The Crucible

This autumn has been filled with many new experiences for TP. At school, I needed to adjust to being an honors student. This means more reading, writing, and critical thinking...all things that suit my interests. The first long work assigned to my tenth grade honors English class was the The Crucible by the genius playwright Arthur Miller.

The Crucible is a play that was first on Broadway in 1953. Some theater goers might remember the 2002 revival with Laura Linney in the lead role of Elizabeth Proctor. My mom said that everyone has to read it; she was in the play when it was performed at her middle school. The longevity, among many different historical aspects of the work really interested me.

The story is about the Salem Witchcraft Trails, and focuses on the lust of a teenager named, Abigale Williams who had an affair with a farmer named John Proctor in the grim Puritan world of the 1600's. It begins with all of the young girls of the town dancing and fooling around in the forest...which is considered sin for two reasons. First, no one was allowed to celebrate festively. Second, the forest was seen as the devil's home. In my opinion, that was a really foolish view of the world. Nature is supposed to be the place where God infinitely dwells, not the opposite.

Anyway, the story continues with Abigale and the other girls pretending to be witched by other citizens of Salem. This then morphs into people calling each other 'witches' to get their land, fire wood, money...etc. The usual- bring- down- a- citizen- to- get- their- stuff scenario. Abigale's initial plan was to convict John Proctor's wife, Elizabeth of being a witch so the two of them could live together. In the end, so many innocent lives were terminated because of the unjust court system, and the crowd mentality. Miller enlightens the reader about the aspects of the mob. In a mob, people will be tempted to say and agree to things that they don't believe in. This makes a clear comparison between the Salem Witchcraft Trials and the McCarthy Era. It is interesting that the two historical events can have the almost exact same conflict and themes.

{Spoiler alert} The most fascinating part of the book in my opinion, was when my English teacher explained the meaning of the last scene. This was when John Proctor chose to die with Rebecca Nurse and Martha Corey; two of the most highly thought of women in the town. Hale begged Elizabeth to convince her husband to falsely confess that he was a witch to save his wife. Elizabeth's response was that she couldn't take his goodness away  from him. This was because he could die an honest man, among non-sinners like Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse. 

Read this book. Like all great works of art, this work is timeless. It is just as relevant today, as it was in the 1950's. Theaterpreppy gives The Crucible a 'collars up.'