Let Us Grieve for the Women of Salem Essay -- Arthur Millers The Cruci

Featured in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a powerful dynamic between the levels of a maintained social hierarchy. There are shifts in the social hierarchy in the town of Salem even though the social hierarchy has been maintained and has existed for a long length of time. The attempts on this maintained structure are met with powerful retaliations that draw in all the members of the town of Salem, resulting in the deaths of many woman and men in the town. The Crucible reflects on the historical context of this struggle and shows what would happen if the status quo were changed. The play presents what people would do in order to hold on to the power that they are slowly losing through false pretense. The Salem witch trails were a society’s way of attempting to maintain a structure they are used to, using hysteria to help them grasp onto a dying conscience they once had and to explain what could not be explained. Today, the issues that are presented in this play, the so cial hierarchy and what is done to maintain it, still exist. The University of Toronto – Scarborough Campus’s theatre company performed The Crucible. The production followed Arthur Miller’s play showing the audience the fear and hysteria that ran through Salem during the witch trails. The importance of religion was evident just as the play opens up to hearing a prayer being spoken. Themes of paranoia, religion, and McCarthyism were present throughout the presentation. The overall acting and set provided the audience with a more intimate viewing of what happened throughout the Salem witch trails. The Crucible follows the events that occurred before and during the Salem Witch Trials. John Proctor, the protagonist of the play has to fight the hysteria that has t... ...Social welfare policy from colonial times to the present. South End Press, 1996. Web. 3. Apr. 2014. Jenrette, Jerra, et al. "Teaching the Salem witch trials through place and time." Historical Journal of Massachusetts 40.1-2 (2012): 212+. Academic OneFile. Web. 3 Apr. 2014. Kocić, Ana. "Salem Witch Craft Trials: The Perception of Women in History, Literature and Culture." Facta Universitatis 3.1 (2010): 17. Print. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. N.p., 1953. Print. Miller, Arthur. "Why I Wrote The Crucible: An Artist's Answer to Politics." The New Yorker27 Oct. 1996: n. pag. Print. The Crucible. By Miller. Dir. Paula Sperdakos. Leigha Lee Browne Theatre, UTSC. Friday, March 21, 2014. Performance. Schissel, Wendy. "Re(dis)covering the Witches in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible: A Feminist Reading." Bloom's Modern Critical Interpretations (2008): 55-67. Print.