An_American_Tragedy

An American Tragedy An American Tragedy: Comparing "The Crucible" and "The Scarlet Letter" by: Jamie Newlands Two American authors, of two distinctly different time periods had one very similar task, to turn a piece of American History into a believable tragedy. Arthur Miller with The Crucible and Nathaniel Hawthorne with The Scarlet Letter. Perhaps one might wonder which author did a better job in doing so, but with such different pieces of work, this is hardly a question that can be answered. Miller's the Crucible was written in the nineteen-fifties, with a definite purpose, to remind Americans of the horrible witch trials that took place in Salem, even before the American Revolution was a thought. It served as a tool to warn against the same thing happening with the Communist hearings going on in our country at the time it was written. Miller wrote a play, which was not well received by the first audiences to witness it, but none the less is now recognized as one the finest pieces of literature written by an American. Hawthorne's the Scarlet Letter was written in the eighteen hundreds, with no other purpose but for Hawthorne to write a novel. Hawthorne perhaps chose this dark subject to convey his contempt for Puritanism. He was a scarlet, one, crucible, letter, hero, written, tragic, might, very, two, similar, own, novel, love, american, story, similarities, same, proctor, play, pieces, pearl, miller's, hawthorne, demise, beyond, between, associate, works, women, until, turn, time, subject, sin, side, say, purpose, plot, person, miller, maria, man, life, hawthorne's, forbidden, even, end, different, both