Skip to main content

Salem, 1692


The events in Arthur Miller's The Crucible took place much later but Barry mentioned witch trials occurring in early colonial Massachusetts.   I was surprised Anne Hutchinson didn't find herself burnt at a stake given her outspoken views.  Instead, she briefly joined Roger Williams in Providence before her sad fate at the hands of the Siwanoy warriors, as a result of the fallout of the Dutch-Indian wars.   Miller saw his play as an allegory of the McCharthyism of the 50s, so the events depicted shouldn't be taken literally.  I hadn't realized The Crucible was made into a movie with Daniel Day-Lewis and Winona Ryder.

Comments

  1. I have seen the movie but can't say I recommend it, and I really like Daniel Day-Lewis.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for the heads up. I've seen a couple productions over the years. I have to say that I liked Death of a Salesman better. Thought this play was a little too pointed.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I liked both the play and the film version with Daniel Day Lewis, Winona Ryder, and Paul Scofield in a chilling role. It’s not as highly regarded as Death of a Salesman which is indisputably Miller’s great masterpiece. The Crucible packed more of a punch when it debuted during the McCarthy era, which in fact was the inspiration for Miller to write the play. He was angered seeing fellow writers afraid to freely write and publish for fear of their careers being ruined.


    ReplyDelete
  4. http://www.gnostics.com/sarah3.html

    Three Sovereigns for Sarah (1985)

    summary:

    "The brutal Salem witch trials provide the setting for this provocative drama that presents the story of an accused woman who survived the ordeal. Like her two older sisters, poor Sarah faces a trial herself. The sisters were tortured, found guilty and burned. Despite her fear, Sarah proves that her family is innocent of the charges. This film originally appeared on PBS television's American Playhouse."


    Superb acting by Vanessa Redgrave as Sarah Cloyce. This movie serves as a good intro for those not familiar with the historical events that led to Miller's book.

    ReplyDelete
  5. clip from the above movie:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zgALw3mzLw&feature=plcp

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks, Trip. The other Miller play I remember seeing was All My Sons, which made the most impact on me. There was a good American Playhouse production years ago with James Whitmore as the father,

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qif0XPsFsFY

    ReplyDelete
  7. possible inspiration for Salem Witch trials:


    http://www.witchcraftandwitches.com/trials_north_berwick.html


    http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/c31.0.403.403/p403x403/552618_231735963619962_1914880934_n.jpg


    ReplyDelete
  8. Barry noted that "witch trials" were taking place in the 1640s in the New England colonies.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Indeed, among many of the charges she faced, Anne Hutchinson was called a witch!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!