"The Crucible" and "I, Tituba"

Paper Summary:

This paper compares and contrasts Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible" with Maryse Conde's novel, "I, Tituba." The paper discusses the plot of the stories that centers around the witch hunts in Salem. It then discusses the character of Tituba and her role in the story and compares the different ways that the character is portrayed in the novel and the play.

From the Paper:

"The past is never rendered 'perfectly' to a contemporary viewer or reader, particularly an era as far removed from our own as the Puritan era of America. Arthur Miller's tale of "The Crucible" is ostensibly set in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600s but it is a thinly disguised allegory of the McCarthy anti-communist witch-hunt that had taken hold in America when Miller wrote his play, which was later made into a 1996 film. Miller uses the trials to discuss important concerns of the present day in his play, not to recount history. The play immediately illustrates its lack of concern with the facts of the actual events by converting the historical ages of the girls who accused the women of the town from young children to teenagers. This makes the motives of the young women such as Abigail, the instigator of the trials, far more suspect than the strange, apparently innocent and hysterical accusations of girls who seem too young to be calculating."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Conde, Maryse. I, Tituba. New York: Ballantine Books, 1994.
• Ebert, Roger. "The Crucible." 1996. Film Review. Chicago Sun Times. 7 Jul 2007. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19961220/REVIEWS/612200302/1023
• Linder, Douglas. "The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1952)." Salem Homepage. Famous
• American Trials. Last Update 2007. http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SAL_CRU.HTM
• Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible." 1996. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Wynona Ryder.

More papers on "The Crucible" and "I, Tituba":

• Book Review # 144753 : "I, Tituba, Black Witch of Salem" by Maryse Conde"
• Analytical Essay # 37303 : "Witchcraft in Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 111052 : "'The Crucible' and McCarthyism"

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