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The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is based upon the experiences of real people. It traces the Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's in America. The characters in the play were based upon actual people who survived, or didn't survive the trials and hysteria. However, the characters in the play fates were not exactly those of the real people. What actually did happen to them? How did the society and government in which they lived allow this to take place? How and why does history repeat itself? How did McCarthyism influence Miller? What does the play say about the techniques and goals of the McCarthy hearings? Miller was writing about the times he was in and what was happening to those around him. Remember, we write best what we know best.

The Task

You and your partners will be required to do the following:

1. Select 5 of the characters in the play and research what happened to the actual people they were based on.
2. Prepare a brief report on the government and society of Salem, Massachussettes in the late 1600's.
3. Prepare a brief report on the McCarthy hearings:

 

Answer the following questions in your report:

 

• What was the "Red Scare"?

   

• How were the people's fears during the McCarthy hearings like those of the Salem Witch Trials?

   

• What were the McCarthy hearings trying to find?

   

• What was the end result of the McCarthy hearings?

From everything you have reported on and researched you are to put together a short, 3 page paper, trying to explain how you think the events occuring in Arthur Miller's time are related to the events in the play. Also you will attempt to show how history repeats itself through the comparison of the witch trials and the McCarthy hearings. In addition to the paper, you will provide the research material on the lives of the five characters and real people you chose from the play. You will indicate what their actual fates were and how they were different from that of the characters in the play. You will explain the similarities or analogies that Miller uses to make allusions to the McCarthy hearings and the "Red Scare".

Resources

The resources available to you consist of the following links on the net as well as the play and your history textbooks:

Links for Salem History

1. Salem Witch Trials Chronology

2. Salem Witch Museum

 .

 Links to McCarthyism

1. English-The Crucible/McCarthy

2. The Second Red Scare

3. The Age of McCarthyism

Sites on The Crucible

1. Complete source on the Crucible

2. Crucible: Fact or Fiction?

Interesting Sites

1. National Geographic's Salem 97

The Process

1.  
2. After the completion of reading the Crucible you will be assigned to a team of 3 students
3. Each student will select an area of the project they want to work on. The areas are: The actual history of Salem

   The McCarthy hearings

   The "Red Scare"

4. Each student will then access the net and find the pertinent information on their particular topic using the sources listed above.
5. Once the information is researched from the net, you will come together to produce the report on how the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism and the Crucible are related through the analogies and allusions Arthur Miller was using.

    

    

   Your report should be organized as follows:

   1. Factual history and comparison of characters from the novel and their actual counterparts in real life.
   2. The brief description of the the government and society of Salem in the 1600's.
   3. A brief history of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings.
   4. The comparison and analysis of the two historical events and how Arthur Miller uses analogies and allusions in his work to compare and contrast the two events.

Evaluation

Students will be graded on individual effort as well as group effort. Individual grades will be based on participation in the research and report production as well as on recommendations of other team members.

Group grades will be based on the following criteria:

Information: Collection of complete and appropriate materials for the report according to subject area.

Compostion: Grading on composition, grammar and spelling will be based on a standard english rubric.

 

This work will be the equivalent of a major project and test, thereby constituting a large percentage of your quarter grade. Please put in effort accordingly.

Conclusion

By completing this project, you will get a better understanding of not only history, but also how writers can use history to make comments comparisons to their own times. By seeing how Arthur Miller did this, you will better understand how contemporary authors use this technique. In addition, you will better understand how history repeats itself.