Introduction to The Crucible

By Arthur Miller

• About the Author

Arthur Miller

• Born in New York City on October 17, 1915

• Miller’s father was a manufacturer and shopkeeper who was ruined during The Great Depression.

• The sudden change in fortune had a strong influence on Miller.

• He dropped out of high school and worked as a shipping clerk in an automobile parts warehouse.

• Despite dropping out of high school, he entered the University of Michigan in 1934 to study journalism, where he won awards for playwriting.

Literary Works• He wrote over 50 works (novels, articles, and plays).

• His first successes were All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949), which propelled him into the international spotlight.

• The Crucible was published in 1953.

• Despite his rising acclaim, Miller condemned the American ideal of prosperity on the grounds that few can pursue it without making dangerous moral compromises.

Marilyn and Miller

• Miller married film star and model Marilyn Monroe in 1956; they divorced in 1961.

• McCarthyism Background

McCarthyism

• Although The Crucible depicts the Salem witch trials of 1692, it was written as a response to the paranoid political climate that surrounded Arthur Miller in the 1950s.

• The 1950s saw the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy, an agitator whose paranoid hunt for Communists propelled the U.S. into a dramatic anti-Communist sentiment (The Red Scare). McCarthy conducted Senate hearings that were supposed to flush out suspected communists from government and other areas of American life, including the Arts.

• The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations. Many cooperated through false confessions, attempting to save themselves, creating the image that the U.S. was overrun with Communists, and perpetuating the hysteria.

• The liberal entertainment industry, in which Miller worked, was one of the chief targets. Some called to testify cooperated, others refused. Those who refused to incriminate their friends were placed on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist. Those placed on this list were denied employment, based upon their suspected Communist sympathies.

• Miller was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) in 1956. Like so many of his generation, Miller, although never a member of the Communist Party, had advocated principles of equality among the classes and social justice.

• At the hearings, he testified about his own experiences but refused to discuss the experiences of his colleagues and associates. He was blacklisted for his refusal to name names but was eventually removed from the list.

Comparison between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism:

• Suspension of rational judgment

• People who challenged the authority of the court soon found themselves under suspicion of guilt

• Conscience was no longer a private matter but one of state administration

• Novel Background

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692

Early in 1692, a small group of girls in Salem fell ill, falling victim to hallucinations and seizures.

In extremely religious Puritan New England, frightening or surprising occurrences were often attributed to the devil or his cohorts.

The unfathomable sickness spurred fears of witchcraft, and it was not long before the girls, and then many other residents of Salem, began to accuse other villagers of consorting with the devil and casting spells.

Old grudges and jealousies spilled out into the open, fueling the atmosphere of hysteria. The theocratic Massachusetts government and judicial system soon became involved.

Within a few weeks, dozens of people were in jail on charges of witchcraft. The hysteria lasted from May to September of 1692. By the time it was over, 19 people (and two dogs) had been convicted and hanged for witchcraft, one elderly man was pressed to death by stones, and 150 prisoners were awaiting trial. Five more people died in prison.

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.

Themes in The Crucible• Hypocrisy• Individual vs. the community

(unity and exclusion)• Authority• Greed• Justice vs. retribution and

revenge• Godliness vs. worldliness• Ignorance vs. wisdom• The Puritan Myth• Order vs. Individual Freedom

It is also a story about the struggle between good and evil inside the heart of one man.