아서 밀러의 극작품『시련』다시 읽기 = Re-reading of Arthur Miller´s Play The Crucible

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the early 1950's so-called McCarthyism created a stir in the political and social worlds. As an intellectual, Arthur Miller stood at the forefront of opposition to McCarthyism, which ignored the basic rights of the people and was unsparing in creating great mistrust between friends and associates. His view on such are structured through.
The Crucible. The location of this play is the witch hunts and trials of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, which left a great blemish on the history of America's colonial period.
The main character of The Crucible is a 30 year-old independent farmer named John Proctor, a robust man typical of the frontier, having an incorruptible, and strongly independent personality. While he once committed adultery while Abigail worked as his maid, he now has become a completely decent and exemplary father. Throughout the witch-trials, he remains from in his convictions, and in the end chooses death, leaving behind his pregnant wife and children. As a man that chooses death while rejecting the laws forced on him by society, Proctor deeply shocks the senses of our society. At the very least, he bears the responsibility for all mankind, thus surpassing his own specific society.
Miller's conviction as a playwright that man cannot escape from the ordeals of mankind is embodied in the man named John Proctor. Having lived his life by betraying his friends, John Proctor cannot teach his family to live equitably. So in order to maintain his own honor and to maintain the noble character of mankind, he chooses to suffer death on the gallows. John Proctor cannot find a reason to live when his integrity and identity are trampled down. He considers self-respect as being the most important principle of life.
In the end, John Proctor realized his dignity as a man having endured much torment and painful skepticism, and through death he protects the truth. He discovers a touch of goodness hidden within himself just before his death, and we feel the human dignity which fills the conviction he has of himself as we watch the dignified face of John Proctor marching off to the gallows.
The Crucible is set in the Puritan period of America during the latter 17th century, and although its contents are about the religious witch trials of the time, the play freshly portrays themes such as the greed, discord and enmity of men entangled in land and power and the love and jealousy between men and women which extend beyond the period. Thus the play has been extolled all over the world and continues to be performed, due to the fact that it fulfills the universality and eternal nature of theme of human evil, causing it exceed the limits of time.
Even though The Crucible intends to portray the discord between people s selves and their actions in extreme situations, not only the society of Salem or American society ruled by McCarthyism, but also inhumane societal conditions in which the determination of humans is demanded can be the background for this play. Miller, who felt fear and rage not only at tyranny of McCarthyism but also at the faces of modem American people who throw away their conscience like old shoes, wished to portray on the stage how tyrannical political forces, the enlightened public or some fanatical religious groups can degrade the feeble common man.