I believe this was written at the time of the so-called McCarthy ‘Witch hunts’ against suspected Communists in America in the 1950s. It deals with the real Witch hunts in Salem, Mass, and shows how a few idle words can be misconstrued, and lead to suspicion and false accusation.It is harrowing, and disturbing.
A similar case occured in Pendle, Yorkshire, England in the 17th century and is worth investigating if this aspect of human nature (fear, suspicion,hysteria)interests you.

First, I would like to start off by saying that I thought I would hate this book. I had read Death of a Salesman by Miller recently and found it dull, and I had read The Scarlet Letter, telling of a similar period and similar subject matter and found it excruciatingly, eye-gougingly (that is an adverb now) painful.

And I was SOOO wrong. This book is amazing. You are first struck with how completely preposterous this situation is, and the hilarity, that people can believe such crazy things at little to no evidence. And then you’re struck with the tragedy, as you begin to relate to the characters and feel so bad, feel like you’ve been abducted and placed on another planet, that this couldn’t happen like this. Then you begin to realize how much you can find these same characteristics in our society in this day and age.

I got so into this book, that at one point towards the end, I threw it against the wall, I was so frustrated at what was going on. Pick it up. Please!

Sad book, especially since it was based on something that actually happened.

So far the book/play is making me sad just because I think the whole situation was sad. But I do want to finish it.