The Crucible Arthur Miller S5/6 Int 2 Drama Study

1. The Crucible Arthur Miller S5/6 Int 2 Drama Study

2. Learning Intention We are learning to: Success Criteria: I can apply my knowledge of the Salem Witch trials and McCarthyism to my reading of the text in order to enhance my knowledge and understanding. • Relate the play to contemporary knowledge and experiences. Achieving this S.C. means you are on target!

3. The Crucible: Historical Context The Salem Witch Trials & McCarthyism

4. BBC Video Clip • http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/the-crucible-historical-and-political-context/2511.html This clip provides a valuable insight into the reasons why Arthur Miller created The Crucible.

5. The context of 'The Crucible' • The Crucible examines the witch hunts that took place in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts. When he wrote it, Arthur Miller was already a successful playwright. The play also subtly refers to the 'communist witch hunts' in the USA in the 1950s.

6. During the 17th century in Salem, Massachusetts, there really were witch hunts very much like those depicted in this play.

7. The Salem witch trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft - the Devil's magic - and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoiaandinjustice, and it continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later.

8. The playwright • Arthur Miller was born in 1915 in New York. His Jewish parents were both immigrants from Poland. They came to America at a time when people were looking for the economic and religious freedom of 'the American dream'. Did you know? Arthur Miller was married to Hollywood starlet Marilyn Munroe from 1956 – 1961?

9. Miller's father ran his own tailor's business and the family were very well off. In the 1920s there was a massive financial crisis in America, which is often referred to as the Wall Street Crash (Wall Street was where the New York financial and banking centre was located).

10. The Miller family was ruined and the impact of the loss on Miller's parents, especially his father, made a big impression on the young Arthur. He saw it as a failure of the American dream and of the economic system (known as capitalism) on which his family had built their hopes of a better life.

11. Miller graduated from the University of Michigan in 1938 where he had begun to write well-reviewed plays. Miller's plays were much more 'serious' and political than the norm. His play Death of a Salesman won the Pulitzer prize in 1949.

12. During the 1950s America went through a period of intense fear of the spread of the anti-capitalist economic system called communism. The government organised an investigation to identify communists and drive them out of positions of influence. This is often referred to as the 'communist witch hunt'.

13. Ayoung Senator named Joseph McCarthy made a public accusation that more than two hundred “card-carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States government. Though eventually his accusations were proven to be untrue, and he was censured by the Senate for unbecoming conduct, his zealous campaigning ushered in one of the most repressive times in 20th-century American politics.

14. McCarthy’s accusations heightened the political tensions of the times. • This paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers, many of whom were labelled communist sympathisers and were unable to continue working. Some had their passports taken away, while others were jailed for refusing to give the names of other communists. • The trials, which were well publicised, could often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated accusation.

15. Among those well-known artists accused of communist sympathies or called before the committee wereLena Horne,Arthur Miller, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Chaplin and Group Theatre members Clifford Odets, Elia Kazan, and Stella Adler. In all, three hundred and twenty artists were blacklisted, and for many of them this meant the end of exceptional and promising careers.

16. Several of Miller's writer and theatre friends, people who might be thought to influence public opinion, were brought before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. When Miller’s friend was investigated by the Committee, the tension between the power of the state and freedom of the individual became the major theme of his next play, The Crucible. Miller himself appeared before the committee in 1956.

17. The Crucible portrays witch hunting as something deep within the origins of the American character. Miller shows it arising out of a wide variety of motives, including unfounded fear, jealousy and revenge, an ugly and unflattering image of America which was far from the way that Americans liked to see themselves.

18. The Crucible went from stage to screen in 1996 with now 3 time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis playing John Proctor. The film led to Miller being nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Did you know? While making the film version of the play, the now revered actor Daniel Day-Lewis met frequently with Arthur Miller and he in turn introduced him to his daughter, Rebecca. The pair have been married since 1996 (the year the film was made) and have two children.