The CruciblePart I: Overview

Part I: Overview

●American play●Written in the 1950s (published and performed in

January 1953 in NYC)●Playwright: Arthur Miller●Focuses on Salem Witch Trials in Salem,

Massachusetts (a new Jerusalem)●An allegory to McCarthyism of the 1950s●Not an instant success, but today is Miller’s most

produced play

Overview: Arthur Miller

●Born in 1915 in New York

City to middle-class parents

●His father’s business failed

because of the Depression,

so the family began to

struggle financially

●Miller worked for two years in

a car parts plant in order to

finance his college education

●Attended the University of

Michigan to study journalism

Overview: Arthur Miller

● An aspiring playwright, he

returned to NYC after

graduating college

● Made a living by writing radio

scripts

● Finally had a play of his on

Broadway

oAll My Sons (1947)

● In 1949, wrote Death of a

Salesman, which was instantly

deemed an American classic

Overview: Arthur Miller

●Married Marilyn Monroe (lucky guy!)oDivorced after a few

yearsoHad three wives

altogether

●Wrote The Crucible in 1951-52oWas accused of being a

Communist

●Died in 2005

Overview: Salem, Mass.●Located on the coast of Massachusetts

●Settled mainly by Puritans in 1626oA group of people who left England so they

could practice religious freedomoOften let their religious beliefs guide their daily

lives (Theocracy)

●Most known for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692oNickname: “The Witch City”

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

Overview: Miller’s exploration of

issues in human nature

●Greed●Guilt●Motivation●Morality

The CruciblePart II: Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials

●Occurred from June

through September of

1692 in Salem

●Puritan group of

people was involved

●Townspeople were in

a state of hysteria

about witches/evil

The Facts

●Young girl named Betty Parris became illoFever, extreme pain, running around the

house

●More children in Salem became illoMercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, etc.

●Doctors were called in to find the reason

for this sickness

But…

●Doctors couldn’t explain illness, so they

defaulted to “witchcraft”oTownspeople were easily convinced

oA servant in town was suspected of witchcraft

●Townspeople decided to arrest the servant,

Tituba

It continues…

●More and more people were arrested and

charged with witchcraftoThe punishment for witchcraft was DEATH by

HANGING

oIn order to live, some people “confessed” to

practicing witchcraft.

The Casualties

●Nineteen men and

women were put to

death for witchcraft.

●One man, Giles

Corey, was also

pressed to death.

Why did this happen?

●People were suspicious/fearfuloA book about witchcraft had just

been published by Cotton Mather

oPeople were at war with Native

Americans

oDeath/evil were on the mind of

many (because of fighting and

disease)

oPuritan culture easily accepted

the devil as the source of

evil/wrong in life

Other Explanations

●Teenagers in town were bored and got carried

awayoDancing, flirting, etc. not allowed at all!

oAll of the accusers were teenage girls

●Some of the accusers were jealous peopleoAn easy way to get rid of people they didn’t like!

●General sense of depression in townoNot a lot of wealth/happiness/freedom

The CruciblePart III: Historical Context

The Appeals of Communism

● America’s Great Depression left

people upset about the

American government

oEveryone deserves basics

(food, clothing)

oCommunism offered that

promise

● 1939: 50,000 Americans were

members of the Communist

party.

Then, World War II Begins● 1941: America begins fighting

against Germany (and others)

● Communism was seen as “un-

American” because of the surge

in patriotism

● 1945: America won World War II

oDefeated the German

government of fascism

Fascism: government led

by a dictator that

suppressed opposition of

any kind

America vs. The Soviet Union

● America was emerging as a world power, but:oThe Soviet Union was its main competition

● And:oThe Soviet Union was Communist

● America and The Soviet Union competed against each other for world power in:oSpace traveloNuclear weapon developmento In effect, government style

Communism came to be seen as

“evil”●1950: Julius and Ethel

Rosenberg arrestedoCharged with supplying

atomic bomb secrets to the

Soviet Union

●Soviet Union developed

the atomic bomb (from the

secrets provided)

●Communism became the

opposite of everything

America represented

The “Red Scare” Begins

●Red: color of

Communism

●Symbol of

Communism:

Hammer and SickleoWhy is this the symbol

of Communism?

Enter: Joseph McCarthy and the

HUAC

HUAC

●HUAC: House Committee of Un-American

Activities, headed by McCarthyoThis committee questioned Americans who

were suspected of being Communists

oThey summoned thousands of people to testify Goal: to get as many names of “Communists” as

possible

Who Was Suspected of Being a

Communist?●Filmmakers, directors, actors were accused of

attending Communist meetings

●Certain politicians were also targeted

●These people had two options:oAdmit to being a Communist and tell McCarthy names

of other people who attended Communist meetingsoORoRefuse to admit anything (or rat out others) and be

blacklisted Can’t get work if blacklisted!

Walt Disney

Ronald Reagan

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Arthur Miller

The Crucible and Communism

●Allegory: work of literature that tells one

story on the surface while referring to

another subtextuallyoComparing the play to the Red Scare

From Why I Wrote The Crucible

“The Crucible was an act of desperation...I was motivated in some great part by the paralysis that had set among many liberals who, despite their discomfort with the inquisitors’ violations of civil rights, were fearful, and with good reason, of being identified as covert Communists if they should protest too strongly…“I visited Salem for the first time on a dismal day in 1952. In the gloomy courthouse there I read the transcripts of the witchcraft trials of 1692, as taken down in a primitive shorthand by ministers who were spelling each other. But there was one entry in Upham [a mayor of Salem] in which thousands of pieces I had come across were jogged into place…” The New Yorker, Arthur Miller, 1996