The Crucible (1953)

Set in the Salem of 1692, Arthur Miller's new play brings to powerful life the problem of guilt by association. IN this instance, the association is, according to the accusers, with the devil. Based on the actual witch trials that became hysterically epidemic in Salem of that time, the drama revolves around Elizabeth Proctor and her husband John, who rather than support the vicious fiction of some exhibitionistic girls and thus save their necks, stand fast with the truth--and send John Proctor to the gallows. Here, from the first improvised fabrications of the adolescents, through the increasing violence of their accusations, to the climactic scene of the trial itself and its grim aftermath, its drama that recalls the great Aristotelian formula for tragedy--catharsis through pity and terror. (front flap)