Introduction
"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history."
-Arthur Miller
In The Crucible, Arthur Miller created a bridge that spanned the breech between two bizarre episodes in American History. On the surface, it is a (sometimes loose) re-telling of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. But beneath its many layers of nuance and complexity, it is in truth a commentary on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Senator Joseph McCarthy's Communist "witch-hunts" of the late 1940's and early 1950's.
Miller's interest in the McCarthyist witch-hunts was certainly more than just an intellectual endeavor, as he was "blacklisted" in Hollywood because of his being investigated by HUAC for assumed involvement in the communist party. In 1957 he was found guilty of contempt of congress for refusing to reveal the names of members of a literary circle who were suspected of communist affiliations.
Insofar as art is said to imitate life, Miller resolved to write about these injustices he saw and experienced at top levels of the United States government. Following a trip to Salem, Massachusetts in 1949, The Crucible was born.
Task
In this WebQuest, you are going to explore these types of relationships by first conducting some independent research on the following topics:
- The Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692
- House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and McCarthyism
When your research is complete and you have familiarized yourself with the above, you will then begin the task of determining how Arthur Miller linked these seemingly separate incidents together in the form of The Crucible.
Process
Directions: Answer the research questions by exploring the websites and videos that have been linked below. Answers must be typed or neatly written.
The Salem Witch Trials
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What were the main causes of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692?
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Who were the major figures involved in the trials? What roles did each of these individuals play?
Websites for Research:
http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/salem/
http://www.history.com/topics/salem-witch-trials
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/a-brief-history-of-the-salem-witch-trials-175162489/
http://historyofmassachusetts.org/the-salem-witch-trials/
HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee)
Research Questions:
- What was HUAC and what purpose did it serve?
- What influence did HUAC have over the film industry during the late 1940's and early 1950's?
- Who were "The Hollywood Ten"?
- What was the eventual outcome of HUAC's investigation of the film industry?
Websites for Research:
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/huac
https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-Un-American-Activities-Committee
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/blacklist.html
McCarthyism
Research Questions:
- What was "McCarthyism"?
- How did Senator McCarthy expand upon the work of HUAC?
- What was the ultimate outcome of McCarthyism? Is it still alive today in some form?
Websites for Research:
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/arthur-miller-mccarthyism/484/
http://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/mccarthyism.htm
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~lillsie/McCarthyism/homepage.html
https://sites.google.com/site/mrboyd76/home/us-history-links/the-1950s/mccarthyism-cartoons
Evaluation
Allegory: Where every aspect of a story is representative of something else, usually a larger abstract concept or important historical / political event.
Witch Hunt: An investigation carried out to seemingly uncover subversive or disloyal activities, but actually used to harass and undermine those with differing views.
Hysteria: Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.
Arthur Miller experienced firsthand the Communist Witch Hunts of the 1950's when he was a target of the HUAC investigations. From there, the Communist Witch Hunts of Senator Joseph McCarthy created a Hysteria in this country. When he considered the forces that caused his own persecution, he came to realize that essentially the same situation had occurred at other points in American history, most notably with the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.
What causes people to create hysteria by wrongfully accusing people of crimes? These are the things that Arthur Miller wondered when he wrote his famous allegory, The Crucible.
Article by Arthur Miller explaining what influenced him to write The Crucible. Published in the 10/21/96 edition of The New Yorker:
http://thecruciblewebquest.pbworks.com/f/Arthur+Miller-+Why+I+Wrote+the+Crucible.pdf
Synthesis Essay:
(one page)
Using your answers to the research questions, write a one page synthesis of how Arthur Miller merged The Salem Witch Trials of 1692, HUAC, and McCarthyism to create The Crucible. Pay specific attention to the similarities that were present.