THE CRUCIBLE

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT

THE CONTEXT OF THIS FAMOUS
PLAY

Firstly, what is a crucible?

Crucible:
a vessel or melting
pot
A test of the most
decisive kind, a
severe trial

So who is this Arthur Miller bloke?

Introducing Arthur Miller

One

of Americas most renowned

playwrights
He was born in New York, and grew up
in Brooklyn
As a child, he played football and
baseball and read adventure stories
wasnt particularly literary

Arthur Miller cont.

Worked

in an auto parts factory so he

could afford to go to college, where he
decided to become a journalist
Graduated from the University of
Michigan in 1938, went back to New
York and started writing for radio.
Married his first of three wives, Mary, in
1940

Arthur Miller cont.

His first play on Broadway was The Man Who

Had All The Luck it ran for only four
performances
He published a novel in 1945 Focus.
In 1947, his next play All My Sons was much
more successful
In 1949, Death of a Salesman premiered, and this
brought him worldwide fame

Arthur Miller cont.

In the 1950s, he was caught up in the furore

surrounding Communist influence in all facets
of American life, including the arts (MORE
ON THIS LATER)
His experiences during this time inspired The
Crucible
It wasnt initially a success on Broadway, but
has since become his most produced play.

Arthur Miller cont.

In 1956 he married actress Marilyn Monroe.

They split in 1961.
He wrote some screenplays, but went back to
writing for theatre in the mid 1960s.
He married again in 1962.
He was still writing in the 1990s, including the
screenplay for the film adaptation of The
Crucible
Miller died in 2005

Okay, now you know a

little bit about the
author

So whats the deal

with these Puritans?

Background
First, some background

THE MIDDLE AGES

A time of great change. Why?
Well
The plague swept through Europe, killing up
to 40% of the population
Lots of wars

Background
The authority of Kings

and the Church was

being questioned
New ideas eg. the earth
isnt flat!
New inventions ie. the
printing press
All of this leads to lots of
instability. So
Lets kill witches!

Background
In Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and

other parts of Europe, hundreds of witches

were killed.
In some instances, people were actually tied
up and thrown into water. If you floated, you
were guilty (because Satan was helping you),
and you would be killed. If you drowned, you
were innocent.

The Puritans
So back to the Puritans
They were a religious group in England who
had very strict rules about how people should
behave. Eventually, the English people got
sick of them, and so many Puritans fled to the
US to escape religious persecution.
They settled in North America in 1620.

The Puritans
They firmly believed:
in the Bible; they felt that it revealed the Lords word,
and only through it does he directly communicate to
people.
They believed man could do nothing to be saved
salvation was a gift that could only come from God
Your soul was predestined from birth you were either
going to Heaven or Hell. They constantly searched for
hints as to what path they were on.

The Puritans
Women were considered subservient to men,

and women were more likely to consort with

the Devil than men
The church was the centre of society
They also wanted to purge evil from the
world. One way to do this confront and
eradicate witchcraft.

The Salem Witch Trials

Map of the United States of America

Map of Massachusetts

The Witch Trials

This is one of the most
infamous events in
American history.
150 people were
imprisoned, and 20
people died between
1692 and 1693.

The Witch Trials

2 kids, Elizabeth (Betty) Parris, and Abigail

Williams, had fits a doctor suggested
witchcraft as a cause
The girls, under pressure from various
members of the community, accused 3
women of witchcraft. Other accusations
followed, people were arrested, imprisoned
and sentenced to death.

The Witch Trials

Evidence was generally just testimony from

those afflicted basically, one persons word
against anothers.
Almost all those who died were hung,
although Giles Corey, an elderly farmer, was
pressed to death large stones were placed on
his body until he died.

The Witch Trials

The last trial took place in 1693. Theres no

one reason why it ended.
Today, in Salem, there are numerous
museums and memorials dedicated to
providing information about this unique
period in history
Check out www.salemweb.com

The Witch Trials

Numerous reasons have been offered since to

explain the original symptoms the girls showed,
including hysteria, hallucinations brought on by food
poisoning, and various diseases.
There is also no one reason as to why things got so
out of control desire for land and power, strict
religious beliefs, and a tightly controlled society are
just some of the explanations.

So
Why did Arthur Miller, almost 400 years
after these events took place, decide to write
about them?

Basically, he saw a strong parallel

between the witch-hunts in Salem, and what
was happening in America in the 1950s.
However, this time, the hunt was for
Communists.

The Cold War

Back in the 20th century, there were two

world superpowers: the USA and the USSR.
In 1946, the USSR acquired nuclear
weapons. This was effectively the start of the
Cold War between the USSR and the USA
an undeclared war not of bloody fighting but
of threat and counter threat.

Capitalism v Communism

America represented
the ideology of
capitalism, while the
USSR represented
communism.
In 1949, China became
a Communist country,
and American paranoia
about Communism
reached crisis
proportions.

Fear of Communism

In America, and in Australia to a lesser extent, the

common perception was that the Communists
were an empire of Evil.
The struggle was for control of trouble spots. On
one side were the good (the US, with its freedom
loving, democratic traditions), while on the other,
was the bad (the USSR and China, with repressive
police states, human rights abuses and lack of
freedom). This is how it was portrayed in the
Western media.

McCarthy

Into an American
society that was
extremely paranoid that
the Communists were
going to take over the
world, a Senator named
Joseph McCarthy rose
to prominence.

McCarthy

He made a speech in February 1950, where he

claimed to have a list of more than 200 Communist
party members who were working for the US State
Department.
The attempt to weed out Communists had been
going on before McCarthy, and continued after him,
but he became symbolic of the era, and his
involvement coined the term McCarthyism.

The Hunt for Communists

This whole period of United States history

was characterised by suspicion, paranoia
and hysteria. People were encouraged to
turn on each other, and to name suspected
Communists.

The House Un-American Activities

Committee (HUAC)

This committee was formed in 1938, and its

focus soon shifted to identifying Communists.
Its most notorious investigation was into the
Hollywood film industry. Actors, writers, and
directors were called to testify about the
Communist beliefs of themselves and their
colleagues.

The Hollywood Ten

Initially, ten guys refused to answer under

the First Amendment. They were sentenced
to prison for contempt of Congress.

Blacklists

All of this investigation and suspicion led to

blacklists. No-one every really admitted that
these lists existed, but what it meant was that
hundreds of people working in the
entertainment industry were denied work
because they had been accused of being
Communists, or refused to cooperate with
inquiries.

Who was blacklisted?

Some of the people blacklisted include:
Charlie Chaplin (actor)
Orson Welles (actor, author, director) (Citizen
Kane)
Leonard Bernstein (composer) (West Side
Story)
And
Arthur Miller

Consequences

Hundreds were imprisoned

Tens of thousands lost their jobs
Some of these people did have a past or
present connection with the Communist
Party, however, may not have meant any
harm to the United States at all.
For most, the evidence linking them to the
Communist Party was dubious at best.

The Crucible

Arthur Miller was in the middle of all of this

hysteria about Communism.
He saw clear parallels between that and the
hysteria over witches that had existed 4
centuries earlier.
He wrote The Crucible as an allegory to
illustrate how ridiculous the paranoia about
Communism in the US was.

Its really two stories in one:

One: a dramatisation of the real-life events of
Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1690s
and
Two: a comment on how ludicrous the hunt for
Communists in the 1950s was.
Through this play, he makes clear comments
about American government and society.

THE END

Dodgy Reference List

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puritan
http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html
http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/puritans.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/amiller.htm
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/SALE
M.HTM
http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/
http://www.salemwitchtrials.com/