Author Background and Historical Context for The Crucible

1. Arthur Miller Author Background and Historical Context for The Crucible

2. His Life • Born in 1915 in NY, into a middle-class Jewish immigrant family • Father owned a clothing store • Family lost almost everything in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 • Was a gifted athlete, but an average student • Was rejected by colleges several times before he was accepted

3. His Life, continued • Graduated from college: 1938 • Married Mary Slattery; two children • Began writing plays right away • Death of a Salesman(1949) was the most successful; still popular today

4. Political Issues • In 1950, the troubles began. • He began gaining negative attention for his political and social comments. • In 1953, The Crucible opened on Broadway, depicting a deliberate parallel between the Salem Witch Trials and the Communist Red Scare that America was experiencing.

5. A Little Bit About Salem • In the 1600’s, Puritans settled on the East Coast of the US. • They hoped to encounter religious freedom, but instead became embroiled with hysteria over the existence of witches.

6. Salem Continued • They had been persecuted in their native land of England, but they created a theocracy and eventually persecuted others. • Theocracy: a form of government in which God or a deity is recognized as the supreme civil ruler

7. Salem continued • Most being accused of being witches were women. Many were healers, and used plants to heal people. Many were without a family, and this made them easy targets. • They were the people who, most likely, were unaccepted by the community for one reason or another.

8. Salem continued • One of the ways that most witches were accused was with the use of “special evidence.” If someone said they had seen the accused with the devil in a dream, or that the accused had visited them in the night, or had hurt them, it was taken of evidence of the devil at work.

9. How Did It Start? • In 1692, two girls in the village of Salem, Massachusetts became intrigued when a West Indian servant told them stories of magic and voodoo from her native land. • Bored and restricted by the oppressive Puritan life, the girls slipped into the woods one night and “conjured” love charms and hexes.

10. How Did It Start? • When they were caught, to avoid punishment, the girls created the “story” of the witches that made them dance and conjure the spells.

11. Why Did It Happen? • It began as a way for the girls to avoid being punished. • It then became an ideal way to get revenge on anyone whom you disliked. • People started accusing their neighbors of being witches so they could steal their farmland. • People accused other of witchcraft if they wanted to steal their husbands/wives or possessions.

12. Witches! • Most found guilty of witchcraft were hung. • There were many other forms of torture and death, which we will learn about tomorrow.

13. How’s This Related to Arthur Miller? • The 1950’s was an era of hysteria over Russian communists. • People thought there were Commies everywhere , and one man, Senator Joseph McCarthy, made it his personal mission to find Communists and destroy their lives by bringing them before something called the House of Unamerican Activities Committee.

14. Senator McCarthy… • …accused many people- actors, writers, people in the media, people in the military – of being Communists.

15. The Red Scare • He held hearings where people were demanded to give names of other Communists in order for leniency. People were afraid they might be named Communists, and it was called The Red Scare. (“red” is a term used for Communists)

16. Similarities • The Crucible was Arthur Miller’s way of protesting the HUAC hearings. He compared the hearings to the witch hunts of Salem, where gossip, rumors, and fear were evidence enough to convict people.

17. Back to Arthur… • In 1956, he was called to testify in from of the HUAC, for which he was found in contempt of court for his refusal to cooperate and identify names of Communist sympathizers. • The ruling was eventually overturned, but damage to his reputation had already taken place nonetheless.

18. More Arthur… • That same year, he divorced his wife and married Marilyn Monroe, but their marriage only lasted a few years.

19. Last Slide, I Promise!! • Arthur remarried again and had two more children. • He continued to write, but nothing as popular as Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. • He died in 2005 of heart failure. He was 89 years old.