Who penned The Crucible?

• A. Carl Sandburg
• B. Arthur Miller
• C. Stephen Crane
• D. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Answer: (B)

Arthur Miller, a prominent American playwright, penned The Crucible. The play, staged in the early 1950s, uses the Salem witch trials as an explicit allegory for McCarthyism and the era’s fear of communism, illustrating how hysteria can drive a society to persecute innocent people. This connection to Miller’s work and his intent to critique political fear is what makes him the author of this drama. In contrast, the other writers mentioned are known for very different works: Carl Sandburg was a poet and biographer, Stephen Crane wrote late 19th-century realism and war stories like The Red Badge of Courage, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English Romantic poet. The Crucible is uniquely associated with Arthur Miller.