Rating: 
Summary: Exciting
Review: Review on „The Crucible"The movie is about the witch trial that took place in a village called Salem. Several people were accused of making compact with the devil and for committing witchcraft, a capital crime in those days. The reason for the mass hysteria was the fact that some of the girls in the village practised dancing in the woods with the Negro-slave of the town's minister who saw them doing that. They danced around a burning fire and drank blood. Two of the girls fell ill and in fear of the consequences the other ones accused each other. A major character in that context was Abigail Williams. She also accused the wife of John Proctor, a farmer, who she had had sexual interferences with. Several other people were accused and in the end, 19 were hanged.
The movie is about mass hysteria and the unscrupulous behaviour of people who get in trouble. In my view the movie on "The Crucible" is very good. The producers knew how to create tension very well. The best part in the movie was - from my point of view - the scene when Elizabeth Proctor was led to court to tell Governor the truth about her husband committing the crime of adultery. The music was very dramatic and the excitement rose when the group of people went outside to hear John Proctor.
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Summary: The Naming of Names
Review: There's so much going on in this play that I don't know where to begin. On the surface it's about the Salem Witch trials, and if that's all you get out of it that's more than enough. But there's so much more there as well. It's an attack against Mccarthyism too. If you know your history it's easy to see the parallels. In either case it's about paranoia (the first ones to go are the ones who're a little odd), mass hysteria (self explanatory), revenge, (if someone has crossed you, why not accuse them), and greed (Abby's accusing Elizabeth so she can have her husband). It's about guilt too, primarily that which John Proctor feels, (I hope I'm not giving away too much here, but John had an affair with Abby).
So where does the naming of names come in. Well, both in the trials and in the HUAC (House Unamerican Activities Committee) hearings, you could assure your own safety, and prove your innocence by implicating someone else. The argument is put to John Proctor that what harm will it do to accuse someone who is all ready condemned. The same occurred in the HUAC hearings. In the end Proctor has a chance to save himself, but lose what honor he has left (he is after all an adulterer, and while not as serious now, it was a big thing then), or die honorably--to leave some suspense in it, I won't say which he chooses, although you can probably guess. In the HUAC hearings there were those who named names (Elia Kazan is the only one I remember, but yes, this is what the controversy about him receiving a lifetime acheivement award hinged on), and those who didn't (Miller, Dashielle Hammet, Lillian Hellman to name a few). While no one died as a result of the HUAC hearings, as far as I know, careers were in essence permanently ruined.
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Summary: a prototypical American: John Proctor
Review: Few Twentieth Century American authors were as acquainted with personal pain and tragedy as Arthur Miller. Miller, a brilliant yet flawed man, experienced personal tragedy in his tempestuous marriage to and relationship with Marilyn Monroe. He watched as many of his friends suffered the wrath of the government during the McCarthy era. Miller distilled his own experiences into one of the most memorable tragic figures in American Literature: John Proctor.
John Proctor is the protagonist of Miller's play, The Crucible. Set during the Salem witch trials, The Crucible is an extended meditation of the destruction that occurs when people falsely accuse others.
Proctor is no hero. He is a man who is deeply respected by his fellow townsfolk. When accusations of witchcraft start flying around Salem, Proctor is urged to declare that the chief "confessor," Abigail, is a fraud. The only problem is that Proctor had once had an affair with Abigail. His concern for his good name causes him to hold his tongue.
The plot begins to broil when Proctor's own wife is accused of being a witch. She is then arrested. Proctor accuses Abigail of having accused his wife out of jealousy. Yet Proctor's plan to expose Abigail fails when his wife lies to try and protect his name. Proctor himself is accused of being a witch and is arrested.
One of the ministers involved in the trials becomes doubtful of the whole situation. He tries to convince the accused of making confessions rather than face death. He persuades Proctor's wife to ask Proctor to confess. Proctor finally surrenders his personal pride and agrees to make a false confession about having been a witch. Yet when he makes his confession, the court tells him that he must name others. Proctor refuses and as a consequence, is sent to the gallows.
One gets the sense that Miller saw a lot of Proctor in himself. Miller, though not righteous, was willing to publicly decry the with trials of his own time. The Crucible had a considerably shorter theatrical run than Miller's earlier works. During the virulently anti-Communist fifties, Miller was putting his career on the line by writing The Crucible. While not on the same scale as Proctor's sacrifice, Miller's dilemma was great. Notwithstanding its contemporary importance, Miller's play, and the character of Proctor in general, speak more broadly to the ideas of America and the America tragic hero than they do the issues of their respective periods.
America is a land born of cooperation. The States had to unite in order to throw off the British Imperial yoke. Yet America has also always been a land that holds the notion of rugged individualism dear. Though Jefferson gave it clear expression, rugged individualism had been a characteristic of America since its earliest colonial days. These two elements (cooperation and individualism) have combined to form a conflicted national identity.
This same conflict occurs within Proctor. Proctor is an individual and proud of it. Nothing means more to him than the picture of personal honor he presents to others. The great irony of Miller's play is that Proctor measures his individual worth by what others think of him. It is this concern for the community that twice is his undoing.
The first time Proctor is undone it is in a negative way. His concern for his good name with the community leads him to not expose Abigail as a fraud. He is rendered silent by his fear of exposure as an adulterer. Abigail's power and influence grow in the meantime. This eventually leads to the arrest of both Proctor and his wife.
The second time Proctor is undone is depicted more positively. He refuses to falsely accuse others of witchcraft. This means certain death for the individual (Proctor) and uncertain good for the community (Salem). Proctor's ultimate choice is that the good of the many is superior to the concerns of the individual. Yet the community is malignant. It is the source of many of Proctor's woes. Perhaps this is the main point of Miller's play: the true tragedy in America is the country's unfulfilled dream of individual independence. Whenever dangers threaten the land, be they real or imagined, the individual suffers in the name of the common good.
John Proctor is a hero in as far as he is representative of all Americans. Whatever the ideological persuasion of the reader or audience member, something about Proctor's plight speaks to the American experience. The Crucible is a great play. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: a true insight to the massacre that occured in our fine land
Review: My English class wanted to read a novel so my teacher selected The Crucible. After reading the four acts I've learned a great deal about the Puritans and how most people would be shocked to learn that the "pure people" would ever accuse someone of being a witch just for dancing in the forest. It makes you realize how far our civilization has come. Today it's more the opposite way. More people are killed because they are Christian rather than the fact that they worship the devil. It's sad how times have changed but this book is great to use in the schools because it shows how rediculious religion was back then and how much it has changed. The story is basically about a group of teenage girls who are accusing everyone in town of being a witch when really it is them who we find out that were talking to the devil. The love triange between Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor breaks and shows how true a man can be to his wife when it is a matter of love.
Rating: 
Summary: Have you ever wanted to yell "Stop!!"?
Review: When I read this play, when I heard it performed, I just wanted to make the crazy escalation of events stop. It seemed so ridiculous that this whole town, these people's lives, depend upon the words of teenaged girls with "axes to grind." It's even more scary when we realize Miller is writing not so much about the Salem witch hunts but about the witch hunts that STILL go on. How do you defend yourself against an unjust, ungrounded, illogical attack when even the system set up to "protect" the innocent has an agenda? Miller's writing is probably best experienced in a performed setting-- it's hard to read a play and really "get it." But you should read the text too-- because the language, the beauty and craftsmanship, is sometimes lost in the acting.
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Summary: Clever and Disturbing
Review: This play is truly and epic for recent times. The language used by Miller for his characters are intelligent and eloquent, but not to such an extent as to make for difficult reading (like Shakespeare for instance). Miller's Crucible is largely based on the Salem Witch Trials and contains more than a few actual quotes for his characters that came from transcripts of the real trials. The plot is so very clever with many layers and themes and subplots running throughout. There is the obvious top layer that almost anyone can understand about the horror of the witchhunt, and then there is a more subtle layer about the inner nature of humans... sometimes it can be quite dark (like Abigail, the girl who really leads the accusations) or cowardly (like Parris, whose only real drive seems to be saving his own skin and reputation) and yet there are others that are good (John Proctor, who takes on almost like a Christ figure) and righteous (like Rebecca Nurse who is practical and strong willed through the whole ordeal). The writing is brilliant and it is easy to become thoroughly entrenched in the horror that life in Salem in 1692 came to be. There are many tense moments, and many agonizing situations, and I was quite swept up with the futileness and frustration that many of the accusees more than likely felt. This play is brilliant, and was written in response to the McCarthy horror that swept the 1950's, and serves as a disturbing warning that the intolerance and hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials has happened before, and can happen again.
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Summary: if it's not your favorite show, it should be
Review: For our fall play at school, they did "The Crucible." When I reviewed it for the school newspaper I actually had to use a thesaurus to think of more positive words. So maybe it's not historically accurate, but it sure can spark one's interest in the Salem incidents in 1692. The whole Proctor/Abigail thing is intriguing, and Giles Corey just has to be paid attention to, because he's funny ("I say a fart on Thomas Putnam!"). The courtroom scene has to be spoken for. In order to get the full effect, you really need to see it (the screaming, the anger, the rage!). All the same, though, it's a pleasant reading experience.
Rating:
Summary: The Crucible
Review: In 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts was a major conflict between government leaders and citizens arouse. Witchcraft was what everybody began to fear. They (the towns people) all believed witches surrounded them. It all started when a girl named Abigail Williams and a bunch of her friends were discovered in the woods dancing. When Reverend Parris came upon them they were dancing around a kettle of soup, singing song of a different tongue. All of a sudden the next day two of the girls are acting strange. One of them is stricken to bed and is almost in a coma state. The other girl constantly paces and will not eat. This is when the parents demand to know what was going on that night. All of the girls that took part in the activity clamed that they were just dancing, until one of the girls slips and lets out what really happened. They were in the woods and Tituba (Reverend Parris slave) was leading songs in the Barbados language while trying to conjure the sprit of one of the girl's dead sister. This is where the real conflict begins. One of the girls (Reverend Parris's Daughter) was the girl that was bed stricken. It is not socially sound for the daughter of the reverend to be conjuring up sprits. If the daughter had really been conjuring up sprits the Reverend would be pushed out of town. How could he run the church if he can't even control his daughter? This is when the conspiracy begins.
In order to avoid punishment Abigail tells the elected judge that she once sided with the Devil but is now back on Gods side. She would like to tell the town folk the names of the other people that still have a pact with the Devil. If a person is tried for making a pact with the Devil (witchcraft) they would be hung and their belongings would be auctioned off. Not only did Abigail and her friends list some name of people that made a pact with the Devil, they listed most of the Town. This is when the judge start to have trial, but these were not normal criminal trials, these were witchcraft trials. There was no one to defend the accused it was just the girls word against the accused. People seemed to care but not too much until one very important day. The day when John Procter's Wife, Elizabeth, name came up in court. This infuriated John because he knew exactly why his wife name came up in court. Abigail made up a story about Elizabeth because she had once kicked her out of the Procter house. When Elizabeth had gotten sick (after childbirth) Abigail helped John run things around the house. This is until things turned sexual and Elizabeth found out. Knowing why Abigail brought up Elizabeth's name made John furious. This is the point in the story where the action really heats up. But you will have to read to see exactly how hot it gets.
Rating:
Summary: Crucible Review
Review: This as one of the better things I have read for school. It kept my interest. It went pretty fast, also. I tend to like things with drama in them. This play was full of drama. The book cleared up a lot of things for me, actually. I had always wanted to learn more about the Salem Witch Trials, but I never had time to. It also gave you some background information on how things were when America first started to develop. How similiar it is to today, but also how much differant it is. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning about history in a non-history teaching way.
Rating: 
Summary: Review on the Crucible
Review: The Crucible is great step into the past. the hardships that the people of salem, massachusetts endured, which were due to witchcraft must have been horrifying. everyday, people were accused of being the devil's advocate. the book itself lets the people of today know that we have to use common sense and not get caught up in the mass histeria. we should be able to realize that mass histeria is highly overrated and never gets anyone, anywhere. if people would actually stop and think about what they are doing, mostly all the misfortunate things that happened in or to this country would have never happened in the first place. it all comes down to using the brain we have and how well we use it without jumping to conclusions.
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