Analysis of Context in 'The Crucible'

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The Crucible

Context

The crucible was influenced by witchcraft and witch trials and the effect this had on communities. The events in The Crucible are largely based on the town of Salem in 1962.

During Arthur Miller’s life (playwright and author of The Crucible), he encountered various situations that made him feel obliged to write a play expressing the situation of witchery.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in America in the early 1950’s just after the Second World War. McCarthyism was a major topic of debate at that time and Millers play reflected this and was thought of as a political Parable. McCarthyism was a movement of anti communism in America from late 1940’s will around 1958. The Organisation called the House UN-American Activities Committee had the power to seek out individuals or groups of people who where plotting against the state. The result of these investigations was harsh treatment to those who where believed to be communists, many lost jobs and where imprisoned. Miller himself was eventually brought before the court and forced to confess to doubting the state. Miller found all these events very much related to the witch trials in Salem two centuries before hand, and decided this would be the basis to the storyline of The Crucible.

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Salem in 1692 is portrayed to be a bitter place. A place of old grudges between neighbours and untold secrets. Weather this is historically correct is another matter, but the information that Miller gathered when researching the witch trials in 1692 certainly suggests this. Salem is a small town in Massachusetts and records suggest that at a point in that year some girls fell ill. Because of the highly religious background and community often illness and unknown disease was unnatural and often blamed on the devil or supernatural causes. Because the village bore so many grudges and secrets these where ...

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