Breaking The Surface

"For all its power generated on the surface, The Crucible is the most moving in the simple, quiet scenes between John Proctor and his wife. By the standards of Death of a Salesman, there is too much excitement and not enough emotion in The Crucible."

This passage stuck out to me in Brooks Atkinson's "At The Theatre" review of The Crucible. He further notes that after some corrections and the added scene between Proctor and Abigail, that "the hearts of the characters are now closer to the surface than their nerves". I'm not sure I completely agree with Atkinson though. John Proctor and Elizabeth are the core of this play, you can instantly feel the tension in their first scene together. I think despite what Atkinson says about Miller, he does manage to capture emotion between the two characters, which propels the play beyond the terror of a witch hunt. At the same time, I feel like Miller could have pushed it so much further.

It really struck me when Miller went on about writers pushing themselves and not holding back, because it honestly felt like he held a lot back in this play. For example, Elizabeth is an extremely strong character and Miller left her in the background. I understand that the play is about Proctor and his struggle with being a good man, but doesn't that leave so much out? Another example is the way he just threw Abigail out of the play, that part always leaves too much to my imagination. I do realize this is Arthur Miller I'm criticizing, but my one complaint about The Crucible is that it leaves so many unanswered questions. It's like there is this huge build up and we are left to find out that everything led to Proctor finally finding himself. It's almost as if Miller is just scratching the surface, I wish he would have went deeper as a writer. Maybe I'm being pretentious, but every time I read this play I'm sucked in and left with a feeling of disappointment at the end. I want more expansion on the witch hunt, I want those feelings of confusion and anger to come through. It felt like just when Miller was pulling me into it, the focus switched to Proctor and stayed there. I really dislike the fact that Elizabeth was pulled into this because of Proctor, yet we never get to hear her side of things. Miller even mutes her in the end, not even allowing her to place judgment on Proctor. Maybe I'm asking for too much, but then again, isn't that what Miller is asking of future writers?