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, 1937A View from the Bridge, 1955 A Memory of Two Mondays, 1955After the Fall, 1964 Incident at Vichy, 1965The Price, 1969 The American Clock, 1980 Up From Paradise, 1974 The Archbishop's Ceiling, 1976Playing for Time, 1986 The Golden Years, 1990The Last Yankee, 1991 The Ride Down Mt. Morgan, 1991Broken Glass, 1994 Mr. Peters' Connections, 1998Resurrection Blues, 2002 Finishing the Picture, 2004

The Man Who Had All the Luck, 1944The Creation of the World and Other Business, 1972Elegy 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.”

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.

How could you have been named?

Careers endedAfter 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?