The Crucible

1
The Crucible

• By Arthur Miller
• (1915 2005)

2
Arthur Miller

• Born in New York City
• In high school he was more involved in sports
  than in literature.
• After high school, Miller applied to the
  University of Michigan.
• His grades were not good enough for a
  scholarship.
• The Great Depression left his father unable to
  finance his tuition.

3
Arthur Miller

• He worked in an automobile parts plant for two
  years to earn money for college.
• He eventually enrolled in the University of
  Michigan, and began to write plays to help
  finance his education.
• After graduation, he returned to NY and earned a
  living writing radio scripts.

4
Arthur Miller

• Millers first Broadway success, All My Sons, was
  produced in 1947 and won the New York Drama
  Critics award for the Best Play.
• Theme The need for moral responsibility in
• families and societies.

5
Arthur Miller

• In 1949, he produced Death of a Salesman.
• He joined the pantheon of the great American
  playwrights.
• Millers next play, The Crucible , was produced
  in 1953.

6
The Crucible

• Plot is about a witch hunt that takes place in
  Salem, Massachusetts
• In that witch hunt, Miller found parallels to
  the Red Hunt being conducted in the 1950s in
  Washington, D.C. by Senator Joseph McCarthy.
• Writers, actors, politicians, etc. were
  summoned to appear before McCarthy to answer the
  question, Are you now or were you ever a
  Communist?
• Those summoned were required to inform on their
  neighbors and friends or be sent to jail.

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The Crucible

• Three years after the production of The
  Crucible in NY, Miller was summoned before a
  congressional committee.
• He admitted to being a guest at Communist
  meetings in the past, but refused to name names
  of others in attendance.
• Miller was found to be in contempt of Congress,
  but his conviction was later overturned by the
  Supreme Court.

8
The Crucible

• The Crucible was not successful in its first
  production.
• Some critics questioned the comparison between
  the old witch hunts and the contemporary hunt for
  Communists in government.
• In a later production, supervised by Miller
  himself, the play ran for over six hundred
  performances.
• It is now Millers most produced play.