New York His father owned a clothingmanufacturing business and owned a shop he lost everything during The Great Depression His fathers loss impacted Miller and almost all his writing ID: 759964
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Slide1
Arthur Miller1915-2005
He was born in
New York
.
His father owned a clothing-manufacturing business and owned a shop; he lost everything during
The Great Depression
.
His father’s loss
impacted
Miller and almost all his writing.
He did odd-jobs after high school to earn money for college.
Slide2Miller . . .
He graduated from the University of Michigan with an
English degree
and a desire to write
drama
.
After several “flops”, he eventually gained fame through several of his plays.
Slide3Did you know?
Miller was married to legendary actress....
Marilyn Monroe
Slide4Trouble Rears Its Head . . .
In the 1950s, headed by Joseph McCarthy, Congress established the
House Un-American Activities Committee
(HUAC) in response to the fear of communism (a.k.a. The Red Scare).
The committee was set-up to “
investigate
”
a potential communist conspiracy
.
This became known as “
McCarthyism
” because Senator McCarthy lead the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason
without proper regard for evidence
.
Slide5Trouble Rears Its Head . . .
Many in the
entertainment business
were targeted:
screenwriters, actors, directors, musicians, and other U.S. entertainment professionals
Once they were under investigation by the HUAC many of these people were
blacklisted
.
They were
denied employment
in their field because of their political beliefs or associations, real or suspected.
Slide6Trouble Rears Its Head . . .
Artists were blacklisted on the basis of one or more of the following reasons.
Alleged membership in or sympathy toward the American Communist Party,
Involvement in liberal or humanitarian political causes that enforcers of the blacklist associated with communism
Refusal to assist investigations into Communist Party activities
Some were blacklisted merely because their names came up at the wrong place and time.
Slide7Miller Writes The Crucible
The questioning done by the HUAC
reminded Miller of the witch hunts in Colonial America
, especially after visiting Salem, MA in 1952.
Miller’s friend
Elia
Kazan had been called before the HUAC and chose to “save” himself by naming names, which included Miller.
Miller immediately proceeded to write
The Crucible
; its relevance to the current U.S. situation was clear, and
after the play was written it caused problems for Miller
.
Slide8Miller’s HUAC Problems
U.S. State Dept. would not renew Miller’s passport to travel to Belgium to view a 1953 production of
The Crucible
.
Miller was questioned by the HUAC in 1956;
he refused to name names
and was cited for contempt, fined, sentenced to jail time.
His sentence was
overturned
in 1958; he never went to jail.
Slide9The Purpose Behind
The Crucible
The Crucible
was written by Arthur Miller in 1953 as an
allegory
for McCarthyism or the so called (second) Red Scare.
An allegory is an
extended metaphor
where characters or events
represent or symbolize
ideas and concepts.
Miller felt many personal convictions to McCarthyism as a result of a multitude of events that happened in his life.
Wanting to point out to the world the amazing parallel between the unjust Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the (second) Red Scare from 1948 to 1956, Miller wrote
The Crucible
to make a powerful statement about the dangers of hysteria and the dehumanization that can result
.
Slide10The Purpose Behind
The Crucible
He
compared the Communist hearings to the witch hunts
of Salem, where gossip, rumors, and fear were evidence enough to convict people.
The term “
witch hunt
” now applies to any activity where people are looking for a scapegoat or where they are using accusations to get revenge or to get personal gain or attention.
Slide11Crucible Definition
The dictionary defines a crucible in the following ways: as a vessel of metal or other material used for heating substances to high temperatures; a hollow area at the bottom of a furnace in which liquid metal collects; or any severe or searching test. A crucible has great forces applied to it, and
its
contents often are melted, changed, or destroyed.
Why do you think Arthur Miller chose to name his play about the Salem Witch Trials,
The Crucible
?