Viva Modern Critical Interpretations The Crucible

"[Miller’s] point ... is that moral arrogance, the tendency to render unyielding judgements is not confined within the American power structure. It is at the very heart of the American temperament, and therefore it is at the heart of Miller’s play as well. For The Crucible attempts to isolate the sources of moral arrogance ... and thus to point the direction to correcting our moral optics. "The design of The Crucible attempts to make visible two discrete, self-contained and antagonistic expressions of female power to test their legitimacy as authentic definitions of sexual desire. The externalized contest between the impulse that betrays ... and the force that nurtures ... shapes the choices made by John Proctor on his road to martyrdom. VIVA MODERN CRITICAL INTERPRETATIONS presents the best current criticism on the most widely read and studied poems, novels and dramas of the Western world, from Oedipus Rex and the Iliad to such modern and contemporary works as William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury and Don Delillo’s White Noise.