Title: The Crucible
Author: Arthur Miller
Context: The Crucible (1953) is a post colonial novel by Arthur Miller. It is dramatized and partly fictionalized tale of witch trials that took place during the period 1692-1993 at a town named Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Synopsis: A group of girls along with Tituba, a black slave go dancing into the forest, in Salem, Massachusetts, the Puritan town in New England. Reverend Parris, a local minister, spots them while they are all dancing. Betty is one of the daughter’s of Reverend Parris who falls into a coma-like state. Lots of people gather around her home and the town is filled with rumors of witchcraft. An expert on witchcraft, Reverend Hale is called to look into the situation. He interrogates the ringleader, named Abigail Williams of the girls group about things that occurred in the forest. Abigail is the ward and niece of Parris. He declares that besides dancing, he doesn’t do anything else.
Reverend Parris puts in all efforts to calm the group of people gathered in his house. In fact he speaks to some of the girls, asking them not to agree to anything. A local farmer named John Proctor comes into the picture takes Abigail aside and talks to him alone. Actually, during the previous year, Abigail was employed at the Proctor’s house and was involved in an affair with him. Elizabeth, fired her husband John Proctor, however Abigail still is in love with Proctor. However he decides to fend her off and makes her understand the she should end her foolishness with the group of girls.
Other works by the Author:
Assorted Fiction
1945 – Focus
1957 – The Misfits
1967 – I Don’t Need You Anymore
1992 – Homely Girl: A Life
The Performance (A Short Story)
2007 – Presence: Stories
Non-fiction
1944 – Situation Normal
1969 – In Russia
1977 – In the Country
1979 – Chinese Encounters
1984 – Salesman in Beijing
1987 – Timebends: A Life, Methuen London
Stage Plays
1936 – No Villain
1937 – They Too Arise
1938 – Honors at Dawn
1938 – The Grass Still Grows
1938 – The Great Disobedience
1939 – Listen My Children
1940 – The Golden Years
1940 – The Man Who Had All the Luck
1943 – The Half-Bridge
1947 – All My Sons
1949 – Death of a Salesman
1950 – An Enemy of the People
1955 – A View from the Bridge
1955 – A Memory of Two Mondays
1964 – After the Fall
1964 – Incident at Vichy
1968 – The Price
1970 – The Reason Why
1970 – Fame
1972 – The Creation of the World and Other Business
1974 – Up from Paradise
1977 – The Archbishop’s Ceiling
1980 – The American Clock
1980 – Playing for Time
1982 – Elegy for a Lady
1982 – Some Kind of Love Story
1986 – I Think About You a Great Deal
1985 – Playing for Time
1987 – I Can’t Remember Anything
1987 – Clara
1991 – The Ride Down Mt. Morgan
1993 – The Last Yankee
1994 – Broken Glass
1998 – Mr. Peters’ Connections
2002 – Resurrection Blues
2004 – Finishing the Picture