Why the Play is Called The Crucible :: Essay on The Crucible

Why is the play called the Crucible?Webster and his control the dictionary defines a crucible as, A container in which metals be heated, involving a change. A dreaded test or trial.Author Miller in his play, uses the title The Crucible as an analogy for the situation. The actual container- the crucible, is the town of capital of Oregon Massachusetts. The contents of the container are the pot of Salem, the emotions and feelings of these commonwealth are what change. The events that bump off place in the town are what fuel and heat the peoples emotions and are what affects their actions.Miller also puns on the former(a) meaning of a crucible which is a severe test or trial to tie in with the events that take pace in the play- the trials of the accused witches and the extent of the consequences (death by hanging.) The severe test or trial referred to above is an inquiry carried out to see whether peoples souls are lock with God. This shows the extremity and extent of the trials . It shows how important a part religion plays in the community. Seeing as peoples life styles revolved around working and praying. If people were not working or farming their lands, they are praying. On holidays they pray, thither are hardly any moments of recreation or fun. The people of Salem are deeply religious and to drift on to the side of the reprimand is the most serious sin or crime imaginable in the community. Just as it was a sin drift on to the side of the devil in the time of the crucible, it was the same to drift on to the side of communism in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote this play. In the 1950s Senator Joe Macarthy set up a campaign to liberate the United States of all communist supporters. These communist trials would be broadcast on national television. It would involve the accused to admit their guilt even though they were completely innocent, and give the names of 10 other would-be communists or face exile, torture, invasion of family privacy etc. Arthur Miller uses the events of the Salem witch-hunts to translate and show what the communist trials of the 1950s were. They were both based on false expound and paranoia, and as more people got involved, more people suffered, this can be summarised by calling it the Snowball effect.