Who Wrote The Crucible, When, and What Does the Title Mean?
A play about 1692 that was really about 1953
The Crucible in brief
| Fact | Answer |
|---|---|
| Author | Arthur Miller (1915 to 2005) |
| First performed | 22 January 1953, Martin Beck Theatre, New York |
| Award | Tony Award for Best Play, 1953 |
| Form | A play in four acts |
| Set in | Salem, Massachusetts, 1692 |
| Inspired by | The McCarthy era and the HUAC hearings |
| Running time | About 2 hours 45 minutes on stage |
| Film | 1996, with Daniel Day-Lewis |
What does the title mean?
A crucible is a heat-resistant pot in which metals are melted down so that impurities can be burned off. The word also means a harsh test or trial. Both meanings fit. The trials melt down a whole community and burn away its pretences. They also test each person: some, like Abigail and Parris, show what they really are, while others, like Proctor, Elizabeth and Hale, are purified by the heat.
↑ Back to the topWho was Arthur Miller?
Arthur Miller was born in New York City in 1915. He became one of America's greatest playwrights with All My Sons and Death of a Salesman, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1949. His later plays include A View from the Bridge, and he was married for several years to Marilyn Monroe. He died in 2005.
↑ Back to the topWhy did Miller write The Crucible?
In the early 1950s, congressional committees were questioning writers, actors and teachers about past links to communism and pressing them to name others. People lost their jobs and careers on the basis of rumour and forced confessions. Miller saw in the Salem trials the same pattern: public confession, naming names and guilt by accusation. Writing directly about his own time was risky, so he set the story in 1692.
↑ Back to the topWhat happened to Miller himself?
In 1956, three years after the play opened, Miller was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He talked about himself but refused to name others he had seen at meetings years before, much as Proctor refuses to give up names. He was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1957, and the conviction was overturned on appeal in 1958. The parallel with his own play made The Crucible even more famous.
↑ Back to the topThe Crucible was written by Arthur Miller and opened on Broadway on 22 January 1953, winning the Tony Award for Best Play. A crucible is a container for melting metal at very high heat, and also a severe test; in the play, Salem itself becomes the crucible in which each character is tested.
Miller wrote it as a response to the anti-communist hearings led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee.
More about The Crucible
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