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The CrucibleStock informationGeneral Fields
Special Fields
DescriptionThe Crucible is a powerful indictment of McCarthyism and the 'frontier mentality' of Cold War America, published in Penguin Modern Classics. Arthur Miller's classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch-hunt of 1692 - 'one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history' - and the American anti-communist purges led by Senator McCarthy in the 1950s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culminating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.If you enjoyed The Crucible, you might like Miller's Death of a Salesman, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.'One of a handful of great plays that will both survive the twentieth century and bear witness to it'John Peter, Sunday Times Author descriptionArthur Miller (1915-2005) was arguably the greatest American playwright of the twentieth century. Six volumes of his plays and a volume of his theatre essays are published by Methuen Drama. Susan C. W. Abbotson is Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature at Rhode Island College, USA. |