The Crucible by Arthur Miller
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Book Reviews of The Crucible
Book Review: At-the-edge-of-the-seat!
Summary: 5 Stars
With its suspenseful plot, melodramatic characters, and excessively strict setting, Arthur Miller's The Crucible expertly captures the helplessness of the wrongfully-accused.
The Crucible follows the story of a stubborn cynic in the midst of his society's chaos and paranoia. Not particularly moral, for he had committed adultery, John Proctor is the typical man struggling with his beliefs that are not accepted in his community. His different thoughts violate the society's unsaid policy of conformity, rendering him the perfect character to play out the pitiful hardships of a heretic. Since he neither entirely good nor completely evil, Proctor's character represents the common man, and the average reader can relate to his thoughts about society. Because of this, readers are more able to sympathize with Proctor, drawing the reader more into the book's plot as it goes on. Because of this, the reader eventually faces the same gnawing conflict Proctor faces in the end. While yielding to his society's chaotic witch-hunting disturbs his conscience, holding fast to his beliefs guarantees death. Throughout the play, Proctor battles it out with his pride when he is forced to choose between his life and his conscience. Instead of just a story of trials, The Crucible represents a moral test -is being honest worth dying for? The reader contemplates this inevitable question as he flips faster and faster (and his heart beats faster and faster!) to reveal the fatal end - his ethics win, and Proctor hangs dead.
Only by placing his story in a strict community would Miller be able to illustrate the overwhelmingly contagious fear of evil -and he did just that. Prior to the introduction of John Proctor's character, the story begins with a young girl's false accusation of another of witchcraft in Salem, a Puritan settlement. The idea of the Devil's work, witchcraft, in their own pious community vastly alarms its citizens. Immediately, this fear spreads like an uncontrollable wildfire in a million acre forest. With this paranoia and fear leading to chaos, which eventually causes its tragic finale, The Crucible disapproves of the Puritan society's intolerance of dissent, almost mocking its gullibility and piety.
Also, characters developed in the play symbolize different aspects of the human nature. Abigail, the girl who initiates these accusations, does so because of her vengeful stubborn nature -a perfect representation of the play's antagonist. Her anger and confusion towards her banishment from Proctor's house motivates her revenge. Goody Proctor, the symbol of moral goodness, is, of course, John Proctor's wife -a daily painful reminder of his past sins. Throughout the play, she reflects a self-less personality, creating a standard for her husband to achieve. These characters help further shape John Proctor's dilemma at the end.
As for context, Miller compares these Salem witch-trials depicted in the play to the 1950s Red Scare in the United States. As the witch-trials begin with one accusation, so does the Red Scare. The piety and overwhelming fear in the Devil in the community allows the witch-hunt to continue throughout the Puritan settlement. Paralleling this fear, the paranoia of Communism in the steadfast Democratic-Republican United States allows the trials and accusations to pervade throughout America.
As readers, we see the absurdity of these Salem witch-trials. With Miller's amazing suspenseful style, we ourselves feel helpless as well because we cannot intervene with the story. Instead, we could only sit back and watch as the ridiculous fear swells out of control within the community. By being able to relate his protagonist to the reader and recreating this very helplessness in the reader as well, Miller thoroughly explores the desperation of the wrongfully accused. Yet, Miller also comments on the ridiculous period of the Red Scare, when people allowed the accusations to get out of hand. This fantastic, discreet but not imperceptible, parallelism between the Salem witch-trials and the Red Scare period adds a historical flair.
The Crucible is an exciting and engaging play, holding suspense until the very satisfying end. Like a Shakespeare play, The Crucible makes a reader fully experience from the initial complications to the final catharsis.
Book Review: A Timeless Parable; A Theatrical Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Like many others, Elia Kazan flirted with the American Communist party in the 1930s; again like many others he was soon disgusted by the vicious totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and left the party. In the 1940s Kazan emerged as a major director, creating such films as GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT for the screen and staging playwright Arthur Miller's landmark dramas ALL MY SONS and DEATH OF A SALESMAN--but in the early 1950s his former affiliation with the American Communist Party came back to haunt him the form of the House Unamerican Activities Committee.
In the wake of World War II the American goverment began to fear that Soviet agents had infiltrated the country and were working for the overthow of American democracy. The film industry became a hotspot of investigation, with conservatives claiming that motion pictures were being used to popularize communist thought. Unfortunately, the House Unamerican Activities Committee was less interested in getting to the truth of the matter than in maintaining political power: American citizens were hauled before the committee; attacked, often for no reason; and found their careers and lives destroyed as a result. But there was a way around this. If you confessed you had been a communist (whether you had been or not), if you recanted your former beliefs (whether you had held them or not), and if you named names of others involved in the party (whether they had been or not)--you could survive. And when Kazan was called before the committee in 1952 that is precisely what he did.
Arthur Miller was so outraged by Kazan's behavior that he terminated both their longstanding friendship and highly successful working relationship; although they would eventually resume a working relationship, they had no contact for more than a decade. He also wrote a play about the situation: THE CRUCIBLE.
On the surface, THE CRUCIBLE is a retelling of the infamous Salem witch trials of 1692. The power-hungry Rev. Parrish has met with resistance in the town, and when his daughter Betty, his ward Abigail, and several other teenage girls are found dancing in the wood the community fears the worst: witchcraft. In order to protect himself, Parrish calls in Rev. Hale, an expert in such matters. In order to protect themselves, the girls confess--and then begin to name names of "other witches." In order to placate the court, those named must name others in turn, and the lies and hysteria turn into a cycle of power-grabs and revenge.
Among those named as a witch is Elizabeth Proctor, wife of John Proctor--a man who had a sordid affair with Abigail, who now sees the opportunity to get rid of Elizabeth via hanging and force Proctor into marriage. In an effort to protect his wife, Proctor goes before the court and denounces Abigail, but Abigail now turns on him as well, accusing him of being a witch. He is arrested and sentenced to hang. Rev. Hale, now aware of the fraud involved, begs Proctor to confess, even though the confession will be a lie. Proctor refuses and pays for his integrity with his life.
In broad historical outline, Miller's tale of the witch trials is quite accurate; he does, however, take considerable license with individual characters and relationships. Whatever the case, the result is a uniquely powerful play, not only as a story pure and simple but on a deeper level in its warning against the communist witch hunt of the 1950s--and any similar witch hunt, regardless of nature, which relies on a process created by those with ulterior motives and uses as evidence testimony extracted by fear of reprecussion. While most consider DEATH OF A SALESMAN Miller's finest play, I have always given that title to THE CRUCIBLE; unlike SALESMAN, which has a dated quality, THE CRUCIBLE has a timeless quality, remarkable in intensity, thought-provoking in subtext in ways which most plays are not. Strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
Book Review: Does the Crucible Pass the Test? Yes!
Summary: 5 Stars
Does The Crucible pass the test?
When Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible, America was going through its heavy stages of McCarthyism. Threats and accusations were everywhere, and nobody was safe from the possibility of being called a communist. Even Miller himself was accused of Communism. Miller wrote this play about a similar situation to McCarthyism, but with the consequences for being accused being a lot more severe. The engaging tale is very cleverly written, describes actual events, and is about the Salem Witch Trials. The book is excellent, and should definitely be read in all high school English classes.
The Crucible is an excellent piece of writing. It digs deep into human character, and exposes flaws in human nature. Some flaws explored were greed and hysteria. Greed was addressed when the townspeople began to cry witch on neighbors for which they had grudges. The hysteria that followed came when those accusations were taken seriously, and the accused were arrested. Here, Miller takes obsession to a whole new level. He makes the townspeople sentence death onto each other just so they could take their neighbors' land. Although the reader obviously knows that the accusations are fake and ridiculous, Miller has Hale and the judges give reasonable arguments for the accusations. They base the fact that witches exist on the Bible saying that they do(the Bible was law). In order to prove the accused blameworthy, they do things like catch them in the act of lying. They then claim that lying in court proved the accused guilty, no matter what the lies were about. The fact that we see points of view from all points in this story is what makes this a truly good read.
This play is based, and mostly even consists of actual events. The Salem Witch hunts really did occur in America in the 1690's, and people such as John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Proctor really did exist. Miller did change some of the details, such as the ages of John Proctor and Abigail(they were actually 60 and 11, respectively), but that was just to strengthen the plot with a love affaire(which was also made up). He also made a few other small changes such as the wage of Betty Parris, and nonel. These changes were not significant enough to make the play be considered historical fiction, and the history was presented in an interesting way, unlike most pieces on history that I have read.
What makes The Crucible so unique is how even though it takes place far in the past, its events are really parallel to the present. After reading this, we think about present-day witch-hunts, such as McCarthyism and sexual abuse cases. In The Crucible, people falsely accused others of something that we today would not find a crime. The accused often had their lives ruined. McCarthyism is the term describing a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States that lasted roughly from the late 1940's to the late 1950's. During it, Joesph McCarthy accused hundreds of Americans of being Communists. This caused humiliation and often a loss of jobs for very many of the accused. Like with The Crucible, we would not find this accusation to be a major crime today. Lastly, this makes us think about court cases where children accuse adults, often doctors, of sexually harassing them. The children are seen as fragile and innocent, so their accusations are often taken seriously, with serious punishment done to the accused adults. Unfortunately, as in the case of the Salem Witch Trials, the children are not always telling the truth. All too often, they are told by their parents to lie to the court about being molested. Since the court typically sees the children as innocent, they often overlook this paramount fact, which results in the lives of the adults ruined.
In conclusion, my opinion is that The Crucible most definitely "passes the test", and should be read by generations of English students to come.
Book Review: Mass hysteria, chaos, paranoia and manipulation 101
Summary: 5 Stars
What is really unfortunate to the mesmerizing Arthur Miller's play"The Crucible" is that is was written after his "Death of a Salesman". Hadn't the play writer written "Death...", "The Crucible" would certainly be regarded as his unique masterpiece -- however, I believe the honor must be shared-- which is not that bad for readers and audiences.
Performed for the first time in 1953, "The Crucible" is loosely based on the famous Salem witchcraft trials that happened in 1962. Miller used the actual even as an inspiration to create a fable that resonated in his time's politics -- which was called the witch hunting. The play was written in response to Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee's crusade against supposed communist sympathizers. Despite the changes, as Miller states in a prose prologue to the play, his objective is to "the reader will discover (...) the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history".
At the end of the play, one can be sure that the writer achieved his aim. "The Crucible" paints with the right paints a portray of mass hysteria, paranoia, chaos and manipulation. What's more, it achieves a higher level when it manages to deal with the 50s politics -- which happened to be touched by mass hysteria, chaos and manipulation as well.
As a whole, the symbolism in the play is the paranoia about communism that pervaded the United States in the 1950s. with his text, Miller managed to bring up several parallels between the House Un-American Activities Committee's rooting out of suspected communists during this time and the seventeenth-century witch-hunt. In both cases, the narrow-mindedness and the excess of zeal ended up blinding people. Like in Salem, the communists were encouraged to name names and confess their `crimes'.
In "The Crucible", Miller's concern is not to with the fact that the accused are witches or not -- but rather with the unwillingness of the court to believe they are not. In this case, in the McCarthyism era, so full of excess, many innocents were condemned, and this parallel is what resonates from Miller's words even more than 50 years later.
Miller vaguely based his characters in the actual ones, but in his prologue, as a disclaimer, he alleges that he was forced to make many changes. Abigail's age for instance was raised, the judges were symbolized by only two etc. But, as he explains, this is not a historical work.
One of the most impressive points in the play is the theocratic society --where church and state are one, and the only allowed form of religion in Salem is the Puritanism. The witch trials represent the expression of intolerance --while the hanging is the means of restoring the purity of the community. On the other hand, hysteria plays the role of tearing this society apart. It supplants logic and people start to believe that people they have always known are not what they believed to be. Abigail is the character that has an important role triggering this hysteria, since she wants to marry John Proctor, and for that must get rid of his wife. Others simply use her device --while others fall into her trap. In the end, the community is into pieces.
As one of the characters says that was `a strange time'. So was when Miller wrote his play -- and so is today. That is why Miller's "The Crucible" is such a timeless piece. Reading this play --opposed to watching it performed -- is an enhancing experience. Many of the writer's digressions are not in the stage -- that's why reading this book is a complementary homework for those who have already seen it performed or in the 1996 movie version.
Book Review: The awful price of "extremism in the pursuit of liberty"
Summary: 5 Stars
Just as 'High Noon' shows the courage of a man who refused to cut and run from great danger, 'The Crucible' is usually regarded as an allegory which attacks the 1950s intolerance of anti-communist zealots.
Perhaps it is much more. Liberals get a warm fizzy feeling over Miller's portrayal of fundamentalist religious persecution run amok; but, this limited acumen ignores the terrible "engine" of such persecution - - - the American adversarial judicial system.
The play portrays hapless victims accused of imaginary evils and then convicted by a judicial system based not on truth, justice or mercy but on the absolutes of guilt or innocence. No mitigation is allowed. In Act III, Deputy Governor John Danforth states, "But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there is no road between."
It's the same idea used by President George Bush to justify whatever he wants to do, always of course within the law and within the Constitution, in his War on Terror. Likewise, Gov. Danforth in 'The Crucible' always acts within the law. Miller asserts all power corrupts, and the power to kill someone corrupts absolutely.
It sums up the essence of the play; our court system is either win or lose based on adversarial confrontation. It's origins are in ancient "trial by strength" rituals. It was thought God would not allow the guilty to triumph, and so victory was considered proof of absolute innocence with no room for doubt. In Act IV, a plea to delay the executions a week was rejected by Gov. Danforth because, "Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now."
Sound familiar? We are now told that a withdrawal from the War on Iraq "must cast doubt upon the sacrifice of them that died till now." Miller is very clear in portraying the corrupting power of government: Never admit a mistake, regardless of the cost to the innocent.
As the play ends, one condemned man is urged to sign the false confession he has just spoken. He responds, "You have all witnessed it; what more is needed?"
Why sign? One preacher explains it has nothing to do with guilt, innocence or mercy, instead it is solely because "the village must have proof that - - -"
The man responds, "Damn the village! I confess to God, and God has seen my name on this! It is enough!" He tells the governor, "You are the high court, your word is enough!"
But judicial rules reject God. Mercy is not by God's truth, but only by the lie demanded by the court. There is no interest in truth, justice, guilt, innocence or mercy. The man refuses, because personal honour means more than arcane rules. He explains, "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How can I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!"
The court refuses. Justice, says Miller, is not truth or fact; it depends solely on court rules. 'The Cruicible' uses real events from 1692 to illustrate the basic weakness of an adversarial judicial system. It applies today, as much as to the McCarthy era.
This is a play for today. It applies to our procedural-bound courts, to religious fundamentalists and to intolerant political extremists. It shows what happens when government officials believe "extremism in the pursuit of liberty is no vice." It applies to us, now.