Why is the crucible a good title for the book 'The Crucible'?

Answer 1

1) because a crucible means a test of patience and belief, and the citizens of Salem had to endure a harsh test of their belief, many of which failed it.

2) A crucible is a miniature cauldron used for heating chemicals to extremely high temperatures. You would not want to be in a crucible. Anyways, a crucible comes with a crucible lid. The lid fits loosely to allow gases to escape.

Salem turns into a crucible. It becomes a terrible place where people are trying to burn eachother. Those who keep their faith and are hanged "escape" the crucible. And now you visualize steam escaping said crucible.

3) I'm doing this play at school and i think its because a crucible is a container which metals are heated in to extract the pure element from impurities or doss. In the play, John Proctor is tested in a life threatening ordeal and his death at the end rather than betrayal of his conscience shows that he too has come through the fire, from the affair he had with abi, to be purified. Hope this helps : )

4) Perhaps there are at least four ways the term "crucible" might apply well as a title for the play: First, Salem was a "crucible" where the heat or "fire" of suffering and trials tested souls "like gold in the fire" as The Bible says (Salem residents would have been very familiar with the passage). Second, the McCarthy Era and hearings of The House Committee on Un-American Activities were a similar kind of crucible that "tested" people's resolve and convictions. Third, America is called a "melting pot" where (supposedly) people of diverse races, values and beliefs come together like a stronger metal alloy because of their unity--and yet McCarthyism violated this third sense of a crucible or melting pot by hunting down suspected socialists and communists, and black-listing them, ruining lives and careers. Fourth, the play itself is a crucible that clarifies our understanding of what happened at Salem (and by association, what happened during the McCarthy Era), giving us a chance to be made of better "metal" if we can avoid those mistakes in our own times.

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