The Crucible Annotated Bibliogrophy

Bhatia, Santosh K. “Criticism by Santosh K. Bhatia.” DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Discovering Collection. Gale. Web. 14 Oct. 2008 In the article, “Criticism by Santosh K. Bhatia,” Bhatia explains that “conflict is the soul of tragedy… [and] it invariably results from a struggle between the individual and the society.” A tragedy cannot be possible without some form of a conflict. The main conflict in the crucible was the reasoning of the human mind and the irrational fear of hysteria. Had there have not been any of the girls’ absurd accusations of witchcraft, no event in the entire play would have been considered to be a tragedy. According to Bhatia, the second dependent to a tragedy is suffering. John Proctor was forced to suffer for the mistakes he had made with his affair involving Abigail. Suffering brings a darkening mood to the play that more classifies the play to be tragic. The third important factor in a tragedy is irony. John Proctor has the reputation of being the wisest and matures of all the people of Salem and fights heroically against evil, yet he becomes the cause of all the trouble since he has the taint upon him. Irony isn’t quite as important to a tragedy as conflict and suffering is, yet it still adds a certain factor the helps add a depth into the story.
Bonnet, Jean-Marie. “Society vs. The Individual in Arthur Millers The Crucible.” DISCovering Authors. Online Detroit: Gale, 2003. Discovering Collection. Gale. Web. 2 Nov. 2010 In the article “Society vs. The Individual in Arthur Millers The Crucible” Jean-Marie Bonnet contrasts the issues in society and those of the individual. Bonnet believes “the individuals must be purged separately so that the community as a whole may be preserved.” It is believed that the society has too much power over the individual. The girls, or society, make irrational accusations towards the townspeople, individual, and the rest of the town accepts and believes these false