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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
oAll 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!)oDivorced after a few
yearsoHad three wives
altogether
●Wrote The Crucible in 1951-52oWas accused of being a
Communist
●Died in 2005
Overview: Salem, Mass.●Located on the coast of Massachusetts
●Settled mainly by Puritans in 1626oA group of people who left England so they
could practice religious freedomoOften let their religious beliefs guide their daily
lives (Theocracy)
●Most known for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692oNickname: “The Witch City”
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 illoFever, extreme pain, running around the
house
●More children in Salem became illoMercy 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”oTownspeople were easily convinced
oA 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 witchcraftoThe punishment for witchcraft was DEATH by
HANGING
oIn 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/fearfuloA book about witchcraft had just
been published by Cotton Mather
oPeople were at war with Native
Americans
oDeath/evil were on the mind of
many (because of fighting and
disease)
oPuritan culture easily accepted
the devil as the source of
evil/wrong in life
Other Explanations
●Teenagers in town were bored and got carried
awayoDancing, flirting, etc. not allowed at all!
oAll of the accusers were teenage girls
●Some of the accusers were jealous peopleoAn easy way to get rid of people they didn’t like!
●General sense of depression in townoNot a lot of wealth/happiness/freedom
The Appeals of Communism
● America’s Great Depression left
people upset about the
American government
oEveryone deserves basics
(food, clothing)
oCommunism 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
oDefeated 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:oThe Soviet Union was its main competition
● And:oThe Soviet Union was Communist
● America and The Soviet Union competed against each other for world power in:oSpace traveloNuclear weapon developmento In effect, government style
Communism came to be seen as
“evil”●1950: Julius and Ethel
Rosenberg arrestedoCharged 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 SickleoWhy is this the symbol
of Communism?
HUAC
●HUAC: House Committee of Un-American
Activities, headed by McCarthyoThis committee questioned Americans who
were suspected of being Communists
oThey 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:oAdmit to being a Communist and tell McCarthy names
of other people who attended Communist meetingsoORoRefuse to admit anything (or rat out others) and be
blacklisted Can’t get work if blacklisted!
The Crucible and Communism
●Allegory: work of literature that tells one
story on the surface while referring to
another subtextuallyoComparing 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 1952. 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