The Crucible by Arthur Miller

The Crucible dramatizes the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, when teenager Abigail Williams accuses Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft to eliminate her romantic rival. Mass hysteria engulfs Salem. John Proctor—Elizabeth’s husband and Abigail’s former lover—faces a moral choice: falsely confess to save his life or die maintaining his integrity.

He chooses truth and is hanged, making a powerful statement about personal conscience versus social pressure. Miller wrote the play in 1953 as an allegory of 1950s McCarthyism in America. The play remains a seminal work about mass persecution and moral courage.