THE CRUCIBLE

                                             By Arthur Miller

“Arthur Miller’s classic parable of mass hysteria draws a chilling parallel between the Salem witch- hunt of 1692-’one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history’- and the McCarthyism which gripped America in the 1950’s. The story of how the small community of Salem is stirred into madness by superstition, paranoia and malice, culmintating in a violent climax, is a savage attack on the evils of mindless persecution and the terrifying power of false accusations.” (penguin classics).

Before you begin reading it pays to know about:

The Cold War

The Cold War refers to a period of conflict, tension and competition between the western countries such as the United States (US) and Great Britain and the Soviet Union (USSR) and the Eastern bloc countries such as East Germany and Bulgaria. It began after the hostilities of WW II and continued until the early 1990’s. This cold war tension was the result of the West’s growing fear of communism – the economic system put in place in the USSR after the Russian Revolution in 1917 (Russia became the USSR after this Revolution). The tension heightened as the Soviet Union took control of most of Eastern Europe during the latter stages of World War II and sought to spread communism in other parts of the world.

 While there was never a direct military engagement between them the two sides differed on how to reconstruct the post war world even before the end of the war. The US sought to stop communism and formed alliances while the Soviet Union was seeking to establish puppet Marxist regimes. The Cold War drew to a close in the late 1980’s when Ronald Regan negotiated with Mikhail Gorbachev. USSR’s economy was failing putting huge internal and external pressures on the country, the Soviet Union eventually collapsed in 1991, giving independence Eastern bloc countries.

Joseph McCarthy

Joseph McCarthy was a Republican (a major US political party founded in 1854 by anti-slavery activists and modernizers) and US Senator from 1947 – 1957. In 1950 McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of intense anti- communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War. He made a speech stating he had a list of ‘member s of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring’ who were employed in the State Department of the US. These were seen as sensational charges that could not be substantiated but helped him form the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) which for its time became a powerful and influential government organisation. Throughout his time in Congress he made many unsubstantiated accusations and attacked a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside the government. After highly publicised hearings McCarthy’s support and popularity began to fade and in 1954 the Senate voted to censure  Senator McCarthy and his support and influence fell away.

McCarthyism

is the general term used for the ‘witch hunts’ that took place during the late 40’s and into the late 50’s, as Senator McCarthy and his followers sought to find communists and Soviet spies in America. The primary targets of his suspicions were government employees, members of the entertainment industry, educators and trade union activists. Many were subjects or aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private industry panels, committees or agencies.

Arthur Miller

Miller wrote The Crucible against the backdrop of the Cold War. The parallels between the events in Salem in 1692 and this conflict are strongly emphasised.

Despite his reworking of these contemporary events into another historical time and place Miller was accused of being a ‘communist sympathiser’ and was blacklisted and instructed to appear before the HUAC in 1956. He refused to name names, which is a trait we see in The Crucible.

Miller’s play highlights the conflict that can occur in society when dominant values and ideas are questioned and challenged. The Crucible is Millers way of making veiled comments about the contemporary events of ‘his’ America and his introduction explicitly connects these two different eras of history. “They [the pilgrims] believed, in short, that they held in the steady hands the candle that would light the world. We have inherited this belief, and it has helped and hurt us” (P15). The suggestion is that society has not learnt from past mistakes and is therefore doomed to continue to repeat this destructive behaviour when conflict is encountered.

 Remember to be up with all the news over the holidays so you have some new outside sources to relate to and most of all happy reading over the holidays and keep up that Language Analysis…

Scotty.