Arthur Miller

1915-2005

Let you look sometimes for the goodness in me, and judge me not.
Biography
 Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan, New York
City, in 1915.
 University of Michigan for Journalism and English.
 On Aug 5th 1940 he married his college sweetheart,
Mary Slattery.
 Miller was exempted from military service during
WWII because of a high-school football injury to his
left kneecap.
Miller “the man who had all the luck”
 Married Marilyn Monroe in 1956
 Divorced in 1961
 Miller married photographer Inge Morath 1962
 Had two children
 Their son Daniel was born with down syndrome and
was consequently institutionalized and excluded
from the Millers' personal life at Miller's insistence.
Broadway successes
 1947 All My Sons
 Won Drama Critic's award for Best Play
 1949 Death of A Salesman
 Won the Pulitzer Prize
 1953 The Crucible
 Not successful at first, but later became his most
produced play
He also wrote…

Honors at Dawn, 1936 No Villain: They Too Arise, 1937

A View from the Bridge, 1955
After the Fall, 1964
The Price, 1969
Up From Paradise, 1974
Playing for Time, 1986
The Last Yankee, 1991
Broken Glass, 1994
Resurrection Blues, 2002
A Memory of Two Mondays, 1955
Incident at Vichy, 1965
The American Clock, 1980
The Archbishop's Ceiling, 1976
The Golden Years, 1990
The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, 1991
Mr. Peters' Connections, 1998
Finishing the Picture, 2004

The Man Who Had All the Luck, 1944

The Creation of the World and Other Business, 1972
Elegy for a Lady (and) Some Kind of Love Story, produced together
under title, Two Way Mirror, 1983
The Crucible – awards and theme
 Received Antoinette Perry Award
 Won the 1953 Tony Award for Best Play.
 In the play he expressed his faith in the ability
of an individual to resist conformist pressures.
 He used a theme common to many of his
plays: the need for moral responsibility in
families and society.
His Death
 February 10, 2005.
 Asked "Do you ever think about what your legacy
would be?”
He replied, "Some good parts for actors.”
 He will always be remembered by the many actors
who played those good parts and the audiences who
appreciated how the plays worked to "deal with
essential dilemmas of what it means to be human."
MILLER’S COMMENTS ON THE HISTORICAL
ACCURACY OF THIS PLAY

 This play is not history in the sense in which the word is used
by the academic historian.
However, I believe that the reader will discover here the
essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful
chapters in human history. The fate of each character is
exactly that of his historical model, and there is no one in the
drama who did not play a similar-and in some cases exactly
the same-role in history.
As for the characters of the persons, little is known about
most of them except what may be surmised from a few
letters, the trial record, certain broadsides written at the time,
and references to their conduct in sources of varying
reliability. (note on transcript comment about Abigail)
A Crucible cru-ci-ble n.
 A container made of a substance that can
resist great heat, for melting, fusing or
calcining ores metals, etc.
 The hollow at the bottom of an ore furnace,
where the molten metal collects
 A severe test or trial
The Crucible

Historical & Cultural Context Information

The Crucible is an ALLEGORY
 Written about US events in the 1600’s as an
allegory to the US events of the 1950’s
 Allegory: The representation of abstract ideas or
principles by characters, figures, or events in
narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.
 Example: Animal Farm is an allegory for the
Russian revolution of 1917
 In this case, the story is about the Salem witch
trials of the 1690s, but warns of history repeating
these tragic events as it did in the 1950s.
The Red Scare
 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.
The House Un-American
Activities Committee (HUAC)
An investigative
committee of the US
House of
Representatives was
authorized to get
information on “how
foreign subversive
propaganda entered
the U.S. and the
organizations that
were spreading it.”
The Cold War in America
 At the end of World War II, the United States and the USSR emerged as
the world’s major powers.
 They also became involved in the Cold War, a state of hostility (short of
direct military conflict) between the two nations.
 Many Americans feared not only Communism around the world but also
disloyalty at home.
 Suspicion about Communist infiltration of the government
 A lot of Americans thought the Soviets got the atomic bomb by using
spies. Even worse, these spies supposedly were hardly ever Russians
themselves, but often American citizens, the kind of people you see every
day on the street and hardly even notice.
 A Communist could be anybody. To many people in 1953, a Communist
was just as scary as the bogeyman, and a lot more real.
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy was a US senator from 1947-1957.

‘McCarthyism’ refers to his hysterical, politically-motivated smear

campaign, fueled by Cold War fears of communism, but based largely on
unsubstantiated rumors and accusations.

He leveled accusations at many prominent people such as actors and other

US politicians.

McCarthy died in 1957 of acute hepatitis thought to be a result of

alcoholism.

He is likely the inspiration for the character Danforth (the Deputy-

Governor) from The Crucible.
Senator Joseph McCarthy
- How it happened…
On February 9, 1950 …
Senator McCarthy declared that the State
Department, with the full knowledge of the
Secretary of State, had become infested with
Reds
He whips America into a frenzy
I have a list.
 In February of 1950, 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 names”—to snitch on
those who were Communists
or believed to be Communist
sympathizers.
The Hollywood Ten
 The HUAC established that
Communist beliefs were being
spread via mass media.
 At this time, movies were becoming
more liberal, and therefore, were
believed to be a threat; many felt that
Hollywood was attempting to
propagandize Communist beliefs.
 In September of 1947, the HUAC
subpoenaed nineteen witnesses (most
of whom were actors, directors, and
writers) who had previously refused
to comment, claiming their Fifth
Amendment rights.
 Eleven of the seventeen were called
to testify; only one actually spoke on
the stand—the remaining ten refused
to speak and were labeled the
“Hollywood Ten.”
The Hollywood Ten
 These industry workers called before the HUAC to
testify about their ties to communism knew they had
three options.
1. They could claim they were not and never had been
members of the Communist Party
2. They could admit or claim membership and then be
forced to name other members
3. Or they could refuse to answer any questions (which is
the choice they made under their 5th amendment right).
Even if you had no Communism in your own past, you could
easily be caught up in the proceedings – if you knew
someone who did. That was more than enough to get you in
trouble with Senator McCarthy and similar investigators.
Arthur Miller did. What if you were completely innocent?

Imagine what it was like being called in to testify. McCarthy

or his aides might say, “Are you now, or have you ever
been, a member of the Communist Party?” No.
“Do you know anyone who is or was a Communist?” No.
McCarthy holds up some cards. “We have the names of
people who have already confessed, and you are
named.”
 How could you have been named?
You say you don’t know, but you can tell that no one believes you. Maybe
you’re not so innocent after all, you think. Have you signed anything, donated
any money, said anything to anybody that might sound suspicious? You
begin to feel guilty either way: even if you don’t have any Communist
connections, you’ve done nothing to stop the spread of this evil.

You did it; it’s your fault; their questions seem to say. And they won’t let you
go until you make up for it in some way. So you tell them about your friend
who’s never home on Tuesday nights, or anyone you know who’s been
acting a little odd the last few weeks. You name names, and they let you go.

And afterward no one wants anything to do with you. You were called in to
testify, there had to be a reason. You must be a Communist, or at least have
been working for them. You lose your friends, your job, sometimes even your
family.

Once you were called in, there was no way out.

Careers ended
After the “Hollywood Ten” refused to speak, executives
from the movie industry met to decide how best to
handle the bad press. They decided to:
 suspend all ten without pay

 establish a “black list” of suspicious persons

 ask actors to identify suspicious persons

The Communist “witch-hunt” ruined the careers of

hundreds, and ruined the reputation of hundreds
more.
Who got in trouble?
 Lucille Ball
 Walt Disney
 Charlie Chaplin
 Arthur Miller
Miller’s involvement
 The Crucible is first
performed in 1953.
 He writes it after his friend
Elia Kazan “names names”
to the committee.
 In 1956, he is called before
the committee to testify
and refuses to provide
them with any information.
 (He marries Marilyn
Monroe this same year.)
Why does it matter?
 “Fear doesn't travel well; just as it can
warp judgment, its absence can diminish
memory’s truth. What terrifies one
generation is likely to bring only a
puzzled smile to the next” Arthur Miller
From the critics…
 “The Crucible is a play
about the seductive nature
of power…”
 “… a play about the
redemption of an
individual and, through the
individual, of a society.”
 “This is a drama about an
entire community betrayed
by a Dionysian surrender
to the irrational”
The play’s success now owes little to the political and
social context in which it was written. It stands, instead,
as a study of

 The debilitating power of guilt,

 The seductions of power,
 The flawed nature of the individual and of the
society to which the individual owes allegiance.
 It stands as a testimony to the ease with which we
betray those very values essential to our survival, but
also the courage with which some men and women
can challenge what seems to be a ruling orthodoxy.
Sound familiar?
 What issues or situations in the US today
sound similar to the red scare of the 1950’s?