The Crucible (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Arthur Miller
- First Published: 1953
- Type of Work: Play
- Genres: Drama, Allegory, History play
- Subjects: Justice, Folkloric or magical people, Religion, New England, Trials, Seventeenth century, Ethics, Witches or witchcraft, Puritans or Puritanism, Libel or slander
- Locales: Salem, MA
The Crucible is about the right to act upon one's individual conscience. In Puritan New England, Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island, demanded his right to act according to his personal conscience. In the nineteenth century, Henry David Thoreau considered the exercising of this right a moral obligation, even if exercising it resulted in breaking the law. The individual's right to follow his conscience is part of the American heritage. In The Crucible, Miller shows how an ordinary individual living in a repressive community gains tragic stature by sacrificing his...
[The entire page is 1317 words long]
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