a ISBN 978-01-4243733-9

a Original cataloging agency NEU GrandLibrary

a Classification number PS3525.I5156

b Item number M55 2003

a Personal name Miller, Arthur,

d Dates associated with a name 1915-2005.

a Title The crucible :

b Remainder of title a play in four acts /

c Statement of responsibility, etc Arthur Miller ; with an introduction by Christopher Bigsby.

h Medium BOOK

a Place of publication, distribution, etc New York, N.Y. :

b Name of publisher, distributor, etc Penguin Books,

c Date of publication, distribution, etc 2003.

a Extent xxv, 143 p. ;

c Dimensions 20 cm.

a Title Penguin classics.

a Summary, etc "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 meets with diabolical malevolence."

a Topical term or geographic name as entry element Trials (Witchcraft)