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WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CONTEXT OF THIS FAMOUS PLAY
of Americas most renowned playwrights He was born in New York, and grew up in Brooklyn As a child, he played football and baseball and read adventure stories wasnt particularly literary
in an auto parts factory so he could afford to go to college, where he decided to become a journalist Graduated from the University of Michigan in 1938, went back to New York and started writing for radio. Married his first of three wives, Mary, in 1940
His first play on Broadway was The Man Who Had All The Luck it ran for only four performances He published a novel in 1945 Focus. In 1947, his next play All My Sons was much more successful In 1949, Death of a Salesman premiered, and this brought him worldwide fame
In the 1950s, he was caught up in the furore surrounding Communist influence in all facets of American life, including the arts (MORE ON THIS LATER) His experiences during this time inspired The Crucible It wasnt initially a success on Broadway, but has since become his most produced play.
In 1956 he married actress Marilyn Monroe. They split in 1961. He wrote some screenplays, but went back to writing for theatre in the mid 1960s. He married again in 1962. He was still writing in the 1990s, including the screenplay for the film adaptation of The Crucible Miller died in 2005
The Puritans
Okay, now you know a little bit about the author
Background
First, some background
THE MIDDLE AGES
Lots of wars
Background
The authority of Kings
and the Church was being questioned
Background
In Italy, Switzerland, Germany, France and other parts
of Europe, hundreds of witches were killed.
The Puritans
So back to the Puritans
The Puritans
They firmly believed:
in the Bible; they felt that it revealed the Lords word, and
only through it does he directly communicate to people. They believed man could do nothing to be saved salvation was a gift that could only come from God Your soul was predestined from birth you were either going to Heaven or Hell. They constantly searched for hints as to what path they were on.
The Puritans
Women were considered subservient to men, and
women were more likely to consort with the Devil than men
Map of Massachusetts
2 kids, Elizabeth (Betty) Parris, and Abigail Williams, had fits a doctor suggested witchcraft as a cause The girls, under pressure from various members of the community, accused 3 women of witchcraft. Other accusations followed, people were arrested, imprisoned and sentenced to death.
Evidence was generally just testimony from those afflicted basically, one persons word against anothers. Almost all those who died were hung, although Giles Corey, an elderly farmer, was pressed to death large stones were placed on his body until he died.
The last trial took place in 1693. Theres no one reason why it ended. Today, in Salem, there are numerous museums and memorials dedicated to providing information about this unique period in history Check out www.salemweb.com
Numerous reasons have been offered since to explain the original symptoms the girls showed, including hysteria, hallucinations brought on by food poisoning, and various diseases. There is also no one reason as to why things got so out of control desire for land and power, strict religious beliefs, and a tightly controlled society are just some of the explanations.
Why do we care.
So Why did Arthur Miller, almost 400 years after these events took place, decide to write about them?
Basically, he saw a strong parallel between the witch-hunts in Salem, and what was happening in America in the 1950s. However, this time, the hunt was for Communists.
Back in the 20th century, there were two world superpowers: the USA and the USSR. In 1946, the USSR acquired nuclear weapons. This was effectively the start of the Cold War between the USSR and the USA an undeclared war not of bloody fighting but of threat and counter threat.
Capitalism v Communism
America represented the ideology of capitalism, while the USSR represented communism. In 1949, China became a Communist country, and American paranoia about Communism reached crisis proportions.
Fear of Communism
In America, and in Australia to a lesser extent, the common perception was that the Communists were an empire of Evil. The struggle was for control of trouble spots. On one side were the good (the US, with its freedom loving, democratic traditions), while on the other, was the bad (the USSR and China, with repressive police states, human rights abuses and lack of freedom). This is how it was portrayed in the Western media.
McCarthy
Into an American society that was extremely paranoid that the Communists were going to take over the world, a Senator named Joseph McCarthy rose to prominence.
McCarthy
He made a speech in February 1950, where he claimed to have a list of more than 200 Communist party members who were working for the US State Department. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKWGoCqu57Y The attempt to weed out Communists had been going on before McCarthy, and continued after him, but he became symbolic of the era, and his involvement coined the term McCarthyism.
This whole period of United States history was characterised by suspicion, paranoia and hysteria. People were encouraged to turn on each other, and to name suspected Communists.
This committee was formed in 1938, and its focus soon shifted to identifying Communists. Its most notorious investigation was into the Hollywood film industry. Actors, writers, and directors were called to testify about the Communist beliefs of themselves and their colleagues.
Initially, ten guys refused to answer under the First Amendment. They were sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress.
Blacklists
All of this investigation and suspicion led to blacklists. No-one every really admitted that these lists existed, but what it meant was that hundreds of people working in the entertainment industry were denied work because they had been accused of being Communists, or refused to cooperate with inquiries.
Consequences
Hundreds were imprisoned Tens of thousands lost their jobs Some of these people did have a past or present connection with the Communist Party, however, may not have meant any harm to the United States at all. For most, the evidence linking them to the Communist Party was dubious at best.
The Crucible
Arthur Miller was in the middle of all of this hysteria about Communism. He saw clear parallels between that and the hysteria over witches that had existed 4 centuries earlier. He wrote The Crucible as an allegory to illustrate how ridiculous the paranoia about Communism in the US was.
So
Its really two stories in one: One: a dramatisation of the real-life events of Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1690s and Two: a comment on how ludicrous the hunt for Communists in the 1950s was. Through this play, he makes clear comments about American government and society.