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We'll relish the most moving art ever committed to the page and stage from every age.

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hardcore literature.

Hello and welcome back to hardcore literature.

Today we are talking about Arthur Miller's 1953 play, The Crucible,

which is a tale about two times and a tale about all of time.

The work ostensibly centres around the Salem, Massachusetts witch

trials of 1692. Now today, if you say the word Salem to anybody, the word is immediately

weighted with and coloured by this specific period in history.

1692, in which over 200 men and women were accused of witchcraft.

30 found guilty and 19 were executed by hanging.

14 women, five men and two dogs.

And the work is also an allegory for Miller's own upsetting personal experience with McCarthyism.

The American witch hunts of the mid-20th century, in which the country's red scare,

led to widespread condemnation, accusation and persecution, a reign of terror in miniature against

anybody who might be suspected as having communist, socialist or fascist ties.

The Crucible is a tale that can be read as an allegory for any time, as Arthur Miller himself is quite explicit about,

because every era has its own witch hunts,

...