The Life of Arthur Miller 👶

Arthur Miller family history

-His father owned a successful clothing store. The family enjoyed wealth during the 1920s but the Great Depression changed this and his family were forced to move to Brooklyn -This resulted in key changes in his life: He went from riding in chauffer-driven limousines to keeping a vegetable garden and fishing on Coney island - He also had to work to support himself and for a brief while he was salesman, he also worked in a car parts warehouse for a miserable sum.

Beliefs and Values

-Miller's faith in the capitalist economic system shook when he saw people ravaged by hunger and unemployment in the 1930s. -Miller's work is infused with his sense of responsibility to humanity and to his audience. "The playwright is nothing without his audience," he writes. -He once said he thought theatre could "change the world."... theatre as a form of social commentary -It was because of his strong opinions in politics that made him suspicious by Joseph McCarthy.

Key Plays

-Miller's first play to make it to Broadway, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944), was a dismal failure, closing after only four performances. -Three years later, All My Sons (1947) won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award as the best play of 1947, launching Miller into theatrical stardom Death of a Salesman (1949)- Miller won a Tony Award for Death of a Salesman as well as a Pulitzer Prize. The play has been frequently revived in film, television, and stage versions. The Crucible (1953) - a tale of the Salem witch trials. The highly controversial nature of the politics of The Crucible led to the play's mixed response.

Key Life events

-The great depression [ Wall Street Crash of 1929], effected his personal life as poverty became something he frequently saw... (left a great impression on him) -married 3 times, his second marriage was most notably to Marylyn Monroe

Social criticisms

-The play criticises the new american dream fostered around American Capitalism which was nurtured after the war.

The McCarthy trials

Miller's association with people and targeted by McCarthy's House Committee made him solidify that his beliefs in the evil behind blind persecution. -Miller himself was falsely accused as he refused to expose people who attended the meetings.