Arthur Miller and The Crucible
When Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” was written, there was a lot of similarities between the witch trials in Salem and what was going on at that time – the 1950’s communist influx in America. “The Crucible” may have been written to show America that the trials and ‘hunts’ that were happening to find communists were mirrored by the witch trials in Salem 1692. Arthur read a book called ‘The devil in Massachusetts’ which led his curiosity to learn more about the trials in Salem. When Miller researched the trials, he drew accurate details about the characters that originally took part in them, making the story line believable as he kept names of the characters and the style of language that they would have used in Salem, 1692.
In 1950’s America, a senator called Joseph McCarthy was leading an anti-communist committee all over America to ‘hunt’ for communists and put them on trial for being ‘un-American’. As America was going through a period of intense fear and paranoia of the spread of the anti-capitalist economic system called communism, this is due to the alliance between the Soviet Union and America unravelling once they had defeated their common enemy. The only way for an accused person to save themselves from being put on trial is to accuse someone else. This led to a frenzy of accusations. Led by McCarthy special congressional committees conducted highly controversial investigations intended to root out Communist sympathizers in the United States. Similar to the witch trials in Salem, the accused were encouraged to confess even if they were innocent to escape punishment. People then realised that to save their careers and potential jobs they had to cooperate with the HUAC (the House of Un-American Activities Committee).
When the play was first performed many saw it as an attack on McCarthyism. Some of Miller’s friends that were writers and worked in theatre were brought to the attention of the HUAC due to the huge influence that they gave to the public. some of the punishments included execution the tension of Miller’s play, The crucible, caused the state to be concerned and so Miller was then taken in for a trial in 1956 and would not confess anything or accuse anyone of being a communist to save himself, this mirrors with Giles Corey who was pressed when he didn’t accuse anyone of being with the devil or confess that he had sold himself to the devil.
Although one of the only differences between Salem 1692 and 1950’s America is that communists actually did exist whereas witches in Salem did not exist although the people at that time would have strong beliefs that they did. Miller says ‘this play is not history’, although he took parts of the trials he wants people to recognise that this is not exactly what happened in the trials. I believe that the message that Miller was trying to portray was that the hysteria that builds up in a community can tear it apart and create a mistrusting and jealous community, which is seen in both 1950’s America and in Salem 1692.