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Whenever I obtain my book list each semester I head for Amazon. This book was priced beautifully. Fran Pearson Thank you very much. I am 49 plus(quite a few pluses) and attend college at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Books are quite expensive, so getting such good prices at Amazon is great.
Typically i receive books from other seller in a week. shipping time is longer than other book seller. i received the books after 3 weeks i ordered.
I hope so you delivered that book. I did'n receive that product The Crucible in my address about in the date 7/4/09.
Elizabeth's presence is that of a wife who has been shamed by her husband's lust for another, yet she bears this burden as a saint, her presence tempers and guides John through his journey. Arthur Miller's classic play offers an unparalleled view into basic human nature. The beginning of the play portrays the circumstances that caused the trials to begin. Miller's ability to create characters whose emotions and reactions are ageless creates this classic piece of American Literature.
Modern examples include: AID's hysteria, McCarthyism, Japanese internment camps, and post 9/11 anti-Middle Eastern sentiments. Human nature is constant and the basic inclinations toward jealousy, vengefulness, pride, vanity, and guilt will always remain. Miller's play is timeless in its ability to relate times of hysteria and irrational discrimination throughout history. Miller himself was asked to give the House Un-American Activities Committee lists of people he knew to be communists.
The uncovering of which could end the vindictive trials by exposing the leader of the prosecution, Abigail, as a fraud, As progressively more people are accused and incarcerated, the facade of Salem fades as true motivations for the accusations are unveiled. Miller wrote this play in response to the Red Scare of the 1950s led by Joe McCarthy. The story, set during the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s, centers around the relationship between protagonist, John Proctor, antagonist Abigail Williams and Proctor's wife Elizabeth. When Abigail accuses Elizabeth, Elizabeth's life along with that of the others incarcerated depend upon John's confession.At the time of the play's publication the country was going through another witch-hunt.
The lives of the accused come to depend upon whether hubris will prevent Proctor from giving the authorities the truth. As the trials proceed Proctor struggles with his own pride as he debates whether or not to release certain furtive information. Proctor struggles with his pride as the hangings begin.
Similarly, Abigail also retaliates at the Proctors for having fired her and for John's denial of his affair with her. The amalgamation of history and literature in this play makes it a real work of art. The dramatic irony, by which the audience identifies the real victims and the spuriousness of witchcraft, is key to the enticing complications of the plot.
At the end of the story, John Proctor prefers to be hung than to falsely sign his name on a paper confirming his involvement in witchcraft. The paradox of individualism and society's impact on its members conveys the trouble resulting from hysteria and lies. Hysteria supplants logic and enables people to believe that their neighbors, whom they have always considered upstanding people, are committing absurd and unbelievable crimes. Arthur Myers demonstrates the role that hysteria can play in tearing apart a community.
Because of the theocratic nature of the society, moral laws and state laws are one- society is responsible for individual salvation. This bifurcation functions as the underlying logic behind the witch trials. Even though the audience is familiar with the historic denouement of the Salem Witch trials, the plot compels it to follow until the very end. In Salem, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the Devil; dissent is not merely unlawful, it is associated with satanic activity.
Tituba, whose status is lower than that of anyone else in the play by virtue of the fact that she is Black, manages to deflect her blame by accusing others of witchcraft. From the secret affair between Abigail and John Proctor to the false accusations of witchcraft, Myers criticizes the superstitious and Puritan society of Salem in which religion forms a moral law, and reputation can stand in a person's way to do what is good and just. Ironically, they hang those accused of witchcraft based on the testimony of a group of teenage girls.The play reflects the minimal role of women in the Puritan society of Salem and how witchcraft, for many girls, was a way they could get back at society.
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