“The Crucible” Background Notes

In the early 1950s, communism, a social system in which everything is shared equally by the citizens, was called the Red Scare. In democratic countries, it was viewed to be a deadly disease that seemed to be spreading throughout the world. Americans lived in constant fear of attack from communist countries like Russia and Cuba. Senator Joseph McCarthy started searching for radicals both in and out of the government. Because of their visibility, a favorite target became Hollywood personalities.

McCarthy’s House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) defined the essence of “American.” The group’s job was to find those who did not fit that definition. Those they labeled Communist. Someone called before HUAC was considered to be a suspect. The only way to recover your good name was to implicate others. This is exactly what had happened in Salem in 1692 – the hysteria was the same. Those who did not cooperate with the investigations found themselves blacklisted, their careers ruined. Any American who failed to conform to HUAC’s “healthy” standards was considered contaminated.

“The Crucible” was written as several metaphors. Miller was called before HUAC but he refused to name anyone. He was charged with being unpatriotic and was blacklisted. “The Crucible” was written as several metaphors. Examines the pressure to conform to societal norms. The “patriotism” of the McCarthy era was just as unforgiving and vengeful as the Puritanism of 17th century Salem. Image of disease obvious in both cases. Witchcraft threatened the moral purity of Salem; communism threatened the moral purity of every country in the world.

The kind of thinking that fueled the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era is the same logic that fueled the Holocaust, the persecution of the Christians in ancient Rome, and some of the paranoia of certain races in modern times. A group of people can easily be named as a contaminating influence and the righteous can mercilessly persecute in the name of cleansing. Miller hoped we would learn a lesson from his comparison – we have not.