the crucible in history and other essays by arthur miller

Journey to 'The Crucible' he Crucible is taken from history. No character is in the play who did not take a similar role in Salem, 1692. The basic story is recorded, if briefly, in certain documents of the time. It will be a long time before I shall be able to shake Rebecca Nurse, John Proctor, Giles Corey and the others out of my mind. But there are strange, even weird memories that have connected themselves to this play, and these have to do with the present, and it has all got mixed up together. I went to Salem for the first time early last spring. I already knew the story, and had though about it for a long time. I had never been to Salem before and, driving alone up the brand new superhighway, I felt a shock at seeing the perfectly ordinary steel sign reading, Salem 3 mi. I confess it - some part of my mind had expected to see the old wooden village, not the railroad tracks, the factories, the trucks. These things were not real, suddenly, but intruders, as tourists are in the halls of Versailles. Underneath, in the earth, was the reality. I drove into the town. I asked the courthouse clerk for the town records for 1692. A lawyer-looking man in an overcoat asked for 1941. A lady, who looked like she were planning to sue somebody, asked for 1913. The clerk handed over a volume to each of us and we sat at separate tables, the three of us, turning pages. The lawyer began copying - possibly from a deed. The woman read perhaps a will - and got angrier. I looked into 1692. Here were wills, too, and deeds, and warrants sworn out, and the usual debris a town leaves behind it for the legal record. And then. dialogue! Prosecutor Hathorne is examining Rebecca Nurse. The court is full of people weeping or the young girls who sit before them strangling because Rebecca's spirit is out tormenting them. And Hathorne says, It is awful to see your eye dry when so many are wet.
Inspired by the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, focuses on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that can result from dark desires and hidden agendas. Miller bases the play on the historical account of the Salem witch trials. In particular he focuses on the discovery of several young girls and a slave playing in the woods, conjuring — or attempting to conjure — spirits from the dead. Rather than suffer severe and inevitable punishment for their actions, the girls accused other inhabitants of Salem of practicing witchcraft. Ironically, the girls avoided punishment by accusing others of the very things of which they were guilty. This desperate and perhaps childish finger-pointing resulted in mass paranoia and an atmosphere of fear in which everyone was a potential witch. As the number of arrests increased, so did the distrust within the Salem community. A self-perpetuating cycle of distrust, accusation, arrest, and conviction emerged. By the end of 1692, the Salem court had convicted and executed nineteen men and women. Miller creates an atmosphere and mood within the play reminiscent of the historical period and of Puritan culture. The inhabitants of Salem lived in a restrictive society. Although the Puritans left England to avoid religious persecution, they based their newly established society upon religious intolerance. The Puritans demonstrated their faithfulness, honesty, and integrity through physical labor and strict adherence to religious doctrine. They considered material and physical wants — especially sexual desires — as the Devil's work and a threat to society. The Bible and the minister's interpretation of the Bible determined what was considered socially acceptable behavior. The Puritans had no tolerance for inappropriate or unacceptable behavior and punished individuals publicly and.
Bookseller Image Item Description: Bantam Books, New York, 1971. Mass Market Paperback. Book Condition: Good. Mass Paperback Edition. A BANTAM DRAMA BOOK. 164 pages. One of the most controversial plays of our generation by the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Circle Award winner and the late author of DEATH OF A SALESMAN and AFTER THE FALL. Originally published in 1964 by The Viking Press, New York. The original performance opened in New York City on January 23, 1964--directed by Elia Kazan and starring Barbara Loden and Jason Robards Jr., with a cameo appearance by Faye Dunaway. The play also served as the basis for a 1974 TV production starring Faye Dunaway, Christopher Plummer, Bibi Andersson and a very young Brooke Shields. A very good utilitarian mass pbk copy in illustrated covers with overall moderate wear and tanning. The text is clean and sound--notwithstanding a very few occurrences of paragraph bracketing, text underlining and marginal annotations. Size: 12mo - over 6¾ - 7¾ tall. Bookseller Inventory 013046 More Information About This Seller | Ask Bookseller a Question 2. Item Description: Viva Books Private Limited, 2007. Paperback. Book Condition: New. First edition. [Miller?s] point. is that moral arrogance, the tendency to render unyielding judgements is not confined within the American power structure. It is at the very heart of the American temperament, and therefore it is at the heart of Miller?s play as well. For The Crucible attempts to isolate the sources of moral arrogance. and thus to point the direction to correcting our moral optics. The design of The Crucible attempts to make visible two discrete, self-contained and antagonistic expressions of female power to test their legitimacy as authentic definitions of sexual desire. The externalized contest between the impulse that betrays. and the force that nurtures. shapes the choices made.