Arthur Miller & The Crucible

1. Arthur Miller & The Crucible

2. The Author: Arthur Miller • Born on October 17, 1915 in the Harlem district of New York City. • Miller began writing plays in college, but it was not until 1947, at the age of 32, that he scored his first major critical success with All My Sons, receiving the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. • Two years later he received the Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman. • He was married to the famous actress Marilyn Monroe • Regarded as one of the finest American playwrights of the 20th century. • He died on February 10, 2005 of congestive heart failure at the age of 89.

3. Salem, Massachusetts and the History of Witchcraft • Launchingthe hysteria of the Salem Witch Trials was the bizarre, seemingly inexplicable behavior of two young girls; the daughter, Betty, and the niece, Abigail Williams, of the Salem Village minister, Reverend Samuel Parris. • One of the ways most witches were accused was with the use of “spectral 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 as evidence that the devil was at work. Twenty were executed, between 175 and 200 were jailed.

4. What provoked Miller to write The Crucible? • Written in 1953 as an allegory for McCarthyism or the so called (second) Red Scare. • Miller felt many personal convictions to McCarthyism as a result of a multitude of events that happened in his life. • Wanting to point out to the world the amazing parallel between the unjust Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the (second) Red Scare from 1948 to 1956. • Miller wrote The Crucible to make a powerful statement about the dangers of hysteria and the dehumanization that can result. • The play is a fictional re-creation of the Salem witch trials, their origins, and a psychological investigation of the act of persecution.

6. Setting • The setting of The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692. This was a time when Salem was populated by Puritans. These Puritans believe that the is good and bad forces that stood for good and evil. The style of government that the Puritans used was theocracy. Theocracy means that God was the true leader of society. 

7. Summary • In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris’s daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls’ ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris’s niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond “dancing.” • While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor’s home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls. • This all leads to innocent people on trial for their lives.

8. Characters • John Proctor - A local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern, harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has a hidden sin—his affair with Abigail Williams—that proves his downfall. • Abigail Williams - Reverend Parris’s niece. Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor household, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John Proctor. Abigail is smart, wily, a good liar, and vindictive. • Reverend John Hale - A young minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft. Reverend Hale is called in to Salem to examine Parris’s daughter Betty. Hale is a committed Christian and hater of witchcraft. His critical mind and intelligence save him from falling into blind fervor. Elizabeth Proctor - John Proctor’s wife. Elizabeth fired Abigail when she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold. • Reverend Parris - The minister of Salem’s church. Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power-hungry, yet oddly self-pitying figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris is very concerned with building his position in the community. • Rebecca Nurse - Francis Nurse’s wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in tremendous regard by most of the Salem community. However, she falls victim to the hysteria when the Putnams accuse her of witchcraft and she refuses to confess. • Francis Nurse - A wealthy, influential man in Salem. Nurse is well respected by most people in Salem, but is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife. • Judge Danforth - The deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials. Honest and scrupu-lous, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out witchcraft.

9. John Proctor - A local farmer who lives just outside town; Elizabeth Proctor’s husband. A stern, harsh-tongued man, John hates hypocrisy. Nevertheless, he has a hidden sin—his affair with Abigail Williams—that proves his downfall. • Abigail Williams - Reverend Parris’s niece. Abigail was once the servant for the Proctor household, but Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she discovered that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John Proctor. Abigail is smart, wily, a good liar, and vindictive. • Reverend John Hale - A young minister reputed to be an expert on witchcraft. Reverend Hale is called in to Salem to examine Parris’s daughter Betty. Hale is a committed Christian and hater of witchcraft. His critical mind and intelligence save him from falling into blind fervor. Elizabeth Proctor - John Proctor’s wife. Elizabeth fired Abigail when she discovered that her husband was having an affair with Abigail. Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold. • Reverend Parris - The minister of Salem’s church. Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power-hungry, yet oddly self-pitying figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris is very concerned with building his position in the community. • Rebecca Nurse - Francis Nurse’s wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in tremendous regard by most of the Salem community. However, she falls victim to the hysteria when the Putnams accuse her of witchcraft and she refuses to confess. • Francis Nurse - A wealthy, influential man in Salem. Nurse is well respected by most people in Salem, but is an enemy of Thomas Putnam and his wife. • Judge Danforth - The deputy governor of Massachusetts and the presiding judge at the witch trials. Honest and scrupu-lous, at least in his own mind, Danforth is convinced that he is doing right in rooting out witchcraft.

10. The Red Scare & McCarthyism Sen. Joseph McCarthy

11. The Cold War • in the mid-20th century, following the end of World War II there were two world superpowers: the USA and the USSR. • In 1946, the USSR acquired nuclear weapons. This was effectively the start of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA – an undeclared war not of bloody fighting but of nuclear threat and counter threat.

12. Capitalism v Communism • America represented the good (the US, with it’s freedom loving, democratic traditions, and ideology of capitalism ) • the other, was the bad (the communist USSR and China, with repressive police states, human rights abuses and lack of freedom).

13. Fear of Communism – The Red Scare • In America, the common perception was that communism fueled “an empire of Evil.” • Throughout the 1940s and 1950s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the threat of communism growing in Europe and Asia. • This fear of communism possibly spreading to the U.S. was called the “red scare” because the Soviet flag was red, a color that came to represent communism.

14. Senator Joseph McCarthy • Into an American society that was extremely paranoid that the Communists were going to take over the world, a Senator named Joseph McCarthy rose to prominence making public accusations that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government. • The attempt to ‘weed out’ Communists had been going on before McCarthy, but he became symbolic of the era, and his involvement coined the term “McCarthyism”.

15. The Hunt for Communists • This whole period of United States history was characterised by suspicion, paranoia and hysteria. • People were encouraged to turn on each other, and to name suspected Communists. • People from all walks of life became the subjects of aggressive “witch hunts” often based on inconclusive, questionable evidence.

16. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) • Persons accused of being communists were often denied employment in both the public and private sector. • A special House Un-American Activities Committee was formed in 1938 to investigate allegations of disloyalty to the U.S., and its focus soon shifted to identifying Communists.

17. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) • Its most notorious investigation was into the Hollywood film industry. Actors, writers, and directors were called to testify about the Communist beliefs of themselves and their colleagues. • In the film industry alone, over 300 actors, writers, and directors were denied work in the U.S. • American writer, Arthur Miller, was one of those alleged to have been “blacklisted.”

18. Consequences/Results of McCarthyism • Hundreds were imprisoned • Tens of thousands lost their jobs • Some of these people did have a past or present connection with the Communist Party, however, may not have meant any harm to the United States at all. • For most, the evidence linking them to the Communist Party was dubious at best.

19. McCarthyism’s Downfall • McCarthy’s influence finally faltered in 1954 when a famous CBS newsman, Edward R. Murrow, aired an investigative news report which revealed McCarthy as dishonest in his speeches and abusive in his interrogation of witnesses. • The public was finally made aware of how McCarthy was ruining the reputations of many individuals through false accusations of communism. Edward R. Murrow

20. The Crucible was Arthur Miller’s way of protesting the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. • He compared the Communist hearings to the witch hunts of Salem, where gossip, rumors, and fear were evidence enough to convict people. • The term “witch hunt” now applies to any activity where people are looking for a scapegoat or where they are using accusations to get revenge or to get personal gain or attention.

21. What is a crucible? Crucible: • a vessel or melting pot • A test of the most decisive kind, a severe trial crucible = a vessel in which substances are heated to high temperatures, the impure elements being melted away to leave the pure elements behind.

22. The Crucible does three important things: • Illustrates the belief that history repeats itself • Through the retelling of the Salem witch trials during the Red Scare of the 50s, The Crucible helped people to understand that often in life we are unable to see our moment in history very easily unless we are aided by earlier examples, or, in other words, unless we are able to make a connection between what is going on now and what has already happened. • Shows the danger of mob mentality—the kind of thinking/action where a large number of people act on poor information or they act using emotions, rather than logic.

23. Miller’s Own Words • The McCarthy era's anti-communist trials destroyed lives and friendships. Arthur Miller describes the paranoia that swept America. • “It would probably never have occurred to me to write a play about the Salem witch trials of 1692 had I not seen some astonishing correspondences with that calamity in the America of the late 40s and early 50s. My basic need was to respond to a phenomenon which, with only small exaggeration, one could say paralyzed a whole generation and in a short time dried up the habits of trust and toleration in public discourse. I refer to the anti-communist rage that threatened to reach hysterical proportions and sometimes did. I suppose we rapidly passed over anything like a discussion or debate, and into something quite different, a hunt not just for subversive people, but for ideas and even a suspect language.”