Gender Roles In The Crucible

In The Crucible, Miller intentionally crafts the story of witchcraft in Salem in order to highlight John Proctor’s story of triumph and his honorable refusal to succumb to his values he’s set for himself. In turn, he gives the two main female characters stereotypical female roles in order to explain John’s decisions. This is shown by Miller’s use of hot and cold analogies. Abigail is described as being a seductress and “hot” and she is portrayed as being sexually promiscuous. Abigail and John’s relationship is hot and passionate. Unlike, John’s relationship with his wife, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is described as being wintry and frigid and in their relationship Elizabeth and John are walking around eggshells with each other. In order to highlight …show more content…
In the end, two specific scenes stood out to me. The first is when Proctor is first introduced in the book and the reader is shown a glimpse of Abigail and Proctor’s relationship. Abigail says, “I have a sense for heat, John, and yours has drawn me to my window, and I have seen you looking up, burning in your loneliness. Do you tell me you’ve never looked up at my window?” (Miller, 23). In this scene, the reader is able to see some examples of Miller’s use of hot and cold. The word “heat” ( 23) describes the passion and all consuming lust of Abigail and John’s relationship. Then, on page 47, Miller begins to set the scene leading up to where we first meet Elizabeth. Miller writes, “He continues on to the fireplace, leans the gun against the wall as he swings a pot out of the fire and smells it. Then he lifts out of the ladle and tastes. He is not quite pleased.” (Miller, 47). Later on in that scene, Proctor goes on to describe the atmosphere as “it’s winter in here yet” (Miller, 49). Both of these scenes are the first instances that the reader gets of the dynamics of Abigail and Proctor’s relationship and Elizabeth and Proctor’s