Study of Arthur Miller
A Study of Literary Spokespeople in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" Arthur Miller wrote many dramas in which he analyzed human behavior in society. One of his more famous dramas included The Crucible (1953), a story about the paranoia and conspiracy of the Salem witch trials. During the 1950s, the United States of America was in fear of hidden Communists who may have been trying to destroy the American society. Senator Joe McCarthy made it his duty to find and root out these Communists within the United States of America. Miller wrote The Crucible in response to this climate of fear. It was The Crucible and other actions that caused Arthur Miller to appear before the House of Un-American Activities Committee in 1956. Although most of Arthur Miller's dramas took place in a familial setting, he made his reputation for dealing with contemporary political and moral issues in these dramas. According to Tom F. Driver in Contemporary Literary Criticism, "Miller [wrote] about important issues of the time period and [incorporated] them into his writing" (215). Arthur Miller used his characters in The Crucible as literary spokespeople to deliver his ideology on the McCarthy trials while seamlessly combining his criticism of the
Both Danforth and the House of Un-American Activities Committee were accusing others without looking within their own administrations for hypocrites. In The Crucible John Proctor stated, "I have wondered if there be witches in the world-although I cannot believe they come among us now" (69). John Proctor was not infatuated with the devil, but he committed an ungodly sin, an affair. John Proctor believed the name of a person was what that person's reputation lied on. John Proctor portrayed a person falsely accused by the McCarthy trials and Danforth demonstrated the hypocrisy in the House of Un-American Activities Committee during the 1950s. When Miller was on trial he refused to give the names of the other people who were thought to be communists. John Proctor in The Crucible was a direct parallel to Miller's self and his ideology. "In The Crucible, Arthur Miller expressed his faith in the ability of an individual to resist conformist pressures" (Goldstein 2). The Crucible, although almost an attack on America, converted many people to view the McCarthy trials in America through Arthur Miller's eyes. In both the Salem trials and the McCarthy trials, Miller realized the importance and reputation that a name can give a person. According to Ronald Hayman in Contemporary Literary Criticism, "Miller drew clear outlines around characters and incidents and his repudiation of the ambiguity in which they thrive" (331). Miller criticized the McCarthy trials through John Proctor because John, an innocent man, was wrongfully accused by a bias court system. Miller believed there was no hope for those who thought differently than their authorities. John Proctor was a man living in Salem, Massachusetts who was wrongfully accused of being associated with the devil.
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Acceptance Essays
