Twentieth Century Drama 'The Crucible'

conspiracy. These few were not teen-age girls, but supposedly responsible,

public- minded politicians supported by ordinary citizens in society.

This period was known as the McCarthy Era after Senator Joseph McCarthy

(1909-1957), a leader of Communism. Arthur Miller, one of the country's

most prominent playwrights, saw a similarity between the communist hunt of

the 1950's and the witch-hunt of 1692. Prompted by his view, he wrote 'The

Crucible'. Despite the 17th-century setting of the play, it can be judged both

as historical drama and as a criticism of society at that time.

Arthur Miller's intention in writing 'The Crucible' was to show the similarities

of Salem in 1692 and the United States in the mid-1950's when the anti-

communist hysteria had reached its greatest pitch. There is no doubt that

there are similarities between the two periods. During the McCarthy era it was

considered honorable (at least by some) to accuse someone of communist

association and almost as honorable to confess to such an accusation, even

when the evidence was woefully insubstantial. In some cases, merely to be

accused was often equivalent to establishing guilt, and men were often fired

from their jobs before their cases had been tried. Justice was abused in the

name of law, and good people, seeing this, were afraid, and ashamed. To

defend the accused led to guilt by association with them. It was against

people's principles not to defend them. You could argue that people

genuinely feared the threat of communism and therefore simply saw it as

doing their duty to accuse them of so-called communist activities. Just as in

Salem, hysteria and Justice were the problems. The girls where accusing

other people in the village of witchcraft, they were abusing Justice. Abigail

tried to use her powers of being able to accuse people of witchcraft to get to

John Procter. She did this by accusing Elizabeth (John Procter wife) of

witchcraft. The accused would rather be hanged than 'Baden' their name.

Miller himself was found to be communist and had to appear before the

house of Un-American activities. There was a real threat to writers, artists and

filmmakers - they were often blacklisted and therefore unable to get work.

Arthur Miller was born on 17 October 1915 in New York City. Miller

Graduated from high school in 1932 there was no money to send him to

university. He took various jobs to earn money to go to college .

A 'Crucible' is an earthen pot for melting metals. Arthur Miller's play is about

the early European settlers on the east coast of America trying to establish a

new home for themselves after fleeing from religious persecution in Europe.

They are a very mixed lot, from all kinds of backgrounds, put together into

the 'melting pot'. The melting pot is also seen by some as the means by

which we reduce something to a purer form. So, the witch-hunters might be

seen as pursuing the hunt for purity and putting the people into the melting

pot to make them purer.

The importance name in 'The Crucible'