1)Arthur Miller was one of the leading American playwrights of the twentieth century.

He was born in October 1915 in New York City. Living through young adulthood during
the Great Depression, Miller was shaped by the poverty that surrounded him. The
Depression demonstrated to the playwright the fragility and vulnerability of human
existence in the modern era. After graduating from high school, Miller worked in a
warehouse so that he could earn enough money to attend the University of Michigan,
where he began to write plays.
Miller's first play to make it to Broadway, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), was
a dismal failure, closing after only four performances. This early setback almost
discouraged Miller from writing completely, but he gave himself one more try. Three
years later, All My Sons won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award as the best play
of 1947, launching Miller into theatrical stardom. All My Sons, a drama about a
manufacturer of faulty war materials, was strongly influenced by the naturalist drama of
Henrik Ibsen. Along with Death of a Salesman (his most enduring success), All My
Sons and The Man Who Had All the Luck form a thematic trilogy of plays about love
triangles involving fathers and sons. The drama of the family is at the core of all of
Miller's major plays, but nowhere is it more prominent than in the realism of All My
Sons and the impressionism of Death of a Salesman.
Miller followed Death of a Salesman with his most politically significant work, The
Crucible (1953), a tale of the Salem witch trials that contains obvious analogies to the
McCarthy anti-Communist hearings in 1950s America. The highly controversial nature
of the politics of The Crucible, which lauds those who refuse to name names, led to the
play's mixed response. In later years, however, it has become one of the most studied
and performed plays of American theater.
Inspired by the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s, Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible,
focuses on the inconsistencies of the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that
can result from dark desires and hidden agendas.
Miller bases the play on the historical account of the Salem witch trials. In particular he
focuses on the discovery of several young girls and a slave playing in the woods,
conjuring or attempting to conjure spirits from the dead. Rather than suffer severe
and inevitable punishment for their actions, the girls accused other inhabitants of Salem
of practicing witchcraft. Ironically, the girls avoided punishment by accusing others of
the very things of which they were guilty. This desperate and perhaps childish fingerpointing resulted in mass paranoia and an atmosphere of fear in which everyone was a
potential witch. As the number of arrests increased, so did the distrust within the Salem
community. A self-perpetuating cycle of distrust, accusation, arrest, and conviction
emerged. By the end of 1692, the Salem court had convicted and executed nineteen men
and women.
2)

3)Miller creates an atmosphere and mood within the play reminiscent of

the historical period and of Puritan culture. The inhabitants of Salem
lived in a restrictive society. Although the Puritans left England to avoid
religious persecution, they based their newly established society upon
religious intolerance. The Puritans demonstrated their faithfulness,
honesty, and integrity through physical labor and strict adherence to
religious doctrine. They considered material and physical wants
especially sexual desires as the Devil's work and a threat to society.
The Bible and the minister's interpretation of the Bible determined what
was considered socially acceptable behavior. The Puritans had no
tolerance for inappropriate or unacceptable behavior and punished
individuals publicly and severely if they transgressed. Miller captures the
intolerance and religious fanaticism of the period and effectively
incorporates them into the play. Although no one can know for certain
what the actual individuals thought, felt, or believed, Miller's
incorporation of motive into the play's characters provides his audience
with a realistic scenario that is both believable and applicable to society.
For example, when the play was first produced during the 1950's, as
McCarthyism submerged America in paranoia and fear, audiences could
relate to the plot because Americans were turning in their friends so they
would not be labeled as Communists. Although today's society may not
be engaged in so-called "witch hunts," stories of an individual attempting
to reestablish a relationship with a former lover by eliminating what he or
she perceives to be the only obstacle the person currently involved in
a relationship with the former lover are not uncommon. This classic
love triangle appears repeatedly in literature, not to mention the
supermarket tabloids. Miller's exploration of the human psyche and
behavior makes the play an enduring masterpiece, even though
McCarthyism has faded into history. On one hand Miller addresses a
particularly dark period in American history a time in which society
believed the Devil walked the streets of Salem and could become
manifest in anyone, even a close neighbor or, worse yet, a family
member. On the other hand, Miller moves beyond a discussion of
witchcraft and what really happened in Salem to explore human
motivation and subsequent behavior. The play continues to affect
audiences by allowing them to see how dark desires and hidden agendas
can be played out.

4)Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar. This

young lady seems to be uniquely gifted at spreading death and destruction
wherever she goes. She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others, to
gain control over them. All these things add up to make her a marvelous

antagonist. The character of Abigail is often accused of being onedimensional, which is true to a certain extent. She doesn't express one
shred of remorse the entire time, making her seem almost inhumanly
diabolical. However, even though Abigail's actions are ruthless, they are in
some ways understandable. Abigail's ruthless, manipulative tactics might
also be a result of her low social position. She does have it pretty bad. She's
an orphan. She's an unmarried teenager. And worst of all for her (in the
patriarchal Puritan society), she's female. The only person lower than her is
probably the black slave Tituba. On top of all that, Elizabeth Proctor has
been going around dropping hints that Abigail is sleazy, lowering Abby's
social status even more. With all this in mind, it's pretty understandable that
Abigail might seize any chance to gain power.
Tituba was a black slave, who came from Barbados and worked for Mr.
Parris. The slave practiced black magic, and the color of their skin, is Satan
himself. She confesses her pact with the devil and is condemned as
everyone else.
Tituba, the Reverend Parriss slave, is a woman from Barbados who practices
what the Puritans view as black magic. Of course, it's mainly because the
conniving Abigail manipulates her into doing it. Tituba admits her supposed
sin, but we never really find out what happens to her. The ambiguity of her
fate actually emphasizes that whether or not these women are in fact
witches is beside the point.

5) Yes, the fidelity of love unfortunately condemned. The couple chose not to disclose
the sin of lust committed by the husband and this eventually resulted in the conviction
of both death.

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