The Crucible

6 Pages 1584 Words

The Tony Award winning play, The Crucible, was written by the famous playwright, Arthur Miller. He wrote of the Salem Witch Trials in colonial Massachusetts paralleling it to McCarthyism that took place in the United States during the 1950s. In this play Miller brings the reader or viewer to the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Here we meet dozens of characters pleading for their lives and confessing to sins never committed. Miller shows us how the working class was treated and is still treated today.
Arthur Miller was born in New York City on October 17, 1915. He was the son of Jewish immigrant parents. Miller grew up in Brooklyn then moved to Michigan in 1934 to enroll in the University of Michigan. At the University he spent much of his time learning to write and began working on a number of greatly established plays. He graduated in four years and returned to New York where he worked as a freelance writer. (PBS.org)
In 1944 his first play, " The Man Who Had All the Luck", received horrible reviews. Only two years after, his second play, "All my Sons", was very successful. Miller began to work on the third of his major plays because of the paranoia and intolerance that aroused post-war. "The Crucible", clearly directed toward the McCarthyism of the early 1950s, was set in Salem during the witch-hunts of the late 17th century. This play expanded Miller's voice and concerns for the well being of the working class. "The Crucible" deals with extraordinary tragedy in ordinary lives. Within three years of writing this play, Miller was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress for not cooperating with them. During this difficult time of his life, Miller ended his short and rocky marriage with actress Marilyn Monroe. (PBS.org)
More than any other working playwright today, Arthur Miller has devoted himself to work and write for the w...