The Crucible by Arthur Miller
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Book Reviews of The Crucible
Book Review: Simply Gripping
Summary: 5 Stars
A powerful and exciting rollercoaster is what this play will bring. Its plot, its characters are all engaging and interesting to read. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller has written a book that not only entertains but forces the reader to question the integrity of human beings at its instance of greatest power and weakness.
Set in the late 1600s, The Crucible depicts the horrendous events of the Salem Witch Trials. Even before reading the book, the subject captures the interest of many as images of the mysterious and mystical come to life. As a play, this story already entertains its readers but as a masterfully written piece of literature, this play makes it all the more worthwhile to read. With the backdrop of the Red Scare as the inspiration for this play, Miller plays with the ideas of jealousy, vengeance, and radicalism against the infamous Salem Witch trials to show how quickly problems can escalate out of hand. The plot of the play centers on the couple of John Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth, who are caught up in the middle of a city-wide scandal to rid the town of "witches." The problem begins when the town's reverend finds his daughter and a few other girls dancing out in the woods during the dead of night. Alerted, he requests the help of Rev. Hale, an expert in supernatural affairs. Soon the girls are accused of being witches and are forced to name others. Acting in the worst of human character, they indict those they hate and the conflict flares up and consumes the entire town.
The power and brilliance of this plays stems not from its ability to entertain but from the reader's ability to connect with the characters. Miller has created characters that seem like common people caught up in a malicious scandal. We all erupt in fury as Abigail escapes unpunished for her crime; we cringe as Mary Warren betrays Proctor and we weep as John Proctor is executed for a crime he did not commit. Within the play, Proctor is the only beacon of righteousness that, for his honor and pride, would forfeit his life than lie. This powerful thought provoking event ends the play with a dramatic question lingering in the reader's mind: What would I have done in Proctor's shoes? Against the incessant cries of others to lie for his life, Proctor refuses and will rather die for his beliefs. The audience is dismayed that Abigail and the other girls are capable of such evil. With an impactful ending and solid ability to entertain, The Crucible will leave readers grasping for more.
Book Review: "It is no part of salvation that you should use me!"
Summary: 5 Stars
Arthur Miller's masterful play explores the consequences of greed, envy, vengeance, extremism, and hypocrisy run amok. It is set in Salem during the infamous witch trials, but could easily translate to other times in history (Robespierre's reign of terror during the French revolution, McCarthy's Communist hearings, etc.). Miller shows how the witch trials took flight and gathered speed and power until they nearly consumed the whole of Salem. He also shows how the officials in charge refused to hear evidence contrary to their purpose so as not to lose face publicly by standing down. Through the story of John and Elizabeth Proctor, a couple caught in the center of the firestorm, the tragedy of the trials is made abundantly clear. In a futile attempt to save his wife from the machinations of Abigail Williams (the young girl Proctor had had an affair with, and who kicks off the accusations with her friends to get Elizabeth Proctor out of the way so that she can be with John), Proctor fights the system by challenging the court to see the motives behind the accusations. His attempts to bring reason into madness are met with the insistence that if he is not with them, he is against them (which should sound eerily familiar to anyone with a television set). After Proctor himself has been accused of colluding with the Devil and sentenced to death the officials in charge become determined to use him to validate their holy terror. If Proctor, a popular and well-liked man in town, were to lie and give them a confession that he had conspired with Satan it would legitimize all of the hangings that went on in the public eye. Giving a false confession would save Proctor from hanging and allow him to live to see the birth of the child Elizabeth is carrying -- but can he go through with it? Miller's multilayered play is a classic for the ages -- a truly timeless work of drama that is every bit as relevant today as it was when it was first produced in 1953 (at the height of the McCarthy hearings), and which will most likely prove relevant in another fifty years as well. That is a sad statement for humanity, but a credit to Miller for his perceptive eye and his courage to capture it so eloquently. Perhaps with the example set forth in "The Crucible" we can learn from the past, and not be doomed to repeat it.Book Review: Meaningful Tragedy of Human Nature
Summary: 5 Stars
Miller's "Crucible" amazingly parallels the McCarthyism era and provides a frightful yet realistic account of the possibilities caused by human desires. Its short length combined with its easy-to-understand language allows the readers to become fully absorbed in the plot.
During the period of anti-communism, suspicions were placed among all types of people, ranging from outcasts of society to the most-trusted educators. The hysteria of the Red Scare spread rapidly through the belief of a necessary social conformity. Despite questionable evidence combined with exaggerated threats, suspicions were often deemed credible in a court of law. Consequently, once suspected, few individuals were able to completely clear their reputation. As with the witches accused, suspected Communists were given the chance to escape punishment through confession and identification of other Red Sympathizers. This gradually led to false accusations of others to save oneself, resulting in the condemning of many innocent individuals. Paralleling the Salem Witch Trials to the persecutions of the McCarthyism era, Miller emphasizes the ability of mass hysteria to overpower the apparent irrationality of the Red Scare.
Miller's outstanding use of historical context further emphasized the power of human nature to cause the spread of mass hysteria. When looking at the "Crucible" as a play, it seems too surreal and frightening to be true. Any reader could easily mock the people of the community for being naïve and hanging nonexistent witches. However, the scary irony that Miller uses is the fact that the whole scenario has happened before in history, numerous times. Not only did the settlers of Massachusetts hang supposed "witches", but also people in the twentieth century have allowed mass hysteria to spread unjustifiably.
"The Crucible" is an exciting play that fully grasps the attention of its readers. It is not only an entertaining book for any occasion, but is also a meaningful retelling of a tragedy of human nature.
Book Review: A wonderful play
Summary: 5 Stars
Written in the early 1950s, Miller's literary work was meant to be a parallel to the "Red Scare". He focuses on the 17th century witch trials in Salem where its citizens out of hysteria participate in wild witch hunts, acts that killed numerous innocent civilians.
His story focuses on John Proctor, a relatively honest and good man who had an affair once with his wife's helper. Out of this lust, he initiates the start of the mass hysteria because Abigail, the helper, has fallen in love with him and will stop at nothing to make him love her, even killing his current wife. Her jealous rampage snowballs into a full blown mass hysteria where she implants ideas of the presence of witchcraft into the minds of the small town's citizens and brings to trial many people, including his wife. Throughout the entire story, Proctor knows her true intentions and we see the inner struggle within himself: To either to keep his good name and let his wife die, or confess his adulterating sins and besmirch his good reputation that he holds dear.
Throughout the entire story, the reader is engulfed within Miller's storytelling, his writing style and sentence structure whirling us into the tense and upbeat atmosphere of those times. With his masterful use of short and repetitive sentence structures, he is able to make them feel this tenseness. With this kind of writing style, it makes The Crucible one quick and satisfying read.
Overall, I found The Crucible to be a fairly good book with an interesting plot and a classical heroic ending. I especially liked the fallen hero archetype that redeems himself in the end after struggling with his inner mind.
Although I was slightly perturbed at the fact that the author would play around with the historical facts, in order to make it more realistic, I feel that the story would have been of greater impact had he left the original details within, but other than that, this book is worth the time and money spent!
Book Review: A must read!
Summary: 5 Stars
This play is set during the time of the Salem witch trails in Salem, Massachusetts. Abigail is the leader of a group of young girls who start accusing other people in the town of being witches. Even though there was no real proof any of these people were witches, they were arrested, tried, and found guilty. The ones that confessed were allowed to live, but the ones that refused to confess were hung.
When Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft, her husband, John, goes to the judge and tells him that Abigail accused Elizabeth of this crime because Elizabeth had discovered that he and Abigail were having an affair. The judge has Elizabeth brought to the courthouse, and he asks her if her husband had been unfaithful. She doesn't know John has admitted to this, and she lies in order to protect him. Then John is accused of being a witch and he is arrested.
John agrees to confess so that he can live, but he refuses to accuse anyone else of being a witch. But when they ask him to sign a public confession, which they plan to hang in the church, he refuses and retracts his confession.
I first read this book over 20 years ago in high school and recently re-read it. This was one of the few 'classics' that I was able to fully appreciate when I read it as a teen-ager.
The story is fascinating, even more so because it's based on real historical events and people, although some facts were changed. For example: In reality, Abigail was 11 and John was 60 (in the play their ages were 17 and 40) and they never had an affair.
The Crucible is a story of injustice resulting from mass hysteria. It's also about courage and honor. It took a great deal of courage for these people to die rather than to tell a lie so that they could live.