Arthur Miller is an American playwright who in his works depicted how false values can turn out to be destructive for families. “Death of Salesman” helped him gain world-wide recognition and marriage with Marilyn Monroe made him popular. He led active political life and was a member of international literary organization. “Among his works are “The Man Who Had All the Luck”, “Grandpa and the Statue”, “A Memory of Two Mondays”, “A View from the Bridge”, “Crucible” and a lot of others. Certain connection between Miller’s play “Crucible” and what was going on in the world during the Red Scare cannot be denied and by analyzing the play and the definite historical period one can find a lot of connections between them. “Crucible” also proved to be a success for the deep sense hidden in it: “In a close examination of Arthur Miller play The Crucible as a literary work, the title itself is the first vivid indicator of the thematic ideas on which the play is based.” (Claudia Durst Johnson, Vernon E. Johnson, p. 1).
As far as the Red Scare is concerned, it was “not an isolated incident but part of a larger American tradition.” (Regin Schmidt, p. 24). At first it was heard of from 1917 till 1920 and then once again in 1940s-1950s. It was a series of governmental decisions and intentionally forced by the media atmosphere connected with the USA campaign against “red’, communists, and their fellow travelers. The most well-known episode of this period is the so-called series of Palmer Raids. Those were police raids on lefty citizens organized by Palmer who back then was a Minister of Justice. As a result around ten thousand radicals were either convicted or deported, mostly to Soviet Russia. The similar situation of being convicted in having different views or just being different can be observed in Arthur Miller’s “Crucible”.
Miller’s play “Crucible” is about those times when witchcraft was forbidden to practise and those who still didn’t refuse of it were executed. It is not difficult to notice that a lot of parallels can be drawn between “Crucible” and the events going on in the period of Red Scare. There is no doubt that these parallels are not occasional. Miller uses them on purpose and by the story described in the play ”Crucible” he was trying to perpetuate what once happened with him: “History is not simply a device which Miller employs in order to escape the unmediated closeness of contemporary events. Rather, it is a fully developed subject within the play itself.” (Harold Bloom, 128). Being politically active throughout his life he is known as a person who once refused to give testimonies in order to accuse other people when House Un-American Committee was trying to make him do that. This is similar to what Miller describes in his “Crucible”.
First of all, both, people in the 16th century and those who lived in the period of the Red Scare were afraid of something what in both the instances was practically unknown. In the first case it was witchcraft which considered to be a sin because the religion says so. The existence of witchcraft as well as occultism which derives from it could never be denied but at the same time nobody could prove or give any evidence on the fact that it is really applicable anywhere else except myths, dreams and fairy-tales. It is a common knowledge that every person is afraid of what he or she does not know. This is the case with witchcraft. Most of people did not know whether or not it can do any harm that’s why most of them tended to disapprove it. It is a bit different with communism though still the essence is the same. The fear of the United States of America, to be more exact of its government, to get into the nets of communism engendered the necessity of urgent means in order not to let it happen which developed into the Red Scare and not only oppression but liquidation of those who turned out to be supporters of communism. The vision of what happens with those who continue to openly adhere to their political beliefs caused fear in other people who driven by this fear opted to be like everybody else but to remain citizens of their country rather than to share the fates of those who will be deported.
What’s more, the process of conviction of people is also common between the situations in the story “Crucible” and the events during Red Scare. During the trial for practicing witchcraft the accused was proposed to either confess in applying witchcraft or to show those who does it because by showing he or she would lessen the sentence. If the accused denied his guilt he was proven guilty at once and executed that very moment though if he chose to accuse other people involved in witchcraft he was simply imprisoned. The same was during the Red Scare. By confessing that you are a communist you doomed yourself to deportation but when at this you accused some other people you were imprisoned together with others who betrayed their friends and relatives. The most unfair in this situation is that in most of the cases those people who were not guilty were punished only because somebody wanted to lessen his or her sentence and this is true for both the situation with witchcraft and the one with communism. Arthur Miller experienced this in his life when he refused to accuse those who as he knew were communists and he reflected this in his “Crucible” in Giles Corey’s refuse to accuse those who were implicated in witchcraft: “ Why, I – I cannot give you his name” (Arthur Miller, Maureen Blakesley, 77). Moreover, most of people who were innocent chose to confess in what they never did rather then to be executed, in case with witchcraft, or deported, in case with the Red Scare.
And finally, the most vivid parallel may be drawn between the institutions of justice. The court system in “Crucible’ is in fact the reflection of the House Un-American Activities. It is not difficult to notice that the judge and the way the sentences are carried out are practically the same as well as the rules and procedures as such. Arthur Miller has gone through such procedures, that’s why nobody but he could describe them in the most exact way.
All in all, the facts stated above show that connection between Arthur Miller’s life and the Red Scare is irrefutable. His play “Crucible” without any doubt relates to what happened in his life in that period of time when the free expression of political adherence was persecuted by law.
Works Cited
- Claudia Durst Johnson – author, Vernon E. Johnson. Understanding the Crucible: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
- Regin Schmidt. Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919-1943. Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000.
- Harold Bloom. Arthur Miller. New York: Chelsea House, 1987.
- Arthur Miller, Maureen Blakesley. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. Heinemann, 1992.