The Crucible Part I: Overview

● American play ● Written in the 1950s (published and performed in January 1953 in NYC) ● Playwright: Arthur Miller ● Focuses on Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts (a new Jerusalem) ● An allegory to McCarthyism of the 1950s ● Not an instant success, but today is Miller’s most produced play

Overview: Arthur Miller ● Born in 1915 in New York City to middle-class parents ● His father’s business failed because of the Depression, so the family began to struggle financially ● Miller worked for two years in a car parts plant in order to finance his college education ● Attended the University of Michigan to study journalism

Overview: Arthur Miller ●An aspiring playwright, he returned to NYC after graduating college ●Made a living by writing radio scripts ●Finally had a play of his on Broadway o All My Sons (1947) ●In 1949, wrote Death of a Salesman, which was instantly deemed an American classic

Overview: Arthur Miller ● Married Marilyn Monroe (lucky guy!) o Divorced after a few years o Had three wives altogether ● Wrote The Crucible in o Was accused of being a Communist ● Died in 2005

Overview: Salem, Mass. ● Located on the coast of Massachusetts ● Settled mainly by Puritans in 1626 o A group of people who left England so they could practice religious freedom o Often let their religious beliefs guide their daily lives (Theocracy) ● Most known for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 o Nickname: “The Witch City”

Salem Witch Trials Memorial

Overview: Miller’s exploration of issues in human nature ●Greed ●Guilt ●Motivation ●Morality

The Crucible Part II: Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials ● Occurred from June through September of 1692 in Salem ● Puritan group of people was involved ● Townspeople were in a state of hysteria about witches/evil

The Facts ● Young girl named Betty Parris became ill o Fever, extreme pain, running around the house ● More children in Salem became ill o Mercy Lewis, Mary Walcott, etc. ● Doctors were called in to find the reason for this sickness

But… ● Doctors couldn’t explain illness, so they defaulted to “witchcraft” o Townspeople were easily convinced o A servant in town was suspected of witchcraft ● Townspeople decided to arrest the servant, Tituba

It continues… ● More and more people were arrested and charged with witchcraft o The punishment for witchcraft was DEATH by HANGING o In order to live, some people “confessed” to practicing witchcraft.

The Casualties ● Nineteen men and women were put to death for witchcraft. ● One man, Giles Corey, was also pressed to death.

Why did this happen? ● People were suspicious/fearful o A book about witchcraft had just been published by Cotton Mather o People were at war with Native Americans o Death/evil were on the mind of many (because of fighting and disease) o Puritan culture easily accepted the devil as the source of evil/wrong in life

Other Explanations ● Teenagers in town were bored and got carried away o Dancing, flirting, etc. not allowed at all! o All of the accusers were teenage girls ● Some of the accusers were jealous people o An easy way to get rid of people they didn’t like! ● General sense of depression in town o Not a lot of wealth/happiness/freedom

The Crucible Part III: Historical Context

The Appeals of Communism ●America’s Great Depression left people upset about the American government o Everyone deserves basics (food, clothing) o Communism offered that promise ●1939: 50,000 Americans were members of the Communist party.

Then, World War II Begins ● 1941: America begins fighting against Germany (and others) ● Communism was seen as “un- American” because of the surge in patriotism ● 1945: America won World War II o Defeated the German government of fascism  Fascism: government led by a dictator that suppressed opposition of any kind

America vs. The Soviet Union ● America was emerging as a world power, but: o The Soviet Union was its main competition ● And: o The Soviet Union was Communist ● America and The Soviet Union competed against each other for world power in: o Space travel o Nuclear weapon development o In effect, government style

Communism came to be seen as “evil” ● 1950: Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested o Charged with supplying atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union ● Soviet Union developed the atomic bomb (from the secrets provided) ● Communism became the opposite of everything America represented

The “Red Scare” Begins ● Red: color of Communism ● Symbol of Communism: Hammer and Sickle o Why is this the symbol of Communism?

Enter: Joseph McCarthy and the HUAC

HUAC ● HUAC: House Committee of Un-American Activities, headed by McCarthy o This committee questioned Americans who were suspected of being Communists o They summoned thousands of people to testify  Goal: to get as many names of “Communists” as possible

Who Was Suspected of Being a Communist? ● Filmmakers, directors, actors were accused of attending Communist meetings ● Certain politicians were also targeted ● These people had two options: o Admit to being a Communist and tell McCarthy names of other people who attended Communist meetings o OR o Refuse to admit anything (or rat out others) and be blacklisted  Can’t get work if blacklisted!

Walt Disney

Ronald Reagan

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Arthur Miller

The Crucible and Communism ● Allegory: work of literature that tells one story on the surface while referring to another subtextually o Comparing the play to the Red Scare

From Why I Wrote The Crucible “The Crucible was an act of desperation...I was motivated in some great part by the paralysis that had set among many liberals who, despite their discomfort with the inquisitors’ violations of civil rights, were fearful, and with good reason, of being identified as covert Communists if they should protest too strongly… “I visited Salem for the first time on a dismal day in In the gloomy courthouse there I read the transcripts of the witchcraft trials of 1692, as taken down in a primitive shorthand by ministers who were spelling each other. But there was one entry in Upham [a mayor of Salem] in which thousands of pieces I had come across were jogged into place…” The New Yorker, Arthur Miller, 1996