ARTHUR MILLER

ARTHUR MILLER

• Born in New York in 1915
• Went to University of Michigan

Beginnings as a Writer

• His first play, The Man Who Had All the Luck, failed badly
• His first successful play, All my Sons, won him a Tony
• He won many awards for his play entitled Death of a Salesman

LATER CAREER

• Married Marilyn Monroe
• Wrote a play in which she starred
• Divorced around then

MARRIED AGIAN

• Married Inge Morath
• Had two kids named Daniel and Rebecca

FAMILY ISSUES

• Daniel was born with down syndrome
• Excluded from family activities

PROBLEM SOLVED

• Enventually, he did reunite with Daniel

MORE INFO AS AN AUTHOR

• He is the author of the Crucible
• He took inspiration from Greeks
• Wrote more than 30 plays

THEMES

• Death
• Betrayal
• Injustice
• Accounting for life

Thought his plays could change the world

CHARACTER TENDENCIES

• Power conflict
• Responsibility
• Problems from the past
• Guilt and hope

He was convicted of contempt for not cooperating with congress.

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• He cared about the American working class
• He investigated the way they lived, and wrote plays relating to them

THE CRUCIBLE

The play takes place in Salem, and during the witch trials

Although it is about the witch trials, it speaks to the anticommunism fears in the United States at the time.

MAIN CHARACTERS

• John Proctor: local farmer
• Abigail Williams: former servant of Proctor household
• Reverend John Hale: expert on witchcraft
• Elizabeth Proctor: wife of Joh Proctor
• Reverend Parris: town's minister

SOME DETAILS

• Town run by religion
• Many land dispute
• Everyone fears witchcraft

THE CRAZINESS BEGINS

• Reverend Parris' daughter falls ill
• Thought to be witchcraft
• Reverend Hale called to find out

CONTINUED

• Abigail Williams and some others accused of witchcraft
• Abigail denies it
• Elizabeth and Abigail don't like each other

THINGS HEAT UP

• Abigail says she will kill any of the girls who mention what happened
• She was performing witchcraft
• Grudge between her and Elizabeth over John

John points out people's flaws, and threatens his servants.

John and Abigail continue to have feelings for one another during the play, but their relationship is over

Parris' daughter collapses during a Psalm. This leads to people believing she is bewitched.

REVEREND PARRIS

• Appears to want control of the town
• Believes in witchcraft
• Dughter believed to be bewitched
• Communicates with Abigial

JOHN PROCTOR

• Had an affair with Abigail
• Dislikes many people
• Doesn't believe having Hale in town is a good idea

PURITANS

DETAILS

• People of the English Church who left to find religious freedom
• Believed the bible to be the true law
• Not a small group

DETAILS CONTINUED

• Fought in English civil war against crown forces
• They did win this war, beating Oliver Cromwell's forces
• They were forced to leave to America afterwards anyway

TRIP TO AMERICA

• Captain was John Winthrop
• Left on April 7, 1630

CONTINUED

• Believed they were saving Christianity
• Thought they were opening the door to more english moving to America

On the trip, no one cared about social class or rank since they were making a new society

The entirety of the journey took 8 weeks

THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS

• The puritans were the people involved
• Their religious beliefs caused the trials

HOW THE TRIALS STARTED

• Three girls claimed to be posessed

FINAL DEATH COUNT

• 150 people accused
• 20 were killed

The mass hysteria of the puritans caused many deaths

Eventually the hysteria calmed down, and very few people died afterwards

The trials were the basis for the Crucible by Arthur Miller