The Salem witch trials caught the interest of playwright Arthur Miller; he saw relevance in the themes and was inspired to write The Crucible. ... Hysteria in The Crucible is akin to a plague: deadly and contagious. ... Miller points out that in his modern crisis "Nobody but a fanatic, it seemed, could really say all that he believed." Miller may not have said explicitly that he didn't agree, but his silent dissent against the FBI's insistence upon changing his screenplays to be "Pro-American" is enough for him, just as Elizabeth doesn't speak out against the...

• Word Count: 2297
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

Two works of literature that display both aspects of this society very accurately are The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. ... The settings in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible are similar in many ways. The Scarlet Letter takes place around the 1640s, as the The Crucible occurs in 1692. ... The general aspects of characters are also similar in both The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible. ... However, more parishoners like Dimmesdale in The Scarlet Letter than Parris in The Crucible. ...

• Word Count: 1327
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

The story begins with Reverend Samuel Parris standing over his daughter's bedside. His daughter, Betty Parris, is laying before him transfixed by some unknown ailment. Reverend Paris soon sends for Reverend John Hale, a specialist in demonology, to see if Betty's sole may have been transfixed by t...

• Word Count: 1275
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School