The Crucible
The Crucible
By Andrew White
Adaptation of the Salem Witch Trials written by Arthur Miller
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a caliginous time in American history. The moral superiority that engulfs the town in a time of great despair and deep divide accurately sums up the atmosphere of that period of injustice that will forever stain the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This is the subject matter for the play entitled “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller in 1953. According to the Teacher Vision “The play was adapted for film once, by Jean-Paul Sartre as the 1958 film Les Sorcières de Salem and by Arthur Miller himself as the 1996 film The Crucible, the latter with a cast including Paul Scofield, Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller's adaptation earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay based on Previously Produced Material, his only nomination. The play was adapted by composer Robert Ward into an opera, The Crucible, which was first performed in 1961 and received the Pulitzer Prize”. (“The Crucible” Teacher Vision; Family Education Network, 2001-2012. web. Nov 23, 2012. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/historical-fiction/literature-guide/3498.html)
Salem was just ripe for the picking when these atrocious accusations took place. Because the people Salem Village were Puritans and lived by a very strict moral code, they believed the Bible was to be followed letter for letter. They viewed witchcraft as being nothing more than the devil’s handiwork. Sometime in the spring of 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a group of girls fell “ill”. They began having hallucinations and seizures. Their behavior became erratic, wild, and unpredictable. It was this behavior that caused the extremely religious people of Salem to suspect the girls were bewitched. It's ironic actually that the Puritans, who came to America to escape religious persecution, would practice such deliberate, cruel, and ignorant persecution
By Andrew White
Adaptation of the Salem Witch Trials written by Arthur Miller
The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were a caliginous time in American history. The moral superiority that engulfs the town in a time of great despair and deep divide accurately sums up the atmosphere of that period of injustice that will forever stain the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This is the subject matter for the play entitled “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller in 1953. According to the Teacher Vision “The play was adapted for film once, by Jean-Paul Sartre as the 1958 film Les Sorcières de Salem and by Arthur Miller himself as the 1996 film The Crucible, the latter with a cast including Paul Scofield, Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder. Miller's adaptation earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay based on Previously Produced Material, his only nomination. The play was adapted by composer Robert Ward into an opera, The Crucible, which was first performed in 1961 and received the Pulitzer Prize”. (“The Crucible” Teacher Vision; Family Education Network, 2001-2012. web. Nov 23, 2012. http://www.teachervision.fen.com/historical-fiction/literature-guide/3498.html)
Salem was just ripe for the picking when these atrocious accusations took place. Because the people Salem Village were Puritans and lived by a very strict moral code, they believed the Bible was to be followed letter for letter. They viewed witchcraft as being nothing more than the devil’s handiwork. Sometime in the spring of 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a group of girls fell “ill”. They began having hallucinations and seizures. Their behavior became erratic, wild, and unpredictable. It was this behavior that caused the extremely religious people of Salem to suspect the girls were bewitched. It's ironic actually that the Puritans, who came to America to escape religious persecution, would practice such deliberate, cruel, and ignorant persecution