The Crucible - Introduction Summary

• In 1956, when the power of the committee was waning, Miller was summoned to sign his name on a pile of petitions before them
• Miller saw these public confessions as parallels with the naming of names at Salem in 1692.
• The political question, therefore, of whether witches and communists could be equated was no longer to the point
• Artur Miller tells us that since his college days he has known about the witchcraft trials at Salem
• Marion Starkey's book; The Devil in Massachusetts was the inspiration for The Crucible
• A group of girls in Salem randomly accused people of becoming witches, this mean that the prisons were filled with accused men and women
• This meant that twenty people were hanged
• The people of Salem believed that God had instructed them to hang witches
• Betty Parris the daughter of a minister started to behave like a possessed child, people back then believed that they were possessed by the devil
• The girls discovered (in court) that they had the power to name innocent people as witches, and quickly enjoyed their frenzy
• Many innocent people were accused and hanged