Marlene Moser &
Gyllian Raby: The Age of
Terror and a New McCarthyism: Arthur Miller's profile of citizenship in
The
Crucible
Arthur
Miller’s The Crucible presents
John Proctor not only as an “androcentric model of the hero” in
opposition to
the menacing female hysteria around him, but also as a liberal humanist
model
of citizenship and identity. Where the representation of the feminine
serves to
support the heroic male in The Crucible, the representation of
collectivity betrays an anti-Communist sentiment in Miller’s text and
masks his
ultimate preservation of a conservative ideal of citizenship and
individualism. In many ways, The
Crucible is an ideal text for discussion and re-presentation in an
“age of
terror” as the complexities of existing in a global context also demand
a
reconsideration of our assumptions of citizenship and individualism.
This paper
addresses these ideas both in its rereading of Miller’s text and in its
realization on stage, using examples from the recent production at Brock
University
directed by Gyllian Raby.