Arthur Miller: The Crucible and Allegorical McCarthyism

Repeating History: Mankind’s Downfall
“He is a storyteller, a man with a marvelous memory, a simple man with a capacity for wonder, concerned with people and ideas” (The Paris Review). He is Arthur Miller. Born on October 17, 1915, Miller entered the world in Harlem, New York City. At age nineteen Miller wrote his first play. His passion for playwrights led him into the theater world inevitably leading him to meeting and marrying his second wife, Marilyn Monroe. Miller wrote the play, The Crucible, as an allegory of McCarthyism. Unlike most of his plays, The Crucible, was a dramatized historical play. In a interview, Miller stated that, with this play he “ was completely freed by the period [he] was writing about [...] It was a different diction,

a different age.” The allure of historical plays is that the there is already facts, the story is already there. The writer only has to devise up his or her own style or interpretation of the story.
During the time of which The Crucible was written, the fear of communists, more notably known as the “Red Scare” wreaked havoc in America.

It was the the mid-1950s. Although World War Two ended, the effects of war still lingered within countries. Tension built, from the rapidly expanding Soviet Union to the seemingly converting Italians, paranoia of communism grew. All it took was one brash but passionate man to escalate Americans into a frenzy. This man was not Mao Zedong, who rose to power in China, converting the formidable country to communism. No, his name was Senator Joseph McCarthy. Citizens of America walked around with a ticking bomb looming over their heads, all it took was one accusation of communism for it to explode. No one was safe. Even Miller himself in 1956 was interrogated by the House of Representatives' Committee on Un-American Activities. Refusing to identify others present at meetings he had, Miller was convicted of Contempt of Congress. The once victorious country fell into the McCarthyism spell. It was the second wave of the “Red Scare.”
The play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller is a tragedy published in 1953. This dramatized play was based on the Salem Witch Trials that took place during the late 1600s. Although the play does hold some truth it is partially fictionalized. The interesting composition creates an intugine development of the intent of the play. Fiction is written for the emotions, to evoke a response from the reader. On the other hand,

nonfiction is something that gives readers just the facts. The Crucible is a mix of both intents.
Arthur Miller reason for writing the play was to exemplify how human nature repeats itself through history. When people panic in situations that they see as threatening to their beliefs and way of life, fear clouds minds. “The Crucible was an act of desperation” (The New Yorker ). Miller clearly sees the one thing that ignites a cycle of hysteria — fear.
Miller’s utilization of a multitude of writer crafts, helped me drive my notion of the heart truth. These four crafts in particular assisted in my understanding of the text: setting, symbolism, characters, and irony. Setting is the description of places, objects, and backgrounds that are essential to literary works(FBC Period 0 Group Setting). Miller framing the play during the Salem Trials allowed him to easily use a historical reference that all readers widely knew about and integrated his messages into the historical play. Character emulates an extended verbal representation of a human being that determines the thought, speech, and behavior through the portrayal of the inner self (FBC Period 0 Group Character). By using specific characters, major or minor, Miller deliberately chooses certain character to guide the readers in understanding the heart truth.Symbolism, meant to expand meaning for the reader by forming connections that “real-life people” make between their own lives, uses specific items to create connections to ideas and stands as a “substitute” for crucial elements within a story(FBC Period 0 Group Symbolism). The impactful symbols that Miller employs allowed him to create deeper meaning in the historical references to fit his heart truth. Irony describes contradictory statements or situations (FBC Period 0 Group Irony). Instances of irony in the play that Miller strategically imbeds within his play, enables him to emphasize the points he asserts pertaining to human nature.
While humans in society, of all time periods, may pride themselves in having a clear and moral mind, Arthur Miller truthly suggests otherwise in his play, The Crucible, where he successfully demonstrates that in times of mass paranoia order vanishes into the abyss of human terror.

Miller asserts his opinion on this state of frenzy alluding his current deposition when writing the play, the Red Scare to the Salem Witch Trials, proving that history repeats itself. I discovered my heart truth in Miller’s use of the Salem Witch Trials for the setting, allowing him to incorporate meaningful symbols, develop characters, and create irony; as a result, I saw the rudimentaries of human nature revealed as when fear evoking threats loom over a society, humans must decide how much one is willing to sacrifice to obtain control. Every society has their “buzzwords” that evoke fear driving people to be compliant pawns and frenzy that creates mob mentality. Ultimately, expectations of society ruins innocent souls and the path to diverge from societal expectations garners a plethora of

repercussions.