The Crucible Revised Edition Contributor(s): Miller, Arthur (Author) |
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ISBN: 0140247726 ISBN-13: 9780140247725 Publisher: Penguin Books OUR PRICE: $18.00 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 1996 Annotation: Based on historical people and real events, Miller's classic play about the witch hunts and trials in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror which Miller uses to reflect the anti-Communist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy's "witch-hunts" in the U.S. |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Drama | American - General - Literary Criticism | Drama |
Dewey: 812.52 |
Series: Critical Library, Viking |
Physical Information: 0.89" H x 5.03" W x 7.69" (0.78 lbs) 512 pages |
Accelerated Reader Info |
Quiz #: 734 Reading Level: 4.9 Interest Level: Upper Grades Point Value: 5.0 |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community, presented here with enlightening criticism and commentary 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. This Viking Critical Library edition of Arthur Miller's dramatic recreation of the Salem witch trials contains the complete text of The Crucible as well as extensive critical and contextual material about the play and the playwright, including:
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