The Crucible

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The Crucible

• By Arthur Miller

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The Crucible

• Have you ever been falsely accused and punished?
  No one believed you?

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The Crucible

• Well, what if the punishment were DEATH?

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The Crucible

• I believe that the reader will discover here the
  essential nature of one of the strangest and most
  awful chapters in human history.

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The Crucible

• Arthur Miller wrote this of his classic play
  about the witch hunts and trials in 17th century
  Salem, Massachusetts.

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Historical Context The Red Scare and McCarthy
Trials

• Shortly after the end of World War I, a Red
  Scare took hold of the nation. Named after the
  red flag of the USSR (now Russia), the Reds
  were seen as a threat to the democracy of the
  United States. Fear, paranoia, and hysteria
  gripped the nation, and many innocent people were
  questioned and then jailed for expressing any
  view which was seen as anti-Democratic or
  anti-American.

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Historical Context The Red Scare and McCarthy
Trials

• In February of 1950, a Republican senator from
  Wisconsin named Joseph McCarthy claimed to have a
  list of over 200 card-carrying members of the
  Communist party. By 1951, a new flourish of
  accusations began and a new wave were subpoenaed
  to name namesto snitch on those who were
  Communists or believed to be Communist
  sympathizers. Later, the terms McCarthy Trials
  and McCarthyism were coined, which described the
  anti-Communist movement and trials of the 1950s.

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Millers troubles began in 1950. After directing
a production of Henrik Ibsens An Enemy of the
People, Miller began getting negative attention
for his very public political and social
commentary.
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Historical Context The Red Scare and McCarthy
Trials

• Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, after
  witnessing first-hand the modern witch-hunt that
  had taken place in the United States. Miller
  wrote the controversial play as an allegory, a
  play which represents something much deeper. In
  this case, the story is about the Salem witch
  trials of the 1690s but also warns of history
  repeating the tragic events of the 1950s.

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• In 1953 The Crucible opened on Broadway,
  depicting a deliberate parallel between the Salem
  Witch Trials and the Communist Red Scare that
  America was experiencing at the time. This
  production brought more suspicion onto Miller at
  a very unstable time in American history.

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Arthur Miller

• That same year, he divorced his wife and married
  actress and American icon Marilyn Monroe
  however, his marriage to Monroe did not last
  longthey divorced in 1961.

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Arthur Miller

• Arthur Miller died of heart failure in February
  of 2005 at his Connecticut home. He was 89 years
  old.

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What Do I Need to Know?

• Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible?
• What is an allegory? A story, picture, or poem
  which has a hidden meaning
• What is a crucible? A place or occasion of
  severe test or trial

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The Crucible

• Based on historical people and real events,
  Millers drama is a searing portrait of a
  community caught up by hysteria.

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Hysteria

• a state of mind, one of unmanage-able fear or
  emotional excesses.

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The Crucible

• In the rigid theocracy of Salem, rumors that
  women are practicing witchcraft stirs up the
  towns most basic fears and suspicions.

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THEOCRACY

• Government by religious leaders in accordance
  with divine law.

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The Crucible

• When a young girl accuses Elizabeth Proctor of
  being a witch, self-righteous church leaders and
  townspeople insist that Elizabeth be brought to
  trial.

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The Crucible

• The ruthlessness of the prosecutors and the
  eagerness of neighbor to testify against neighbor
  shows the destructive power of socially
  sanctioned violence.

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The Crucible

• Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller
  uses to reflect the anti-communist hysteria
  inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthys
  witch-hunts in the United States.

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TERMS

• OF COURSE THERE ARE TERMS! GET YOUR HANDOUT!!

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TERMS

• McCarthyism The extreme opposition to communism
  shown by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and his
  supporters in the 1940s and 1950s.

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MCCARTHYISM

• Note McCarthyism has become a general term for
  the hysterical investigation of a government's
  opponents or the publicizing of accusations
  against these opponents without sufficient
  evidence to support the charges.

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A CITY ON THE HILL
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A CITY ON THE HILL

• City upon a hill is a phrase from the parable of
  Salt and Light in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. In
  Matthew 514, he tells his listeners, "You are
  the light of the world. A city that is set on a
  hill cannot be hidden".

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A CITY ON THE HILL

• John Winthrop used the phrase "City upon a Hill"
  to describe the new settlement, with "the eies of
  all people" upon them. And with those words, he
  laid a foundation for a new world. These new
  settlers certainly represented a new destiny for
  this land.

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CHARACTERIZATION
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CHARACTERIZATION

• All of the techniques that writers use to create
  characters.

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CHARACTERIZATION

• Terms Associated with Characterization
• 1. character trait  a characters personality a
  trait is not a physical description of a
  character.

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CHARACTERIZATION

• 2. direct characterization

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CHARACTERIZATION

• 2. direct characterization 
• the author directly states a characters traits
  or makes direct comments about a characters
  nature.

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CHARACTERIZATION

• 3. indirect characterization

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CHARACTERIZATION

• 3. indirect characterization  
• the author does not directly state a
  characters traits instead the reader draws
  conclusions and discovers a characters traits
  based upon clues provided by the author.

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CONFLICT
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CONFLICT

• The tension or problem in the story a struggle
  between opposing forces.

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CONTEXT

• The whole situation, background, or environment
  relevant to a particular event, personality,
  creation, etc.

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IRONY
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IRONY

• A contrast between what is expected and what
  actually exists or happens.
• THERE ARE THREE!!

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POINT OF VIEW
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POINT OF VIEW

• Perspective from which a story is told.
• There are three types

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THEME

• TONE

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THEME

• The main lesson of the story.
• TONE
• The authors attitude towards the material.

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DIALOGUE

• The words characters speak. Advances the plot
  and reveals the characters personalities and
  backgrounds.

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STAGE DIRECTION

• Indicates where a scene takes place, what it
  should look like, and how the characters should
  move and speak. Usually set in italic type to
  distinguish them from dialogue.

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Credits

• ingecenter.org
• oddpod.com
• commons.wikimedia.org
• www.encyclopedia.com/topic/?Theocracy.aspx
• westwardcoc.com
• punditkitchen.com
• goliathflores.blogspot.com
• dictionary.reference.com/browse/?McCarthyism
• classiclit.about.com/cs/articles/a/aa_?cityuponhil
  l.htm
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_upon_a_Hill
• www.enotes.com/literary-terms/?characterization
• Websters New World Dictionary
• www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_?elements.h
  tm
• The Crucuible Penguin classics
• Prentice Hall, pg 1232

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Sources

• The Crucible Literature Guide. Secondary
  Solutions, 2006.
• The Crucible. Latitudes. Perfection Learning,
  1995.
• Christopher Bigsbys Introduction in the Penguin
  Books version of The Crucible, 1995.
• www.troyhigh.com/ourpages/auto/2007/8/29/.../