Entry #5: A First Glance at the Trials

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is how most people are introduced to the Salem witch trials. Most high school students across the country read this play in literature courses. The play, first appearing on Broadway in 1953, has had six runs in New York. It has also been adapted into three films, including the 1996 version with the well-known Daniel-Day Lewis(Lawson).
The play does include some inaccuracies concerning the trials itself. Miller writes in the introduction to his play that “I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history. The fate of each character is exactly that of his historical model, and there is no one in the drama who did not play a similar - and in some cases exactly the same - role in history”(Miller). This admittance to historical inaccuracies prior to the play beginning allows the reader to understand that this cannot be taken as a tell-all for all “true” incidents happening in Salem because it is a dramatic version of the events. For instance, the age of some characters is adjusted to make the central love sequence more believable to audience members (Lawson). The play has also been criticized for downplaying the role of authority figures, Hathorne, Danforth, and Stoughton, who were central to the real Salem incidents.
Here are links to the manuscript, short clips of the on-screen production, and a synopsis. I invite you to think back to when you read the play for the first time and how your opinion on the trials has changed ever since. What do you remember from The Crucible since you last read it?
Citations and links:
Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. Oxford University Press, 1952.
Lawson, Deodat. Further Account of the Tryals. London, 1693.
http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/crucible-arthur-miller-got-salem-witch-trials-wrong/
https://youtu.be/NCrWrXS2Drc