This is the basis for ArthurMiller’s screenplay, TheCrucible. Who was executed, why?

1. In what year did the Salem Witch Trials take place?

2. Who was the first individual executed?3. How many were executed? Killed?4. How many were jailed?5. How did this hysteria begin?6. How could an accused “witch” escape

execution?7. Who provided legal representation for the

accused? 8. How many confessed to witchcraft? What was

the result of these confessions? 9. Identify irony on p. 21.10. How was wealth determined in Salem?11. What do “Goody” and “Goodman” mean?12. Who attended the hangings?13. Roughly what percentage of Puritans were

literate? 14. Why wouldn’t the Puritans offer help to those

in need?15. What was the result of not helping?

1. Abstract – adjective Considered apart from concrete existence; theoretical

2. Allegory – nounThe representation of abstractideas or principles by characters.

Why wasThe Crucible written?The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller in 1953 as an allegory for McCarthyism or the so called (second) Red Scare. Miller felt manypersonal convictions to McCarthyism as a result of a multitude of events that happened in his life. Wanting to point out to the world the amazing parallel between the unjust Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the (second) Red Scare from 1948 to 1956, Miller wrote The Crucible to make a powerful statement about the dangers of hysteria and the dehumanization that can result.

During McCarthyism, the United States was terrified of Communism's influence. Like the witches, communists were seen ingrained within every aspect of society. Miller was sent to jail for withholding information from the court, namely the names of those assumedto be communists. Many of Miller’s peers fearing the wrath of the court provided names of suspected communists in an attempt to save themselves.

“McCarthy's power to stir fears of creeping Communism was not entirely based on illusion, of course; the paranoid, real or pretended, always secretes its pearl around a grain of fact.”-Arthur Miller

“McCarthy—brash and ill-mannered but to many authentic and true—boiled it all down to what anyone could understand: we had "lost China" and would soon lose Europe as well, because the State Department—staffed, of course, under Democratic Presidents—was full of treasonous pro-Soviet intellectuals. It was as simple as that.”-Arthur Miller

Miller

Speaks

3. Ideology – nounA set of doctrines or beliefs that formthe basis of a political, economic, orother system.4. Oppenheimer – Proper nounAmerican physicist who directed LosAlamos, New Mexico, laboratory during the development of the first atomic bomb.5. Precedent – nounAn act or instance that may be usedas an example in dealing with similarinstances.

In Europe and AmericaThere’s a growing feeling of hysteriaConditioned to respond to all the threatsIn the rhetorical speeches of the SovietsMr. Khrushchev said, “We will bury you!”I don’t subscribe to this point of viewIt would be such an ignorant thing to doIf the Russians love their children too

How can I save my little boyFrom Oppenheimer’s deadly toyThere is no monopoly of common senseOn either side of the political fenceWe share the same biologyRegardless of ideologyBelieve me when I say to youI hope the Russians love their children too

There is no historical precedentTo put the words in the mouth of the PresidentThere’s no such thing As a winnable warIt’s a lie we don’t believe anymoreMr. Reagan says,“We will protect you”I don’t subscribe to this point of viewBelieve me when I say to youI hope the Russians love Their children too

We share the same biologyRegardless of ideology

What might save usme, and you

Is That the Russians love their children too