Historical, Ideological and Cultural Background of Arthur Miller's ''The Crucible''

The paper explores the context of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. It is an analysis of both fiction, the historical context of the American Fifties regarding political life, presidents, senators and members of political parties, the ideology of former politicians and the pursuit of the convicted Communist members, and finally the cultural impact and importance of the play. The fictional part includes the analysis of the characters and the story of Salem Witch Hunts in the seventeenth century. The paper also discusses the analysis of how the play was formed, its major themes, the style and form, the historical accuracy, as well as the reflections of the Fifties in the play. It explains the mass hysteria through two different time periods, the effect it left on society and how the past repeats itself. The last but not the least, it also analyses the film and theatre adaptations of The Crucible, its reception and the difficulties the prohibition and censorships created for writers, such as Arthur Miller (Broudin sec 5, par 8), and directors, and most importantly how the false accusations made against innocent people influenced their lives. This paper is an attempt to show how ideology can have a negative influence on society. Whether it was the seventeenth century or the 1950s, ideology that is based on prosecutions without evidence or blind belief can cause unimaginable and disastrous consequences. If the society is led by wrong people or worst if the society depends too much on self-centered leaders, in most cases, the perfect examples are the two time periods, it is most likely that the society eventually separate from the authority