{"id":4976,"date":"2017-03-29T04:17:42","date_gmt":"2017-03-29T11:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/?p=4976"},"modified":"2018-02-22T11:04:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T19:04:27","slug":"the-crucible-by-arthur-miller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/the-crucible-by-arthur-miller","title":{"rendered":"The Crucible by Arthur Miller"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"TheI wasn’t planning on reading Arthur Miller’s play\u00a0The Crucible<\/a>,<\/em> but when our daughter Teresa was recently cast in the role of Elizabeth for her final high school play, I wanted to reacquaint myself with the story. I’m pretty sure it was assigned reading for me in high school, but I don’t remember if I actually read it or not. Now that I’ve finished it, I can’t wait to see it performed on stage. I was caught up in the story from beginning to end, and found it both unsettling and powerful.<\/p>\n

Written in 1953 as an allegory of McCarthyism,\u00a0The Crucible\u00a0<\/em>is a fictionalized account of the Salem witch trials around the year 1692. The story begins quickly and dramatically, and as the tragedy unfolds it’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You know what’s coming, but you can’t do anything to stop it.<\/p>\n

It’s sad to say, but the issues The Crucible<\/em>\u00a0addresses are still relevant today, perhaps now more than ever. Christopher Bigsby writes in the introduction to the Penguin edition,<\/p>\n

It was as an allegory of our times that Miller seized upon it, and though it was to be the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee that seemed to offer the most direct parallel, he…recognized other parallels, in a war then only four years behind them, for the Nazis, too, had their demons and deployed a systematic pseudo-science to identify those they regarded as tainted and impure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Crucible\u00a0<\/em>shows us the extent to which our fears and hysteria can lead to tragedy for those who are\u00a0regarded as “tainted and impure” by those in power. This is not a problem for only one political party or ideology. It is a temptation for all in power, whether religious or secular, male or female, conservative or liberal.<\/p>\n

From the publisher<\/a>:<\/p>\n

One of the true masterpieces of twentieth-century American theater, The Crucible<\/em> brilliantly explores the threshold between individual guilt and mass hysteria, personal spite and collective evil. It is a play that is not only relentlessly suspenseful and vastly moving, but that compels readers to fathom their hearts and consciences in ways that only the greatest theatre can.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you’ve never read it, give\u00a0The Crucible\u00a0<\/em>a try. And if you last read it in high school or college, it may be time for a reread. You may be disturbed, but I doubt you’ll be disappointed.<\/p>\n

Note: Readers in Spokane, WA, can see\u00a0The Crucible\u00a0<\/em>performed at Gonzaga Preparatory School on May 12, 13, 19, 20, and 21, 2017.<\/p>\n

The Crucible<\/em><\/a> by Arthur Miller
\nFirst premiered January 22, 1953
\nFirst edition<\/em> New York: The Viking Press, 1953
\nKindle edition<\/em> Penguin Classics, 2016
\nPrint length: 178 pages<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I wasn’t planning on reading Arthur Miller’s play\u00a0The Crucible, but when our daughter Teresa was recently cast in the role of Elizabeth for her final high school play, I wanted to reacquaint myself with the story. I’m pretty sure it was assigned reading for me in high school, but I don’t remember if I actually read it or not. Now that I’ve finished it, I can’t wait to see it performed on stage. I was caught up in the story from beginning to end, and found it both...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Crucible by Arthur Miller","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1057,5],"tags":[927,36,842,869,928,926],"class_list":["post-4976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","category-books","tag-arthur-miller","tag-book-recommendations","tag-book-reviews","tag-gonzaga-preparatory-school","tag-mccarthyism","tag-theater"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/crucible_banner.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pOucj-1ig","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4976"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4994,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4976\/revisions\/4994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nicksenger.com\/onecatholiclife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}