“The Crucible” was an act of desperation. Much of my desperation branched out, I suppose, from a typical Depression-era trauma— the blow struck on the mind by the rise of European . Arthur Miller explains how he was inspired by the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials to write The Crucible, a play that explores the dangers of fear, paranoia and injustice. He also . WHY I WROTE THE CRUCIBLE by Arthur Miller OCTOBER 21, Subscribers can read this article in our online archive. (Others can p