![]() ![]() Upham, who was then the mayor of Salem-that I knew I had to write about the period. “I had read about the witchcraft trials in college, but it was not until I read a book published in 1867-a two-volume, thousand-page study by Charles W. Upham, as he explained in an article he wrote for the New Yorker: What Inspired Arthur Miller to Write The Crucible?Īrthur Miller first got the idea to write about the Salem Witch Trials after reading a book titled Salem Witchcraft by Charles W. ![]() ![]() Miller saw examples of this in both the Red Scare, during which officials tried to force Miller himself and many other people into naming suspected communists, and also in the Salem Witch Trials, during which the accused witches were pressured into naming other suspected witches. Miller later explained that he saw many similarities between the hunt for communists in the 20 th century and the hunt for witches in the 17 th century.īut mostly, at the heart of it, the play is about what happens to a community when people start to turn on each other. The play debuted on Broadway in January of 1953 and has since become an American classic.Īlthough the play is based on the Salem Witch Trials, it was intended to be an allegory for the Red Scare during the 1940s and 50s. The Crucible is a play about the Salem Witch Trials written by Arthur Miller. ![]()
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