Arthur Asher Miller
An American author.
The Crucible
Miller chose the 1692 Salem witch trials as his setting, but the work is really an allegorical protest against the McCarthy anti-Communist “witch-hunts” of the early 1950s.
Elizabeth Proctor fires the servant Abigail Williams after she finds out Abigail had an affair with her husband. In response, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft. She stands trial and is acquitted, but then another girl accuses her husband, John, and as he refuses to turn in others, he is killed, along with the old comic figure, Giles Corey.
It is notable that Judge Hawthorne, a character in the drama and a real historical figure, is a direct ancestor of the author Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Death of a Salesman
The play questions American values of success.
Willy Loman is a failed salesman whose firm fires him after thirty four years. Despite his own failures, he desperately wants his sons Biff and Happy to succeed. Told in a series of flashbacks, the story points to Biff’s moment of hopelessness, when the former high school star catches his father Willy cheating on his mother, Linda. Eventually, Willy can no longer live with his perceived shortcomings, and commits suicide in an attempt to leave Biff with insurance money.