Penguin Modern Classics: The Crucible

Taking as the play's basis the Salem witch-hunt of 1692, Arthur Miller demonstrates its contemporary social relevance, drawing the parallel between this event and the McCarthyism that gripped America in the 1950s. In this classic parable of communal hysteria Miller depicts not an indifferent society but one in which positive evil is unleashed. This takes the form of the persecution of minority groups and the interference of the state in the conscience of the individual. As a save attack on the ills of 'ideological intensities', 'The Crucible' remains unrivaled.