Quotes from workThe Crucible
The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692–93. Miller wrote the play as an allegory for McCarthyism, when the United States government persecuted people accused of being communists. Miller was questioned by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956 and convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to identify others present at meetings he had attended.The play was first performed at the Martin Beck Theatre on Broadway on January 22, 1953, starring E. G. Marshall, Beatrice Straight and Madeleine Sherwood. Miller felt that this production was too stylized and cold and the reviews for it were largely hostile . The production won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play. A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic. It is regarded as a central work in the canon of American drama.
The Crucible (1953)
Deputy Governor Danforth
The Crucible (1953)
“We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all concealment.”
Deputy Governor Danforth
The Crucible (1953)
The Crucible (1953)
Abigail Williams
The Crucible (1953)
“There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!”
Mrs. Ann Putnam
The Crucible (1953)
“Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small.”
John Hale
The Crucible (1953)
John Proctor
Source: The Crucible (1953)
Reverend John Hale
Source: The Crucible (1953)
“Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer.”
Source: The Crucible (1953)
Context: Proctor: You will not judge me more, Elizabeth. I have good reason to think before I charge fraud on Abigail, and I will think on it. Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband any more. I have forgot Abigail, and —
Elizabeth: And I.
Proctor: Spare me! You forget nothin' and forgive nothin.' Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven months since she is gone. I have not moved from there to here without I think to please you, and still an everlasting funeral marches round your heart. I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!
Elizabeth: I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John — only somewhat bewildered.
Proctor: Oh, Elizabeth, your justice would freeze beer!
