In Arthur Miller''s,
The Crucible, we see a perfectly mirrored absurdity of Senator
Joseph McCarthy''s quest
to rid the United States of Communist
Party infiltration. This protest piece (considered average work)
written by the brilliant author, best known for Death of a
Salesman, captures the essence of McCarthyism by making use
of The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. Miller weaves the names and
lives of actual participants in the Witchcraft Trials into his
tale of deceit and greed. Although not a historically accurate
rendering, Miller''s play helps the us discover "the true nature
of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history." In
this work, the reader is taken on a journey of hysteria brought about
like many others throughout the history of human kind. Just as
a fruit lurks in each seed, a lie grows in the womb of
each public terror that plagues the hearts of men.At the
outset of the play, the reader is introduced to the manipulative
Abigail Williams and her self-centered uncle Reverend Parris. It
appears that Abigail and several young
girls have been
dancing naked in the woods. Dancing is not permitted by
the practitioners of the Puritan faith, but is a
forgivable offense if confessed. Once the offenders receive a
sound flogging all are once more embraced by the
warmth of the one true God. Abigail''s offense and that of the other
girls is not only dancing, but allegedly conjuring spirits with
Parris'' slave girl Tituba. Reverend Parris himself discovers the
girls who are so frightened by him that many run away while
others fall to the earth as if gripped by "a stroke of
hell." Among the fallen are Betty, Parris'' daughter, and
Ruth, the daughter of a prominent Salem landowner. The
former sleeps with eyes closed while the latter ails with eyes open.
All are perplexed and most want the onslaught of the Devil in
Massachusetts to be made public knowledge. To pronounce or
denounce the devils presence, a Reverend John Hale is summoned.
He alone, armed only with a bunch of books weighted with
knowledge, can discover and exile the fiend before all souls are
damned to the fiery pit. But is the devil alive and well in Salem or
is self-gain and want for attention the true culprit?As the
action rises, an affair is revealed, a decades old land dispute
is viscously settled, a mother avenges the deaths of her still
born children, a saint is crucified, a father honors his sons,
and a wife exalts her husband. Arthur Miller, places
his characters into a tale of sin and ultimate
redemption. I would highly recommend this play to anyone intrigued
by societal chaos and the hysteria that follows. The events
exposed in The Crucible continues today and reveal to all
"the grin" that sometimes lurks "behind the smile."
The beginning of this work is tangled in underlying agendas
and its ending would cause a Tragedy to blush.