The Crucible: Background
The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller and opened on Broadway in 1953.
The United States was entering the “McCarthy Era”.
With the war going badly in Korea and
communist advances in Eastern Europe
and in China, the American public were
genuinely frightened about the possibilities
of internal subversion. McCarthy, as
chairman of the Government Committee
on Operations of the Senate, was in an
ideal position to exploit this situation.
Joe McCarthy
McCarthy investigated various government departments and questioned a
large number of people about their political past. Some people lost their
jobs after they admitted they had been members of the Communist Party.
McCarthy made it clear to the witnesses that the only way of showing that
they had abandoned their left-wing views was by naming other members of
the party.
This witch-hunt and anti-communist hysteria became known as
McCarthyism or The Red Scare.
McCarthy promoted unfounded accusations and suspicions of
communism in many quarters, most prominently within the
entertainment industry through the House Un-American Activities
Committee (HUAC).
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, but 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 Rosenbergs were executed as
Communist spies during the
McCarthy era
Over three hundred other 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 at the time, including Dalton Trumbo and Michael
Wilson). Arthur Miller was one of these blacklisted. The blacklist
prevented these men from receiving screen credit during this time,
until actor Kirk Douglas pushed for Trumbo to receive screen credit
for his adaptation of Spartacus for Stanley Kubrick in 1960, thus
finally breaking the blacklist.
Arthur Miller
(left) and Charlie
Chaplin (right)
were both called
by HUAC
ARTHUR MILLER: A Brief Biography
Arthur Miller was born on October 17, 1915 in New
York City. He was the son of a women’s clothing
company owner who lost his business in the Depression;
the family was forced to move to a smaller home in
Brooklyn.
He began writing at a very early age and by the time
he graduated from the University of Michigan, he
had begun to receive recognition as a playwright.
His play All My Sons (1947) received the Drama Critics’ Circle Award
and his play Death of a Salesman (1949) won the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1953, Miller wrote The Crucible. Miller was concerned about what
was happening in the United States where the “Red Scare”, initiated
and fuelled by Senator Joe McCarthy, had Americans frightened
of their neighbours.
In order to vocalize his criticism, he selected an era in American
history—the Salem Witch trials of 1692—which paralleled the
McCarthy era
Miller was refused a passport by the State Department to attend the opening of
The Crucible in Brussels in 1954. The reason given was, “the applicant was
suspected of being a supporter of the Communist movement.”
He was called upon to testify before the
Committee on Un-American Activities, but
refused to “name names”.
He was convicted of contempt of Congress in
1956.
(He also married Marilyn Monroe in 1956!)
The conviction was overturned by a higher
court in 1958.
Miller’s characters struggle with power conflicts,
personal and social responsibility, the repercussions of
past actions, and the conflict between hope and guilt. He
once said he thought theatre could “change the world”.
The Crucible
The Crucible is a play about religious and political repression. Dissenters are
rooted out, conformity is enforced.
In Salem, a group of young girls had begun accusing various townspeople of
witchcraft. As in the case of being accused of being a communist, the accused
in Salem had a difficult time proving their innocence. As a result, 19 of the
accused died on the gallows, one was “pressed” to death and many others
died in jail.
The
examination of
a witch in
Salem
Miller used actual historical events and people as the basis of his play.
He wrote:
No one can really know what their lives were like. Their creed
forbade anything resembling “vain enjoyment”. They did not
celebrate Christmas and a holiday from work meant only that
they must concentrate even more on prayer.
Salem was peopled by Puritans who were
very religious and strict. They had come to
Massachusetts to escape religious persecution
in England.
The Salem
Environment
The seeds of the hysteria that afflicted Salem Village, Massachusetts were sown
in January 1692 when a group of young girls began to display bizarre behavior.
The tight-knit community was at a loss to explain the convulsive seizures,
blasphemous screaming, and trance-like states that afflicted the youngsters.
The physicians called in to examine the girls could find no natural cause of the
disturbing behavior. If the source of the affliction was not attributable to a
physical malady, the community reasoned that it must be the work of Satan.
Witches had invaded Salem.
The girls’ odd behavior was traced to
the home of Reverend Parris. His
daughter Betty had gone into a trance
for which the doctor had no
explanation.
Reverend Parris
Parris organized prayer meetings and days of fasting in an attempt to
alleviate Betty's symptoms. Parris did what he could to support Betty
and other seemingly afflicted girls, including beating his servant,
Tituba, into confessing, and fanning the flames of witchcraft suspicions
from his pulpit. Once the witchcraft hysteria ran its course,
dissatisfaction with Parris grew and intensified
New Englanders did not invent belief in witchcraft.
The first Papal Bull against witchcraft was issued in
the 15th century, and in England three separate acts
were directed against witches over the next 200
years, making witchcraft a felony, without benefit
of clergy.
•Witches could not shed tears
•They were marked by the Devil—”witchmarks”
•They floated when given the “swimming test”
•They, with the Devil’s aid, could cause love or
hate
•They transferred diseases from person to person
•They drove men and women crazy
•They raised tempests
•They murdered by means of waxen images or voodoo dolls
•They haunted houses
•They caused men and women to be possessed by demons
•They could send their spirits out to their “familiars”
The hanging of Bridget Bishop
Villagers were accused and condemned by virtue of
someone’s testimony that he or she had been
“afflicted”. No actual proof other than someone’s
accusation was required.
Often the accused were asked to “name names” of
others associated with the Devil (similar to the
McCarthy trials)..
The trial of George Jacobs
Girls at the trial
The hanging of George Burroughs
A Scene from one of the trials
Many of the accusations were made by Abigail Williams.
In the play, Miller creates a relationship between Abigail
and John Proctor in order to explain why she accused so
many people.
An accusation put forth by
Abigail Williams
Some who died in Salem…
One of the gravestones
in the Salem memorial
REBECCA NURSE
O Christian Martyr Who for Truth could die
When all about thee Owned the hideous lie!
The world, redeemed from superstition's sway,
Is breathing freer for thy sake today.
--Words written by John Greenleaf Whittier and inscribed
on a monument marking the grave of Rebecca Nurse, one
of the condemned "witches" of Salem.
THE MAN OF IRON
Giles Corey was a wizard strong, a stubborn wretch was he;
And fit was he to hang on high upon the locust tree.
So, when before the Magistrates for trial he did come,
He would no true confession make, but was completely dumb.
"Giles Corey," said the Magistrate, "What hast thou here to plead
To those who now accuse thy sould of crime and horrid deed?"
Giles Corey he said not a word, no single word spoke he.
"Giles Corey," said the Magistrate, "We'll press it out of thee."
They got them then a heavy beam, then laid it on his breast;
They loaded it with heavy stones, and hard upon him pressed.
"More weight," now said this wretched man. "More weight!"
again he cried;
And he did no confession make, but wickedly he died.
--Anonymous (early 18th century
Giles and Martha Corey
This is the gravestone of John Proctor, the protagonist of The Crucible.