The Crucible
“Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.”
In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that women are practicing witchcraft spurs the town into chaos; and when Abigail Williams 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 illuminates the destructive power of socially sanctioned violence, and shows the parallel between McCarthyism from the time it was written.
Based on historical people and real events, The Crucible is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. The Crucible provides an interesting insight into the mass hysteria and paranoia brewing in Salem, Massachusetts in the seventeenth century. The focus of the story is John Proctor's struggle to redeem himself from the horrible guilt he has suffered since committing adultery with Abigail. The Crucible is wonderfully structured in four acts, and it builds to a crescendo and a very abrupt ending that leaves the reader with a pounding heart, an angry mind, and a moral quandary.
Maybe it’s just me, but I love the fact that there is a female villain with practically no redeemable qualities. Seeing terrible women whose sole literary purpose is to destroy a man’s life is quite refreshing and made reading this novel quite more enjoyable. John Proctor can call Abigail Williams a whore all day, but she’s not the one who is cheating on anyone. She’s also half his age. She also lived in a society that repressed absolutely everyone, women in particular, and ever citizen lived in fear of their own shadow thanks to the hellfire-loving God and snooping neighbors. Children were seen, not heard. Puritans spent all day, every day working and praying. Girl had a lot of pent up energy. So, when John Proctor showed her a way to...ehm...channel that energy...there was no going back. Abigail was still a horrible human being. But I sure do love revisiting the insanity of 1692. Finally, of course I also love the play because Arthur Miller wrote it to remind us of why literal and metaphorical witch hunts are dangerous due to the political situation of the 1950s.
