The Crucible - Summary

The Crucible - Summary Arthur Miller's The Crucible takes a hard look at some of the ugliest moments in American history. He uses the actual historical event of the Salem witch trials to serve as a metaphorical representation of the pressure to conform to societal norms. The theocratic government of Salem, Massachusetts serves as an apt symbol of the pressure to conform. Religion provides an interpretation of reality for its worshippers, who live their lives …

…of purification should be obvious. The language of modern science and the religious language of sin combine to create a particularly versatile, vicious language of persecution. The Salem witch trials may seem like an obscure isolated historical event. It's easy to dismiss the trials as a relic of a vanished Puritan rigidity. Miller aimed to resurrect the events of the trials to demonstrate that the frightening human tendencies behaviors revealed by this bizarre historical event.