The Crucible

1. The Crucible Written by Arthur Miller In 1952

2. Miller’s biography • Born in New York City in 1915 • Dad- owned garment factory • Mom- schoolteacher • Arthur involved in high school sports, not academics

3. Applied to U. Of Michigan (grades not good enough) • Took a job for two years working in an automotive parts plant… he read War and Peace during this time period • Enrolled in U. of Michigan and worked different part-time jobs • After college graduation, he wrote radio scripts • First Broadway success- All My Sons-- play portrayed the impact on a family of American participation in World War II. Miller was attacked as unpatriotic. He said that he was just telling the truth. • After Death of a Salesman, he was considered to be a great American playwright

4. The Crucible was a play produced in 1953 • The play centered on a witch-hunt that took place in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts • Miller parallels the 1692 witch-hunt with the “Red Hunt” of the 1950’s being conducted in Washington, DC by Senator Joseph McCarthy (from Wisconsin) • “Witch-hunt” was a term used to refer to un-American activities

5. McCarthyism • McCarthy elected in 1946- by 1951, he succeeded in arousing terror among leftists and intellectuals by asserting that those hostile to our way of life had attempted systematically to obtain key positions in government and in industries such as entertainment in order to subvert our system. • Writers, actors, politicians– and others– were summoned to appear before McCarthy to answer the question:

6. “Are you now or were you ever a Communist?”

7. Uh- Oh… • Arthur Miller’s liberal views caught him in the McCarthy anti-communist witch-hunt. • He testified before a congressional committee, refusing to name friends and colleagues who might have been communists and was held in contempt.

8. Success of The Crucible • Not successful in its first run • Critics questioned the comparison between the old witch-hunts and the contemporary hunt for Communists (an allegory) • In a later production, the play ran for over 600 performances • It is now Miller’s most produced play

9. Married Marilyn Monroe in 1956 • They divorced in 1961 • Miller later married the renowned photographer Inge Morath • In later years Arthur Miller went out of fashion in America. He complained that writers there were treated as entertainers, not moralists, and railed against what he regarded the hollow commercialism of Broadway. • "I do think that most things end badly," he said. "Most human enterprise disappoints." • He continued to provoke his audience into questioning society and authority.