A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural
community
A Penguin Classic
"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."
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up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
