Arthur Miller demonstrated the familiarities of the life he lived in the 1950's and of everyday life we live and he lived in through his plays. He communicates through his work to the way people are in society. The extreme witch hysteria of The Crucible deteriorates the rational and emotional stability of our world's citizens. He exploits the population's weakest qualities, and insecurities. In Arthur Millers' The Crucible the breakdown in social order in act 4 led to the tragedy that saw innocent souls hang on the accusation of witchcraft.
Miller's way of writing plays which relate to our lives and the way in which we do things and treat one another is very interesting. He seems to see the world a different perspective to most people and expresses our everyday actions and the things we do wrong in another form. The audience should see parallels in the play to happenings in our every day life.
Deposition of Abigail Williams v. George Jacobs, S...
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"The witch no. 1" lithographThe Crucible was written in the middle of the McCarthy political "witch-hunt" in America. The play relates to the fears in America that the philosophy of communism was spreading there and would eventually undermine and destroy capitalism and the American way of life. Almost any criticism the government received, in the eyes of McCarthy was not acceptable. A petition for communist sympathisers was set up in which Miller signed. He was asked to confess to signing his name. He quoted:
"In truth, I had supported these various causes to express my fear of fascism and my alienation from the waste of potential in America while knowing nothing about life under any socialist regime"
The activities seemed to have been linked in Millers mind with witchcraft trials two centuries ago. Miller saw these public confessions as parallels with the naming at Salem in 1962. Similar...