Transcript The Crucible: Historical Context

Arthur Miller’s
The Crucible
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Miller Background
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Oct. 17, 1915 – Feb. 10, 2005
• Died of heart failure
Wrote:
• Death of a Salesman (1949)
• All My Sons (1947)
• The Crucible (1953)
• Many others….
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Arthur Miller
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(1915-2005)
Born in New York City to Jewish
immigrants
Miller’s father was a successful
women’s clothing manufacturer
The family business failed when
he still at school.
Miller’s mother was forced to
sell off her possessions to keep
the family afloat.
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1930s
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Worked at a bakery delivering rolls at
4:00am.
Worked at a radio station
Later worked for his father, who
attempted to rebuild his clothing
business.
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Biography
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Depression hits in 1929, which has a great impact on
Miller’s eventual career.
Never very studious in school up to this point, he works
odd jobs to save up money to go to college.
Enrolled in U. Michigan in 1934 and wrote several
plays—his first play won an award, which is pretty
amazing, as he had only seen two plays in his life.
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Biography
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After college, he worked in radio in
NYC, writing scripts for radio plays.
His first play wasn’t very good (had
only 4 performances).
His second produced play was All My
Sons (1947), which received the NY
Drama Critics Circle Award, a
production directed by Elia Kazan.
His third play was Death of a
Salesman.
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McCarthyism
and the
Red Scare
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Miller and Communism
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In the 1940s, Miller had become impressed by
various leftist efforts to improve conditions in
business, politics, and the arts.
After WW II he participates actively in liberal
causes that come under increasing suspicion as
being supported by Communists.
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House Un-American Activities
HUAC
Committee
(HUAC) Formed in 1938
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Became the most prominent and active government committee
for anti-communism
Started by investigating the activities of German-American
Nazi’s in WWII
1938 began investigating communism in the Federal Theatre
Project
Allegations that film stars and leading producers, directors and
writers were Communists dated back at least to 1940, when
the then chairman of (HUAC), Martin Dies, claimed that
Communists were in positions of influence in Hollywood.
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In 1945 Elizabeth Bentley, a
former member of the American
Communist Party, walked into
the New York office of the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
and offered to provide
information about a Soviet spy
ring. Over the next couple of
weeks Bentley identified more
than 80 people she claimed
were spies.
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“Have you now or have you ever
HUAC
been a member of the Communist
Party of the United States?”
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10 of the first entertainment
industry witnesses refused to
cooperate, citing 5th
amendment rights
…nor shall be
compelled in any
criminal case to be a
witness against
himself …
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Protests marches
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1947- began
investigating Hollywood
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11 writers and directors become known collectively
as 'the Hollywood Ten', plus the German dramatist
Bertolt Brecht—were charged with contempt of
Congress for refusing to co-operate with the
Committee's enquiries. Despite arguing that the
First Amendment of the Constitution gave them that
right and protection, the Ten were given jail
sentences of six to 12 months each, Brecht having
left the country the day after his appearance.
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Society bends
Blacklisting
begins
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Nov. 1947
• The Motion Picture Association of America issued the
Waldorf Statement
“We will not
knowingly
employ a
communist…”
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The Cold War – Tension Escalates
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1949
• the Soviet Union tests an atomic bomb
(earlier than U.S. expectations)
• Mao Zedong’s Communist army gains
control of mainland China (even though
we were helping to fund the oppostion)
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The Cold War – Tension Escalates
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1950
• Alger Hiss, a member of the State Department,
found guilty of espionage (though only convicted of
perjury)
• Klaus Fuch confessed to espionage while working
on the Manhattan Project
• Julius and Ethel Rosenberg arrested and executed
for stealing atomic secrets for the Soviets
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Miller in the 1950s
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1950: McCarthy claims the
government and the arts
(especially the motion picture
industry) are full of Communists
and begins to conduct hearings
asking people, “Are you a
Communist” and seeking to get
people to “name names” of other
Communists.
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Targets of investigation
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Government employees
The entertainment industry
Communist Party of the USA
Educators
Union activists • Helped organise labour unions
• Opposed fascism early on
• Peak membership in 1942- 50,000
members
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J Edgar Hoover
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Nearly doubled the number of FBI
employees between 1946 and 1952
Insisted on keeping informers a
secret
Many of the accused were never told
who accused them or of what exactly
they were accused
Head of the FBI
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1935-1972
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Hoover created a division to carry out illegal
activities in the name of anti-communism
• Burglary, planting evidence, etc.
• The National Lawyers Guild (one of the few
groups willing to defend accused communists)
had their offices broken into 14 times from 19471951 by the FBI
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Miller’s career in the 1950s
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Had been interested in some time in writing a
play about the Salem Witch Trials, but felt he
couldn’t understand the “climate of fear” and
the “inexplicable darkness” that had produced
the hysteria of Salem in 1692….
Suddenly he could understand it …
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The Crucible as an Allegory
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Written about US events in the 1600’s as an allegory to
the US events of the 1950’s
• Allegory: The representation of abstract ideas or
principles by characters, figures, or events in
narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.
• In other words: When you tell one story to help
represent what is going on with something else
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Miller and the HUAC
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When McCarthy begins to investigate alleged Communists,
Miller becomes concerned that free speech was being
threatened, particularly speech that was critical of the govt.
He writes The Crucible in 1953, believing that the HUAC was
harassing those with unpopular political views and producing a
similar kind of hysteria that existed in Salem in 1692.
He said he wrote the play to expose the process by which “terror
[. . .] was being knowingly planned and consciously engineered.
[. . .] Above all, above all horrors, I saw accepted the notion that
conscience was no longer a private matter but one of state
administration.”
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Whenever we turn over our consciences
to the state (whenever we allow our
government officials to think for us, and
just uncritically go along with what we’re
told), then we’re in trouble.
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The Crucible
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It wasn’t well received (to be expected at
the height of McCarthyism)
“It was as though the whole country had been born anew, without a
memory even of certain elemental decencies which a year or two earlier
no one would have imagined could be altered, let alone forgotten.
Astounded, I watched men pass me by without a nod whom I had known
rather well for years; and again, the astonishment was produced by my
knowledge, which I could not give up, that the terror of these people was
being knowingly planned and consciously engineered… That so interior
and subjective emotion could have been so manifestly created from
without was a marvel to me. It underlies every word of The Crucible.”
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Contemporary Reviews
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Many saw it as a “history lesson” rather than a
commentary on contemporary America:
“In writing of Salem, Mr. Miller attempts no blatant
modern comparisons, beyond stating timeless truths
about guilt and conscience and hysteria and
bandwagon instincts” (NY World Telegram and Sun).
“Some may try to read into it more than we suspect is
there. If there are deep implications in the script for
modern playgoers, we failed to find them.” (NY Daily
Mirror).
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Others saw clear parallels
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“Make no mistake about it: there is fire in what Mr. Miller
has to say, and there is a good bit of sting in his manner
of saying it. [. . .] As Mr. Miller pursues his very clear
contemporary parallel, there are all sorts of relevant
thrusts: the folk who do the final damage are not the
lunatic fringe but the gullible pillars of society; the courts
bog down into travesty in order to comply with the popular
mood; slander becomes the weapon of opportunists; [. . .]
freedom is possible at the price of naming one’s
associates in crime; [. . .] Much of this—not all—is an
accurate reading of our own turbulent age” (NY Herald
Tribune).
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Miller before the HUAC
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Members of the HUAC seem to have
interpreted the play as a contemporary
political statement and, perhaps, an
attack upon them personally.
In 1954, Miller was refused a passport to
go to Belgium to attend the Belgian
premiere of The Crucible.
His passport application was “rejected
under regulations denying passports to
persons believed to be supporting the
Communist movement, whether or not they
are members of the Communist party.”
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Preemptive Strike
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1956-
• Miller was called before the House Committee
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on Un-American Activities
He was widely known to have advocated
principles of social justice and equality of
classes
He was disillusioned by the reality of
communism in the Soviet Union
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Quizzed about his ties to Communism,
Miller denied ever being “under
Communist discipline” but did admit to studying Marxism at
one point a number of years earlier and of attending a
meeting sponsored by the Communist Party in 1947.
Asked to name names of other writers at that meeting, he
refused, was found in contempt of Congress, was fined
$500 and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. He appealed
and the sentence was later reversed.
Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, Walt Disney among others
accused. Those who refused to name others were put on
the blacklist. The blacklist was lifted in 1960
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