The Crucible

1
The Crucible

• By Arthur Miller

2
Background History on Arthur Miller

• Born 1915 / Died in 2005
• Playwright best known for Death of a Salesman
  (1949) and The Crucible (1953)
• Endured many hardships in his life that inspired
  his writing

3
Arthur Millers Hardships

• He and his family were forced to move from their
  home in Manhattan to a more simplistic house in
  Brooklyn because of the Great Depression
• Forced to drop out of high school to work as a
  shipping clerk in a warehouse

4
Arthur Miller (A fighter)

• Didnt let the conditions of society bring him
  down
• Persuaded University of Michigan to accept him
• Used savings to pay for 1st year

5
Beginning of His Writing Career

• Began writing in college
• Continued to write after college even though he
  worked a variety of jobs
• In 1947 his play All My Sons opened on Broadway
• It was successful he immediately was seen as a
  bright new talent
• 2 years later, won a Pulitzer Prize for Death of
  a Salesman

6
The Crucible

• Written in 1953
• Not received as warmly as Death of a Salesman
  since he used the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692
  as a means of attacking the anti-communist witch
  hunts in Congress

7
The Crucible

• Miller believed that the hysteria surrounding the
  witchcraft trials paralleled the political
  climate of McCarthyism
• McCarthyism Senator Joseph McCarthys obsessive
  quest to uncover Communist party infiltration of
  American institutions