I finished the Crucible last night. Loved it. I was so infuriated with the whole town, can’t believe that these types of trials actually happened!
I finished the Crucible last night. Loved it. I was so infuriated with the whole town, can’t believe that these types of trials actually happened!
He of course took several liberties with the facts of the Salem witch trials, but it doesn’t change the horrific impact of mass hysteria and fearmongering on targeted individuals. Definitely worth thinking about.
He was also very deliberately drawing a direct parallel to the McCarthyite hysteria of his own time. As I recall (haven’t read the book since high school but did see the movie version several years ago, and I’m not sure how closely that followed) the thing that really makes her protagonist balk and is responsible for his death is his refusal to implicate others (or to name names, in other words).
Leslie Jaszczak The screenplay was written by Arthur Miller himself and is almost an exact rendering of the stage play. It’s one of my favorite movies.
@Leslie It is metaphorically what happened to Miller himself. He was summoned to the McCarthy hearings and refused to name names. He suffered a significant backlash in his professional life because of it.
That’s why I loved this play/book. In many ways, it is just as applicable today as its was in the 1600’s when it actually happened. Remember a couple of years back with all the scary clown hysteria? Lots of people, mostly young, saw scary clowns everywhere yet no one could prove anything. For a week or so, we had more scary clowns running around our small community than we had people that actually live here…lol!
It’s not a coincidence Miller wrote this around the time of the McCarthy hearings. History doesn’t repeat itself — human nature does.
Simply because a legal action has state or social support does not make it just or tolerable. We human beings continue to do amazingly stupid things century after century – which is why Miller’s message is a timeless warning. https://www.nbc4i.com/news/u-s-world/italian-court-rules-victim-too-ugly-to-be-raped/1850736795
I am teaching this with my students right now. They always love it, and they are always shocked by it!
I wish that I would have been taught history through the use of literature. I remember learning about the Salem Witch Trials in passing during American History, but they did not become real to me until a year later when we read The Crucible in American Literature.
If only we learned from history …. but I loved the book
I think that Arthur Miller was at his peak when he wrote this. I was so overwhelmed, when I read it for the first time, that I immediately started at the beginning and read it for the second time in one sitting.
If you like The Crucible, read Margaret Atwood’s poem Half Hanged Mary.
Also, An Occuuurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce (short story).
As timeless as today’s news
I haven’t read this, but it’s on the list now, thanks.