Introduction to The Crucible Arthur Miller and Joseph McCarthy

Arthur Miller b. New York City, Oct. 17, 1915

AM and MM Miller married the motion-picture actress Marilyn Monroe in 1956; they divorced in 1961.

The Cold War in America At the end of World War II, UNITED STATES & USSR

Why did America Fear Communism? A lot of Americans thought the Soviets got the atomic bomb by using spies

There was a fear that Communists had infiltrated the government. No one was to be trusted.

It was charged that secret agents, working under cover, had stolen our secrets and given them to the Enemy. Even worse, these spies supposedly were hardly ever Russians themselves, but often American citizens, the kind of people you see every day on the street and hardly even notice.

(HUAC) Congress began to investigate suspicions of disloyalty. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) sought to expose Communist influence in American life.

Beginning in the late 1940s, the committee called witnesses and investigated the entertainment industry. Prominent film directors and screenwriters who refused to cooperate were imprisoned on contempt charges.

As a result of the HUAC investigations, the entertainment industry blacklisted, or refused to hire, artists and writers suspected of being Communists.

Joseph McCarthy Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin gained power by accusing others of subversion.

In February 1950, a few months after the USSR detonated its first atomic device, McCarthy claimed to have a list of 205 Communists who worked in the State Department.

McCarthyism McCarthyism came to mean false charges of disloyalty.

McCarthy’s influence continued until 1954, when the Senate censured him for abusing his colleagues. His career collapsed

Fears of subversion continued. Communities banned books

Who else was affected? Teachers academics civil servants entertainers Many lost jobs. Unwarranted attacks ruined lives.

The HUAC and Hollywood HUAC investigated communism within Hollywood, calling a number of playwrights, directors and actors known for left-wing views to testify. the Hollywood Ten, a group of entertainers, refused to testify and were convicted of contempt and sentenced to up to one year in prison.

The Hollywood Ten These industry workers called before the HUAC to testify about their ties to communism.

3 Options They could claim they were not and never had been members of the Communist Party (this would have meant perjuring themselves) They could admit or claim membership and then be forced to name other members (and this would have meant losing their jobs both because of their former membership and their dubious position as informers) They could refuse to answer any questions (which is the choice they made).

Blacklisting Over 300 entertainers were placed on a blacklist for possible communist views and were thus forbidden to work for major Hollywood studios (many of these were writers who worked under pseudonyms). Arthur Miller was one of those blacklisted.

Miller admitted to the HUAC that he had attended meetings, but denied that he was a Communist. He had attended, among others, four or five writer's meetings sponsored by the Communist Party in 1947, supported a Peace Conference at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York, and signed many appeals and protests. Refusing to name others who had associated with leftist or suspected Communist groups, Miller was cited for contempt of Congress

Miller wrote The Crucible not simply as a straight historical play detailing the Salem witch trials. The play is a parable for the McCarthy era, in which similar “witch hunts” occurred targeting citizens as communists rather than disciples of the devil.