T 1:00-2:00 KH 263; W 12:00-2:00, HOB 2 RM. 121
Miller Refutes Conspiracies—Historical Analysis in The Crucible
I. A
Historical Allegory
The
Crucible is not only an analysis of the Salem Witch Trials
Also
an assessment of the HUAC hearings
An
allegory—a genre that uses one story to tell another
Miller
sees parallels between the two crises—
Public
confession
Naming
names
Reintegration
of those who confess
Exclusion
of those who do not
My thesis:
Miller
aims to show that there was no Communist conspiracy in the 1950s, just as there
was no conspiracy with the devil in
He
isolates elements of social disorder that gave life to the
charges of conspiracy:
§
1. A legal
system that steps beyond its bounds
§
2. The
guilt of individual targets
§
3. Community complicity
Democracy is threatened by
the witch hunt.
A. Not a
disinterested observer
Affiliated with causes linked to the CP.
Exposed in Red Channels
Refused a passport in 1954
Called before HUAC in 1956
Refused to cooperate
“My
conscience will not permit me to use the name of another person.”
Charges lifted in 1958
B. Art as political commentary
Political
purpose in the play
Draws
parallels between two controversial periods
Shows that
a climate of fear leads to overreaction
“I had no
doubt that Tituba, Reverend Parris’s black slave, had
been practicing witchcraft with the girls” (Reader 455).
Evidence
of witchcraft
Tituba has
contact to dead
Abigail drinks blood
But no covert agreement to perform illegal, treacherous
acts.
Girls try to avoid punishment
Abigail attempts to claim Proctor
Residents settle old grudges.
B. Argument by analogy
Communists existed
Their actions perhaps questionable
But no conspiracy
The hunt for communists caused by a mixture of
“authentic naiveté, soundly observed dangers, and
unprincipled rabble rousing” (Reader, 448)
A. In Salem, legal system a source of disorder.
Fear of the courts
“We cannot
blink it more. There is prodigious fear
of the courts in the country”(98).
Elevation of the accuser
Charges without customary proof
Belief instead of evidence
“The pure in heart need no lawyers,” (93).
Emergency suspends rules
“You must
understand, sir, that a person is either with this
court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time”(Crucible, 94).
Not an accurate description of
colonial courts.
B. Parallel to HUAC
HUAC gave
a privileged role to the accuser.
Not bound
by normal rules of evidence.
It allowed
the accused only the options of confession or
disgrace.
Justified by the emergency of the early Cold War.
A. Adultery in
Miller
invented the theme of adultery, but he thought there
was evidence
Saw sexual
repression as a cause of the outbreak
“Almost every
testimony I read revealed the sexual theme, either openly or barely concealed”
(Reader, 455).
B. Explanatory interest?
Miller involved in a Freudian analysis
His marriage was falling apart
Beginning a relationship with Marilyn Monroe
Finding
adultery in the document could have emerged from
his life.
C.
Guilt of the former Communists
“What was
manifestly parallel was the guilt, two centuries apart, of holding illicit,
suppressed feelings of alienation and hostility toward standard, daylight
society as defined by its most orthodox proponents. Without guilt the 1950s Red-hunt could never
have generated such power”(Reader, 456).
A. Naming names in Salem
To save
oneself (Tituba)
To gain ones desires (Abigail)
To gain new power (Mary Warren)
To enrich oneself (Thomas Putnam)
B. Naming names before HUAC
A way to
purify oneself of suspicion
A way to
protect ones career
“Unless he
[Kazan] came clean he could never hope, at the height of his creative power, to
make another film in America, and he would probably not be given a passport to
work abroad either” (Reader, 450)
VII. Witch Hunts Threaten Democracy
A.
Proctor as hero
Most
of those tried for witchcraft women
Susanna
Martin a better choice?
Proctor’s petition
Condemned before trial, Prejudiced court, Popish cruelties
(Reader 435)
Miller
constructs the character to fit the petition
Fighter for democracy
“I like not the smell of
this ‘authority’” (Crucible, 31).
“You
will not use me!” (Crucible, 142-143).
B. Universal message--Individual against tyranny
Warning
against oppressive regimes
Message
that the individual acting courageously can change the course of history
Critique of HUAC
Warning for democracy
“If the
current degeneration of discourse continued…we
could no longer be a democracy, a system
that requires a
certain basic trust in order to exist”
(Reader, 448).
As
the Salem trials employed “popish cruelties,” so to the
HUAC
investigation employed tactics of the enemy, undermining American democracy.
