The Crucible By Arthur Miller Background Info Before You Read

an overview

During the Roaring Twenties in America, the rich were getting richer and the poor were getting poorer. There was another mass wave of immigrants coming to America. Small Communist clubs and organizations started springing up in the bohemian areas of cities. Then, when the Great Depression hit, Communism became very popular since capitalism seemed to have failed the people, and President Hoover seemed to be abandoning the poor and the working- class. In the late thirties and early forties, attending Communist meetings became a kind of experimental, artsy thing to do with liberal minded acquaintances.

 Communism is a utopia – a form of government predicated on sharing and equality that would theoretically result in peace among humanity. However, it is a form of government that only works in theory.  If you’re interested in seeing the theory turned practice, Cuba and North Korea are two modern day examples of a Communist regimes.

In a nutshell, a Communist believes in a classless society where…  individual ownership does not exist  local governments own the land and the resources and divvy them out as needed  everyone has designated work roles  all contributions go to the good of the community and are shared by everyone  Thus, the worker or “proletariat” is held in high esteem.

 More than any other playwright …, Arthur Miller has dedicated himself to the investigation of the moral plight of the white American working class. With a sense of realism and a strong ear for the American vernacular, Miller has created characters whose voices are an important part of the American landscape. His insight into the psychology of desperation and his ability to create stories that express the deepest meanings of struggle, have made him one of the most highly regarded and widely performed American playwrights. In his eighty-fifth year, Miller remains an active and important part of American theater.

 went to U. of Michigan  married Marilyn Monroe in 1956  they divorced in  At that time Marilyn was beyond saving.  She died in  won Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman

 written in 1950s, but set in 1692  based on the Salem Witch Trials, which acted as a parable for the McCarthy era, in which similar * witch hunts occurred targeting citizens as communists rather than disciples of Satan.  *According to American Heritage Dictionary, a ‘witch hunt’ is a political campaign launched on the pretext of investigating activities subversive to the state.

 Cold War  Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was investigating people for their association with COMMUNISM  There was a HUNT for communists in America  people became paranoid that communists were among them  This “hunt” was called the “Red Scare” or the “Hunt for Reds” (reds refers to communists)

 The House Committee on Un-American Activities (generally known as HUAC) also investigated communism within Hollywood, calling a number of playwrights, directors and actors known for left-wing views to testify. Although some of these, including film director Elia Kazan, testified for the committee to avoid prison sentences, but the Hollywood Ten, a group of entertainers, refused to testify and were convicted of contempt and sentenced to up to one year in prison. Over three hundred other entertainers were placed on a blacklist for possible communist views and were thus forbidden to work for major Hollywood studios (many of these were writers who worked under pseudonyms at the time, including Dalton Trumbo and Michael Wilson). Arthur Miller was one of these blacklisted. The blacklist prevented these men from receiving screen credit during this time, until actor Kirk Douglas pushed for Trumbo to receive screen credit for his adaptation of Spartacus for Stanley Kubrick in 1960, thus finally breaking the blacklist.

 Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy was an undistinguished member of the Senate until February 1950, when he made the public charge that 205 Communists had infiltrated the State department. Upon subsequent testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, McCarthy proved unable to produce the name of any "card-carrying" communists, but he gained increasing popular support for his campaign of accusations. Although he was later denounced, he promoted unfounded accusations and suspicions of communism in many quarters, and is best known for his investigation of communists in the United States Army.

 Miller saw a connection between the hunt for communists and the hunt for witches  Following WWII, the Cold War of the 1950s instilled a fear of Communism as an unseen danger as strong as the fear of witches had been in  Some have criticized Miller for oversimplifying matters, in that while there were (as far as we can prove) no actual witches in Salem, there were certainly Communists in 1950s America. However, one can argue that Miller’s concern in The Crucible is not with whether the accused actually are witches, but rather with the unwillingness of the court officials to believe that they are not.

 The church in 1692 was the political center, meaning, the government in Salem is a theocracy—rule by God through religious officials.  The Crucible is set in a theocratic society, in which the church and the state are one, and the religion is a strict, austere form of Protestantism known as Puritanism.  Because of the theocratic nature of the society, moral laws and state laws are one and the same: sin and the status of an individual’s soul are matters of public concern.  There is no room for deviation from social norms, since any individual whose private life doesn’t conform to the established moral laws represents a threat not only to the public good but also to the rule of God and true religion.

 In Salem, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the Devil; dissent is not merely unlawful, it is associated with satanic activity.  This dichotomy functions as the underlying logic behind the witch trials. “A person is either with this court, or he must be counted against it.”  A common misnomer: witches weren’t burned, they were hanged.

 While Miller based this play on actual historical events, for creative purposes, many details in his play are not historically accurate.  John Proctor was not a farmer, he was a tavern owner  John Proctor was in his 60s not 40s  Elizabeth was his 3 rd wife.  Abigail Williams was only 11  Cotton Mather created the hysteria that caused the Salem Witch trials, but Miller excluded him from the play.

 Order vs. Freedom  Fear/Hysteria  Reputation/Appearance  Power  Moral Responsibility  Pride  Religion  Conformity vs. Individuality  Repression