Megan Jones
English III AP DC Cy Woods
Mr. Barckholtz
December 2, 2012 Arthur Miller Research Essay Arthur Miller was an American playwright who wrote plays such as “The Crucible” and “Death of a Salesman” because he thought theatre could change the world. He wrote his works based on friends, his own life, and family. People believed he was a man of integrity and a hero because of the ways he portrayed himself. He was born in 1915 in Harlem, New York and raised in a very wealthy household by his parents, Isidore and Augusta Miller. After high school Miller worked lots of jobs to save up enough money to attend the University of Michigan, where he wrote his first paper that turned into his first play, called “No Villain”. Once he realized what he was good at, he moved east to start his new career. There he met his first wife Mary Slattery, but their relationship did not last long, and three weeks after the divorce he married actress Marilyn Monroe. This relationship was very good look for him because of what Marilyn Monroe’s career was at the time. He “divorced Monroe after five years”, and several months later “got married to Inge Morath”, whom he had two children with, Rebecca and Daniel Miller. There was one flaw about this family though, that “Miller excluded his son Daniel out of their lives” for the longest time. Miller did not want Daniel around because Daniel was diagnosed with Down syndrome, but Miller’s daughter, Rebecca, was married to a wise man that convinced Miller to keep seeing his son, because he did not feel that Miller was doing the right thing. Miller lived a crazy life, but this all lead up to something that soon the world would never forget.(Synopsis) Arthur Miller’s career started off a bit shaky with his first real play “The Man Who Had All the Luck” because the show closed “after just four performances and a stack of woeful reviews.” But six years later “’All My Sons’ achieved success on Broadway, and earned him his first Tony Award”. This boosted his career and gave him a fresh start and a new beginning (Synopsis). Arthur Miller wrote many plays in his time, but one in particular, written in 1947 and directed in Beijing in 1983, was the “play that established him as a great American playwright” called “Death of a Salesman”. This play was about the difference between a New York family’s life in reality and what they dreamed it would be. An old man, by the name of Willy valued popularity and his friends way more than skills or even a real personality. His goal was to die a man that had all of these things, and he ends up killing himself in the end. Miller’s goal was to “take the audience on an internal journey through the mind, memories, fears, anxieties of his central character.” “Death of A Salesman” has been very popular for over a decade, performed internationally, and was even produced into movies (Kristofoletti). Many people remember this play because of how inspiring it was, also because it did not compare to any other of the ones he had ever written. Arthur Miller’s second best play was “The Crucible” which premiered in 1953. This play was definitely harder for Miller to write. He took his time on this and wrote it in twelve months. It was a reflection of the Salem Witch Trials that he read about during his time. He found his subject after reading “W. Upham's 1867 two-volume study of the 1692 Salem witch trials” and wrote it after “watching the filming of the new movie of ‘The Crucible’”. This novel was about the people of Salem, how they felt, and what was happening to those who were convicted during the witch trials. A girl named Abigail Williams got a group of girls to go out into the woods one night and practice witch craft, but they were caught by her uncle Reverend Parris and for a long time there were rumors of this. They go to court, and a few people in town are accused of practicing witch craft, all but the group of girls that actually committed the crime. Abigail also has an affair with one of the main characters, John Proctor. But John Proctor never wants to speak of the affair again, because his wife and children mean the world to him. In the novel, if one denies that they have practiced witch craft, they are sentenced to death. Proctor tries very hard to make sure Abigail gets caught for what she and the girls have done, but in the end he dies, because he never gets what he wants, just his dignity, and the rights of a man. When Miller was in the process of writing the novel “Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Committee of Un- American Activities were prosecuting alleged Communists from the state Department to Hollywood”. Because of this, Miller was very afraid of being seen as a “convert Communist”. (Miller). This novel was based on such current events and his protesting so “the play received unfavorable reviews and Miller was cold-shouldered by many colleagues” (Galvin). This book today is “one of the most heavily demanded trade-fiction paperbacks in the country” and is known to be one of Miller’s best because of its strong background and its connections to the real world (Miller). Although Miller died on February 10th in 2009 from cardiovascular disease and congested heart failure, he was known for his amazing ideas that showed the world how strong he really was. Miller was an important figure in American theatre and reminded us that no man is perfect, that everyone can make mistakes, and that even through those mistakes, something good can come of it. For Arthur Miller, that something just happened to be his plays.

Works Cited
Galvin, Rachel. "Awadrs & Honors: 2001 Jefferson Lecturer: Arthur Miller Biography." National Endowment For the Humanities. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec 2012. <http://www.neh.gov/about/awards/jefferson-lecture/arthur-miller-biography>.
Kristofoletti, Amy. "Typescript of Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller, ca. 1948." Harry Ransom Center. N.p.. Web. 4 Dec 2012. <http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/windows/north/arthur_miller.html>.
Miller, Arthur . "Life and Letters: WhyI Worte "The Crucible"." The New Yorker. N.p., 21 1996. Web. 4 Dec 2012. <http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1996/10/21/1996_10_21_158_TNY_CARDS_000373902>.
. "Synopsis." Arthur Milller.Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Dec 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335>.