The Crucible (Penguin Plays)
by Arthur Miller
List Price:
Our Price: $6.49
You Save: $6.51 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Arthur MillerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1976-10-28
ISBN: 0140481389
Number of pages: 152
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780140481389
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of The Crucible (Penguin Plays)
Book Review: "Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it."
Summary: 5 Stars
When John Proctor says these words to his wife Elizabeth at the conclusion of this play, he has faced accusations of being in league with the Devil and is ready to face consequences meted out by the religious tribunal he has faced. Though he has sinned by committing adultery with Abigail Williams, he believes the witchcraft trials which have ultimately consumed him to be the result of human, rather than godly, forces. Playwright Arthur Miller sets the scene for this action in an Overture explaining the theocracy which controlled Salem. Powerful clergymen, some more rigid in their interpretations of Scripture than others, "protected" citizens by enforcing conformity with the church's teachings.
Through detailed character sketches inserted into the structure of the play, Miller broadens the realism, and when a group of hysterical young women makes accusations of witchcraft, resulting ultimately in the deaths of nineteen of their fellow-citizens, Miller has prepared his audience to accept the trials and the behavior of the characters as plausible. His straightforward prose, use of homely details, and simple sentence structure (despite its archaic tone) further add to the realism. When the affair between John Proctor and Abigail Williams, who precipitates and then promotes the hysteria among the young "afflicted" girls, is revealed within the play, the modern reader is given a "hook" with which to identify with characters and situations which might otherwise feel foreign.
Miller's play is a powerful revelation of themes involving mass hysteria, fear of the unknown, and a belief in the essential evil hidden within the hearts of men. As the accused are required to prove their innocence, questions regarding the role of individualism within this society, its intolerance of differences, its justice as defined by the state and by clergymen who differ, and the hysteria which grows from repression all surface within the dramatic action, leading to an intensity of feeling rare in modern theater. When John Proctor is faced with a choice of telling the truth and being sentenced to death or lying and being saved, the ironies of the play are fully revealed.
Written in 1952, slightly before the McCarthy era, Miller's depiction of these trials presages the McCarthy hearings and illustrates his belief that the fear of Communism is the equivalent of fear of the Devil in colonial times. Miller, however, has selected facts which illustrate his point of view and his themes, making no pretense of accuracy regarding the witchcraft trials themselves. In reality, Abigail Williams was eleven, and John Proctor was sixty, quite different from the dramatic circumstances here. Mary Whipple
United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in United States Books
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in Americaby Eliz Brown Guillory
Praeger; Published: 1990-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.95
PLAYS FOR AN IMAGINARY THEATERby Judson L. Jerome
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1970-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Differences in the Darkby Michael T. Gilmore
Columbia University Press; Published: 1998-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Acting Gayby John M. Clum
Columbia University Press; Published: 1992-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $60.66
Price in other shops:
Absurd, Black and Comic Sketches (Drama)by Peter Joucla
Nelson Thornes Ltd; Published: 1991-03; Paperback; Book
The Sorrows of Frederick and Holy Ghosts (An Original harvest book ; HB 355)by Romulus Linney
Harcourt; Published: 1977-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $50.31
The Glass Menagerie (Modern Classics (Penguin))by Tennessee Williams
Penguin Books; Published: 2009-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.06
Price in other shops:
An Enemy of the People (Penguin Plays)by Henrik Ibsen
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1977-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.54
Price in other shops:
Five O'Clock Angelby Tennessee Williams
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.94
Shakespeareby Michael Wood
Basic Books; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Scarlet Letterby Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tribeca Books; Published: 2010-11-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.36
Price in other shops:
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?by Edward Albee
Signet; Published: 1983-03; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.49
Price in other shops:
The Glass Menagerieby Tennessee Williams
New Directions; Published: 1999-06-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.57
Price in other shops:
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald
Simon & Schuster; Scribner; Published: 1999-09-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.55
Price in other shops:
Long Day's Journey into Nightby Eugene O'Neill
Yale University Press; Published: 2002-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.75
Price in other shops:
Death of a Salesman (Penguin Plays)by Arthur Miller
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-10-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.81
Price in other shops:
A Streetcar Named Desire (New Directions Paperbook)by Tennessee Williams
New Directions; Published: 2004-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.21
Price in other shops:
Magic in the Middle Ages (Canto)by Richard Kieckhefer
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2000-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.75
Price in other shops:
The Crucible (Cliffs Notes)by Jennifer L. Scheidt, Denis M. Calandra
Cliffs Notes; Published: 2000-06-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
The Crucibleby Arthur Miller
Penguin Classics; Published: 2003-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.34
Price in other shops: