Introduction to The Crucible

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Introduction to The Crucible

• Arthur Miller and Joseph McCarthy

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Arthur Miller

• b. New York City, Oct. 17, 1915
• Miller began writing plays while a student at the
  University of Michigan

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Background of author

• His father, Isidore Miller, was a ladies-wear
  manufacturer and shopkeeper who was ruined in the
  depression. The sudden change in fortune had a
  strong influence on Miller
• To study journalism he entered the University of
  Michigan in 1934, where he won awards for
  playwriting

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AM and MM

• Miller married the motion-picture actress Marilyn
  Monroe in 1956 they divorced in 1961.

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Plays

• first successes--All My Sons (1947) and Death of
  a Salesman (1949)
• Miller condemned the American ideal of prosperity
  on the grounds that few can pursue it without
  making dangerous moral compromises.

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The Cold War in America

• At the end of World War II, the United States and
  the USSR emerged as the worlds major powers.
  They also became involved in the Cold War, a
  state of hostility (short of direct military
  conflict) between the two nations.
• Many Americans feared not only Communism around
  the world but also disloyalty at home. Suspicion
  about Communist infiltration of the government
• A lot of Americans thought the Soviets got the
  atomic bomb by using spies. 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.

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(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.

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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.
• Although his accusations remained unsupported and
  a Senate committee labeled them a fraud and a
  hoax, McCarthy won a national following.
  Branding the Democrats as a party of treason, he
  denounced his political foes as soft on
  Communism and called Trumans loyal secretary of
  state, Dean Acheson, the Red Dean.

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McCarthyism

• McCarthyism came to mean false charges of
  disloyalty.
• In September 1950, goaded by McCarthy, Congress
  passed the McCarran Internal Security Act, which
  established a Subversive Activities Control Board
  to monitor Communist influence in the United
  States.

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• McCarthys influence continued until 1954, when
  the Senate censured him for abusing his
  colleagues. His career collapsed.
• Fears of subversion continued. Communities banned
  books teachers, academics, civil servants, and
  entertainers lost jobs unwarranted attacks
  ruined lives.

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The HUAC and Hollywood

• HUAC investigated communism within Hollywood,
  calling a number of playwrights, directors and
  actors known for left-wing views to testify.
• Some of these, including film director Elia
  Kazan, testified for the committee to avoid
  prison sentences
• the Hollywood Ten, a group of entertainers,
  refused to testify and were convicted of contempt
  and sentenced to up to one year in prison.

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The Hollywood Ten

• These industry workers called before the HUAC to
  testify about their ties to communism knew they
  had three 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)
• or they could refuse to answer any questions
  (which is the choice they made).

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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.

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• 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

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Even if you had no Communism in your own past,
you could easily be in the same position as
Arthur Miller- you knew someone who did. That was
more than enough to get you in trouble with
Senator McCarthy and similar investigators.Imagin
e what it was like being called in to testify.
McCarthy or his aides might say, Are you now, or
have you ever been, a member of the Communist
Party? No. Do you know anyone who is or was a
Communist? No. McCarthy holds up some cards. We
have the names of people who have already
confessed.
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Your name came up in connection with their
testimony. Why do you suppose that is? You say
you dont know, but you can tell that no one
believes you. Maybe youre not so innocent after
all, you think. Have you signed anything, donated
any money, said anything to anybody that might
sound suspicious? You begin to feel guilty either
way even if you dont have any Communist
connections, youve done nothing to stop the
spread of this evil. You did it, its your
fault, their questions seem to say. And they
wont let you go until you make up for it in some
way. So you tell them about your friend whos
never home on Tuesday nights, or anyone you know
whos been acting a little odd the last few
weeks. You name names, and they let you go.And
afterward no one wants anything to do with you.
You were called in to testify, there had to be a
reason. You must be a Communist, or at least have
been working for them. You lose your friends,
your job, sometimes even your family.
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• Miller wrote The Crucible not simply as a
  straight historical play detailing the Salem
  witch trials.
• a good deal of the information in the play
  misrepresents the literal events of the trial at
  the time of the trial, John Proctor was sixty
  years old and Abigail Williams only eleven.
• 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.

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What does crucible mean?

1. a vessel of a very refractory material (as
   porcelain) used for melting and calcining a
   substance that requires a high degree of heat
2. a severe test
3. a place or situation in which concentrated forces
   interact to cause or influence change or
   development