambled. How labels attached to people no matter their

colors. As Arthur Miller’s personal hell is that of a religious society that twists its teachings, and

Dante's hell of committed sins exists, I had experienced my own personal hell- where inequality

still existed. And the worst part of this, was that it all came from a place of anger and

misunderstanding.

Arthur Miller models this construction through inspiration of Dante’s Divine Comedy

through his storytelling to convey the message that the people in these situations ended up

becoming the ultimate society that they did not intend on creating. Although an Atheist, Miller

conveys that the Puritan Society in The Crucible descends them into damnation, and how their

fears descend Salem into a metaphorical hell. In the famous words of Jean-Paul Satre “Hell is the

others”, meaning that these people truly believed they were just, but they were blinded so
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severely by their faith, the did not understand the realities that existed. While I personally have

bias in terms of religion and whether heaven and hell truly exist or not, I can confirm through

Miller Dante, and my own experience, personal hell exists. And Arthur Miller intends to argue

that his personal hell is a reality where oppression of those with different ideals- that this

suppression leads into Dante’s 9 Stages of Inferno. This truly shows that words have the power

to ignite revolutions. Words also carry the power to end them just as well.

Works Cited

Miller, Arther. The Crucible, Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1982. Print.
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Bloom, Harold. The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages, Harcourt Brace

Company, Orlando, Florida, 1994. Print.

The Crucible. Hytner, Nicholas. 20th Century Fox, 1996. Film.

“Danteworlds.” Danteworlds, University of Chicago Press, 2007, danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/.

“9 Circles of Hell (Dante's Inferno).” 9 Circles of Hell (Dante's Inferno) - History Lists, History

Lists, 2012, historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell-dantes-inferno.html.