Author: Arthur Miller
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 0142437336
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Get Book
Book Description
A haunting examination of groupthink and mass hysteria in a rural community A 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.
Author: Arthur Miller
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141904194
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 163
Get Book
Book Description
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 McCarthyism which gripped America 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.
Author: Arthur Miller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1474225764
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 101
Get Book
Book Description
Now a major film from 20th Century Fox This is the first-ever adaptation of Arthur Miller's twentieth century classic for the big screen. Set in the 17th century, it famously mirrors the communist "witch-hunts" of McCarthyism in 50s America. A fascinating and disturbing dramatisation of the collective psychology of persecution it shows all too painfully how even a close-knit rural community can be desolated once doubt and suspicion take hold.
Author: Harold Bloom
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
ISBN: 0791098281
Category : Salem (Mass.)
Languages : en
Pages : 241
Get Book
Book Description
A collection of critical essays that examines Arthur Miller's classic drama, "The Crucible;" and contains an historical overview of the play, chronology of the life and works of the author, and introduction by Harold Bloom.
Author: James J. Martine
Publisher: Macmillan Reference USA
ISBN:
Category : Dramatists, American
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Get Book
Book Description
"The 1953 premiere of The Crucible confirmed Arthur Miller's reputation as one of America's most important and serious playwrights as it underscored the earlier success of Miller's Pulitzer Prize winning drama, Death of a Salesman. While dealing with the 1692 witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, The Crucible reveals Miller's concern with issues of individual conscience and guilt by association - issues that were manifest in the social and political problems of his own time. The drama is both a historical play of 17th-century colonial America and a parable about the communist witch-hunts in the United States of the 1950s. Miller uses the moral absolutism of Puritan Salem to parallel the infamous congressional hearings led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The events which frame Miller's tragic drama are separated by some two hundred and sixty years, but are joined by circumstances where elements of disparate societies seek only evidence of guilt and ignore or suppress all evidence to suggest otherwise. With universal themes that transcend time and place, including national borders, The Crucible remains one of the most often produced American plays worldwide." "In The Crucible: Politics, Property, and Pretense, James J. Martine extends his analysis beyond the standard critical appraisals that compare the drama's setting only to the time in which it was written - the McCarthy era. Martine examines in detail Miller's historical sources and the ways in which he adapted this material to his contemporary audience. Martine suggests the play should be "read" within a variety of contexts, that is, as a product of and reaction to the McCarthy era, as a milestone in the development of Miller's work, as an exemplar of the genre of tragedy, as part of the tradition of American theatre, and as a basis for later adaptations. in his discussion, Martine considers both the written text and the play as public performance. He examines the play's settings, props, and exits and entrances, and draws attention to the various ways in which Miller built these directions about the play's performance into the written text. Martine argues convincingly that The Crucible should not be approached as a monochromatic written text as it often has been, but as a multifaceted performance text. His study includes photographs of a contemporary staged production, in addition to commentary on Robert Ward's Pulitzer prize-winning opera based on Miller's drama. Martine's multi-leveled exploration enables the reader to understand and thus appreciate The Crucible and Arthur Miller more fully."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Author: Hector Nunns
Publisher: eBook Partnership
ISBN: 1785313347
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Get Book
Book Description
Since 1977 the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield has staged the snooker World Championship and in that time become one of the most beloved and iconic venues in sport. In this book the UK's leading snooker writer Hector Nunns makes his selection of the greatest matches ever played in the famous amphitheatre, featuring the heroes of the early years right through to the household names of the present day. With exclusive contributions from the players involved, and how they saw the build-up, the match itself, the agony of defeat and ecstasy of victory, and the experience of being involved in a memorable encounter on the sport's greatest stage, in what is always the biggest, best and final tournament of the season. The Crucible's Greatest Matches recalls how promoter Mike Watterson stumbled across the theatre with the help of his wife Carole and throws the spotlight on classic matches involving Ronnie O'Sullivan, Stephen Hendry, Jimmy White, the late and much-missed Alex Higgins and Paul Hunter, Cliff Thorburn, Terry Griffiths, Ken Doherty and of course the 1985 black-ball final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages : 532
Get Book
Book Description
Author: California State Mining Bureau
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Geology
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Get Book
Book Description
Author: N. E. Spretson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Founding
Languages : en
Pages : 456
Get Book
Book Description
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Metal-work
Languages : en
Pages : 1204
Get Book
Book Description
