Arthur Miller and The Red Scare

1. Arthur Miller and The Red Scare Author of The Crucible

2. The QUESTION • “Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Communist party?”

3. The Red Scare: Late 40s through 50s • Communists were everywhere seeking to destroy the democracy of America: using positions as teachers, college professors, labor organizers, artists, and journalists • 2 Americans who were spies for Russia, the Rosenbergs, were executed for sharing information about the atomic bomb • 1947: Hollywood 10 • Writers, directors, and producers who refused to answer if they were Communist or not—1-yr jail sentence • Hollywood starts blacklisting anyone suspected to be Communist—lasted until 1960s

4. McCarthy hearings: Red Scare at its zenith • 1954 hearings were televised • Senator Joseph McCarthy is leader of the House Committee on Un-American Activities • “accused had to name others to sustain integrity of their own names” (Bigsby) • Elia Kazan (director of DOS and other big films) caved and so did Walt Disney • President Eisenhower didn’t confront McCarthy and end his reign until accusations against the military and Eisenhower administration • Ended in 1960 when Dalton Trumbo ( 1 of the Hollywood 10) was given credit for writing the screenplay for Spartacus.

5. Arthur Miller • Married 3 times • Married to Marilyn Monroe during McCarthy hearings • Wrote Death of a Salesman • Did attend 5-6 Communist party writers’ meetings • Published The Crucible in 1952, 1st performance 1953

6. Miller and the HUAC • Subpoenaed in 1956 by HUAC • Refused to answer 2 Questions: • “Can you tell us who were there when you walked into the room?” Referring to a 1947 meeting • “Was Arnaud D’Usseauchariman of the meeting of the Communist party writers which took place in 1947 in which you were in attendance?”

7. Found guilty of contempt of Congress • During the hearings, Arthur Miller said, “I am trying to, and I will, protect my sense of myself.” • Much later, Millersaid, “You told them anyone you knew had been a left winger or a Communist and you went home. But I wasn’t going to do that.”

8. From The Crucible Introduction by Christopher Bigsby • With a rebellion there is usually an order for those being accused 1. The powerless 2. The politically vulnerable 3. Those who possess real power => this is when the rebellion collapses • The first three accused of witchcraft were a slave, a laborer’s wife rumored to be promiscuous, and a woman who didn’t go to church and lived in sin

9. More from Bigsby on The Crucible • The play is a “study of debilitating power of guilt, seductions of power, and the flawed nature of the individual and of the society to which the individual owes allegiance.” • The cast is so large because the play shows the collapse and betrayal of a society “who surrender to the irrational; also about the redemption of the individual and through the individual, the society.” • Scenes with many cast vs scenes with fewer characters where the “individual is confronted by his/her own conscience.”