The Crucible

Life of Arthur Miller Born October 1915 in New York City His young adult life was during the depression and was shaped by the poverty around him It demonstrated the fragility and vulnerability of the human existence Attended the University of Michigan where he started writing plays Wrote “Death of a Salesman” which won a Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize

Life of Arthur Miller Wrote The Crucible in 1953 during an era called “McCarthyism” He was struggling with the idea of communism and wrote the play in response Miller felt a connection between the communism actions and the Salem Witch Trials and choose to set his most famous play in this time period

The Title The word “Crucible” means “a severe test” or “a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development”

Puritan Community The Puritan community was a theocracy, a government which blends church and state. The church’s officials were the government’s officials. Thus, church and state were not separate * Fiction and Fact: the story and characters of The Crucible were real life people and Arthur Miller used diary entries and research as evidence to help share the story.

The Time and Place The Crucible takes place in 1692 in and near Salem, a small town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that had been founded in the early 1660’s by a group of Christians called Puritans. The puritans had fled England for North America to establish a religious community. However, by 1660’s, English merchants had immigrated to the colony, attracted by business opportunities. Most did not share the religious belief's of the Puritan founders.

The Time and Place Against this backdrop, many puritans felt they were losing hold of their ideals. Their sense of insecurity, frustration, and loss of control helped create a climate of guilt and blame. This climate pervaded the town of Salem and especially nearby Salem Village, where, in the winter of 1691-1692, several teenage girls began behaving strangely. Many people in the community suspected that the girls were victims of witchcraft. These events an trials that followed for the basis for Miller’s play The Crucible.

How it all Started Betty Parris became strangely ill. She dashed about, dove under furniture, contorted in pain, and complained of fever. The cause of her symptoms may have been some combination of stress, asthma, guilt, boredom, child abuse, epilepsy, and delusional psychosis. Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to exhibit similar unusual behavior. A doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the girls' problems might have a supernatural origin. The widespread belief that witches targeted children made the doctor's diagnosis seem increasingly likely. -Douglas Linder

Causes of Witchcraft Strong belief that Satan is acting in the world. A belief that Satan actively recruits witches and wizards A belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits certain symptoms. A time  of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan was active. Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba (slave). Teenage boredom. Confessing "witches" adding credibility to earlier charges. Old feuds (disputes within congregation, property disputes) between the accusers and the accused spurring charges of witchcraft

Evidence The girls contorted into grotesque poses, fell down into frozen postures, and complained of biting and pinching sensations. In a village where everyone believed that the devil was real, close at hand, and acted in the real world, the suspected affliction of the girls became an obsession.” Douglas Linder

The Trials By the end of 1692, over 200 people were jailed and standing accused of witchcraft.

Hysteria Strikes Nineteen men and women were hanged, all having been convicted of witchcraft Another man of over eighty years was pressed to death under heavy stones for refusing to submit to a trial on witchcraft charges Many languished in jail for months without trials At least four died in prison