NUMBER: 61TITLE: The Crucible
AUTHOR: Arthur Miller
STARTED: November 4, 2007
FINISHED: November 6, 2007
PAGES: 150
GENRE: Drama
FIRST SENTENCE: A small upper bedroom in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, Salem, Massachusetts, in the spring of the year 1692.
SUMMARY: [From barnesandnoble.com] I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote in an introduction to The Crucible, his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft galvanize the town's most basic fears and suspicions; and when a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to trial. The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor brilliantly illuminate the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing "Political opposition...is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.
REASON FOR READING: It won the Reducing Mt. TBR poll
THOUGHTS: I probably should not have watched the movie version before I read the play. I could not get the scene of Daniel Day Lewis screaming, "It is my name!" out of my head.
I enjoyed Miller's work - mainly because it felt real. The characters came alive in their dialog. I've never read Miller before so this was really a treat for me. He writes with passion and depth and this came out in the text. The play felt rich and while the plot is well known, I still felt connected to the story, as if I was reading/seeing it for the first time.
MISCELLANEOUS: Now I want to see this play on stage.
RATING: 8/10 [Terrific]
Comments