EAN: 9780142437339

PENGUIN CLASSICS THE CRUCIBLE - ARTHUR MILLER...

A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural communityA 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. For more than seventy years  Penguin has been the leading
publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1 700 titles 
Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across
genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by
introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors  as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

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