McCarthyism sought to bring every aspect of the world into the public light as a form of spectacle. While the play was written before Miller himself faced persecution, he was well aware of the encroaching environment of blame and accusation that had engulfed his country and profession. This sweeping policy of fear and persecution offers the backdrop amidst which The Crucible would be written.Īrthur Miller avoided subpoena to HUAC until 1956, when he was forced to testify on June 21, three years after the premiere of his allegorical work, The Crucible. McCarthy sought to find, question, and punish any American Citizens who had past or present associations with the Communist Party. The secretive nature of the American Communist Party enhanced the misunderstandings surrounding it, and this fear brought with it the idea that anything unknown must be “Un-American.” These sentiments led numerous Congressional sub-committees to be reorganized and rebranded as the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC, shown in meeting left), led by a Junior Senator from the state of Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy. However, with the war’s end, communism became the new threat to democracy.
During the preceding decades, liberal political ideology flourished in America as an opposition to the Fascism and Nazism that swept through Europe and led to such a devastating war. The threat of communism seemed to be threatening the American way of life in the aftermath of World War II, and fear-mongering politicians responded with “enhanced surveillance, black-listing, and repression as part of the right-wing ideologues’ tactics against government employees, educators, entertainers,” and anyone else who may have had liberal sympathies.
The era of McCarthyism brought an era of fear to America. The play must be understood in the context of its Twentieth Century premiere in order to understand from its Seventeenth Century setting and its place in the present day. Miller’s contemporary, Elia Kazan, serves as another historical agent who shows just why The Crucible was written. The play both mirrors the era of McCarthyism as a whole, and also shows how Miller was implicated and testified in hearings that sought to eradicate Communism without due process or constitutional rights. Arthur Miller characterizes this political climate of fear in the United States by setting The Crucible during the frenzied witch trials of Salem Massachusetts. This doctrine led to the formation of the House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC, which questioned and scrutinized government officials, artists, activists, and all others suspected of liberal leaning ideas.
During the 1950’s in America, McCarthyism arose as a judicial doctrine antagonizing any Americans suspected of sympathizing with Communist ideas. The Crucible remains charged in terms of its historical setting as well as the historical context in which it was written.
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