THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller

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Hello,

What do you think of the cruicible story by Arthur Miller. I have read the story in High School and my sister had a copy of it at home. Yesterday I saw the story on my book shelf and I throw it in the garbage. Do you think there is demonic attachement to this story?

images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/sal_cru.htm&usg=__iJpCTvCCIyn7zxYU7rdh_vjihwY=&h=474&w=304&sz=108&hl=en&start=1&um=1&tbnid=pvEX8Fr4I83JNM:&tbnh=129&tbnw=83&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dthe%2Bcrucible%2Barthur%2Bmiller%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

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TrueFaithSeeker said:
Hello,

What do you think of the cruicible story by Arthur Miller. I have read the story in High School and my sister had a copy of it at home. Yesterday I saw the story on my book shelf and I throw it in the garbage. Do you think there is demonic attachement to this story?
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No, I do not. I think it was a fairly decent (not great) condemnation of the McCarthy “red scare” of the 1950s.
 
I think it’s a good book. It shows you what happens when fear rules a community and why it’s a good idea to leave private revelations alone until the Church approves of them (and why ignoring them when the Church disaproves of them is a very good idea).
 
The above posters are correct. As a work of literature, The Crucible is a work of political commentary, not a story about the supernatural. As happened in the real, historical Salem, those who were claiming supernatural experiences were faking it.

(Disclaimer–back in 1974 I played Giles Corey in a production of The Crucible on a military base in Japan. I now look like what I looked like then, with the old-age makeup on 😛 ))

DaveBj
 
The Puritan clergy of Massachusetts unanimously opposed the Salem witch trials described in The Crucible. Seen as an example of misdirected zeal, the General Court in December of 1696 set January 15, 1697 as a day of general fast in repentance imploring God’s forgiveness and further direction (The Christian Almanac}.
The Crucible provides a dramatic snapshot of life during that period of American History.
 
Eucharisted said:
I think it’s a good book. It shows you what happens when fear rules a community and why it’s a good idea to leave private revelations alone until the Church approves of them (and why ignoring them when the Church disaproves of them is a very good idea).
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I agree!
Miller did a very good job of showing how easy it is to be caught up in emotions & how far off from reason we can go, if we let ourselves believe everything that we hear.
The Salem witch trails were a dark, dark period in American history, which could have been avoided by having am understsanding of how easy it is, for us to let ourselves be ruled by our imaginations…
 
Another reason I like The Crucible is because it make excellent political commentary for the current presidental administration.

In The Crucible, Abby and friends tell the truth about what they were doing in the woods - then, for various reasons (get out of punishment, get a neighbor’s property, etc.), the children start lying and they accuse other people of witchcraft. At one point in the play, an old man is accused of rape, even though he can’t even walk without his two canes, and what do the judges say? “Perhaps it was your spirit that raped her than!” (my paraphrase)

This makes for excellent political commentary on Obama and his administration because it shows what happens when leaders use psychological tactics to get what they want - even if the people they lead don’t want it. And it shows just how far a society can go to reason its leader’s innocence: those who know the truth are killed, brainwahsed, or both, and everyone else, however gullible or intelligent, just plays along, out of fear of death or punishment. And there are some who are so willing to help a society that they’ll make up enemies just to attack them - like the judge who stated he would hunt the Salem witches, whether they were real or imaginary.
 
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