The Verbose Insomniacs
The Crucible: Historical Background
Arthur Miller (1915-2005)
Fast Facts:
-Born in Harlem, Miller was raised in a moderately affluent household until the Wall Street Crash of 1929, after which his family moved from the Upper East Side to Gravesend, Brooklyn.
-After high school, he worked to save up to attend the University of Michigan.
-In college, Miller wrote for the student paper and wrote his first play, No Villain.
-After college, Miller moved back east to begin his career.
-Although his playwrighting career began rocky, his plays soon achieved success on Broadway; he won his first Tony Award for All My Sons.
-Miller wrote the first act of Death of Salesman in less than a day. Salesman won him the triple crown of theatrical artistry: the Pulitzer Prize, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award and a Tony Award.
-In 1956, Miller married actress Marilyn Monroe.
-Later that year, the House of Un-American Activities Committee refused to renew Miller's passport, and called him in to appear before the committee.
-The Crucible, an allegory of McCarthyism, was the main reason for this. However, Miller refused to agree with the committee's demands to "out" people who had been active in certain political activities.
-In 1961, Monroe and Miller divorced.
-Within several months, Miller married Austrian-born photographer Inge Morath. Their son Daniel was born with down syndrome. Miller wanted that he be completely excluded from the family's personal life. However, Miller's son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis, eventually persuaded Miller to reunite with his adult son.
-In his final years, Miller's work continued to deal with societal and personal issues.
The Salem Witch Trials:
In 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, a collection of girls fell ill, having hallucinations and seizures. In Puritan New England, these types of occurrences were attributed to the devil. So, the ill girls spurred fears of witchcraft, and it was not long before people began to accuse other villagers of being witches. Old grudges and jealousies spilled out into the open, fueling the atmosphere of hysteria. The Massachusetts government took action, and within a few weeks, dozens of people were in jail on charges of witchcraft. By the time the fever had run its course, in late August 1692, nineteen people, mainly outcasts who did not attend church and foreigners, and also two dogs, had been convicted and hanged for witchcraft.
When Miller wrote The Crucible, although he adhered to many true events, he also fictionalized aspects of the story. For example, Miller made Abigail a 17-year-old in order to create an affair between her and John Proctor to add another dimension to the storyline.
Miller wrote The Crucible in the early 1950s, during the brief ascendancy of Senator Joseph McCarthy, a demagogue whose anti-Communism sparked the United States into a period of anti-Communist fervor during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Led by McCarthy, congressional committees conducted investigations to root out Communist sympathizers in the United States. Like the witches of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess and to identify other commmunists to escape punishment, maying of whom did even if they were completely innocent. This created histeria that the United States was overrun with Communists.
At the time of The Crucible's first performance in 1953, critics saw The Crucible as a direct attack on McCarthyism; it was indeed an allegory of McCarthyism and the Red Scare. Its comparatively short run was blamed on anti-Communist fervor. That year, the House of Un-American Activities Committee refused to renew Miller's passport and wanted him to appear before the committee. However, Miller refused to appear before the committee and continued to write plays about pressing societal and political topics.
The Crucible and McCarthyism:
an in-depth video about the Salem Witch Trials
a presentation, courtesy of Ms. Prinzo, that explains how Puritan England began
a video explaining McCarthyism and Arthur Miller
to get more specific information about the Salem Witch Trials and to learn about the real people that Miller includes in The Crucible