Transcript Arthur Miller and McCarthyism: The Crucible Intro

The
Crucible
Written by Arthur Miller
In 1952
Miller’s biography
Born in New York City in 1915
 Dad- owned garment factory
 Mom- schoolteacher
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Arthur involved in high school
sports, not academics
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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
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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)
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“Witch-hunt” was a term used
to refer to un-American
activities
McCarthyism
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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.
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Writers, actors, politicians– and others– were
summoned to appear before McCarthy to answer
the question:
“Are
you now or
were you ever a
Communist?”
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.
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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
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Married Marilyn Monroe in 1956
They divorced in 1961
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Miller later married the renowned photographer Inge
Morath
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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.
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"I do think that most things end badly," he said. "Most
human enterprise disappoints."
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He continued to provoke his audience into questioning
society and authority.