1. The Salem Witch Trials

2. Questions to Ponder: What is an “invisible crime”?
How can one prove his or her innocence when accused of an invisible crime?
How can justice really be served in this situation?

3. because your adversary,
“Be sober, be vigilant…
because your adversary,
the devil
as a roaring lion,
walketh about,
seeking whom
he may devour.”
1 Peter 5:8
The Puritans lived in fear of the devil, believing that evil was waiting to tempt them at every turn.

4. History
Salem Village had a colorful history before its famous witch trials.
The village’s 600 plus residents were divided into two main parts.

5. In 1689 the villagers established the town’s church and chose the Reverend Samuel Parris as their minister. Parris was a former merchant, and many did not take kindly to him. His cold, rigid personality and constant demands for money—including personal title to the village parsonage—increased the friction.
Many villagers vowed to drive Parris out, and they stopped contributing to his salary in October 1691.

7. Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Early in 1692, a small group of girls in Salem fell ill, falling victim to hallucinations and seizures.

9. The unfathomable sickness spurred fears of witchcraft, and it was not long before the girls, and then many other residents of Salem, began to accuse other villagers of consorting with the devil and casting spells.

10. Old grudges and jealousies spilled out into the open, fueling the atmosphere of hysteria. The theocratic Massachusetts government and judicial system soon became involved.

11. Within a few weeks, dozens of people were in jail on charges of witchcraft. The hysteria lasted from May to September of By the time it was over, 19 people (and one dog) had been convicted and hanged for witchcraft, one elderly man was pressed to death by stones, and 150 prisoners were awaiting trial. Five more people died in prison.

12. Simply being accused was equivalent to a death sentence.
If you professed your innocence, you would be put on trial (where there was no actual way to prove your innocence.) Once found guilty, you would hang.
If you confessed, you would lose everything you owned, be excommunicated from the church, and rot in prison.

13. “Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly expressed, and vengeance taken, despite the Bible’s charitable injunctions. Land-lust which had been expressed before by constant bickering over boundaries and deeds, could now be elevated to the arena of morality; one could cry witch against one’s neighbor and feel perfectly justified in the bargain. Old scores could be settled on a plane of heavenly combat between Lucifer and the Lord; suspicions and the envy of the miserable toward the happy could and did burst out in the general revenge.”
-Arthur Miller (The Crucible)

14. Arthur Miller
More than two centuries later, Arthur Miller was born in New York City in The relative prosperity of the Miller family during his early years ended abruptly with the stock market crash of The altered status of his family and the misery wrought by the Depression had a profound impact on the development of his social consciousness.

15. Miller dropped out of high school and worked as a shipping clerk in a warehouse. Despite his inability to complete high school, he persuaded the University of Michigan to accept him as a student. Miller studied English, drama and journalism, and began writing plays in college. He graduated in 1938.

16. Miller wrote over 50 works, among them radio plays, novels, articles, and 17 plays. Death of a Salesman opened two years later in Widely considered to be his best play, Death of a Salesman won a Pulitzer Prize and catapulted Miller to international fame.

17. Miller’s personal life became the focus of public attention when he married film star Marilyn Monroe in The couple divorced in 1961.

18. Miller wrote The Crucible in 1958
Miller wrote The Crucible in The play was a response to the paranoid political climate that surrounded him. The 1950s saw the rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose paranoid hunt for Communists propelled the U.S. into a dramatic anti-Communist fervor. McCarthy conducted Senate hearings that were supposed to flush out suspected communists from government and other areas of American life, including the Arts.

19. The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations
The policy resulted in a whirlwind of accusations. Many cooperated through false confessions, attempting to save themselves, creating the image that the U.S. was overrun with Communists, and perpetuating the mass hysteria. The liberal entertainment industry, in which Miller worked, was one of the chief targets. Some called to testify cooperated, others refused. Those who refused to incriminate their friends were placed on the infamous Hollywood Blacklist. Those placed on this list were denied employment, based upon their suspected Communist sympathies.

20. Miller was called on to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in Like so many of his generation, Miller, although never a member of the Communist Party, had advocated principles of equality among the classes, and social justice. At the hearings, he testified about his own experiences but refused to discuss the experiences of his colleagues and associates. He was blacklisted for his refusal to name names, but was eventually removed from the list.

21. Comparison between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism:
Suspension of rational judgment
People who challenged the authority of the court soon found themselves under suspicion of guilt
Conscience was no longer a private matter but one of state administration

22. The Crucible does three important things:
Illustrates the belief that history repeats itself
Through the retelling of the Salem witch trials during the Red Scare of the 50s, The Crucible helped people to understand that human behavior often causes history to repeat itself, unless we are able to make a connection between what is going on now and what has already happened.
Shows the danger of mob mentality (mass hysteria)—the kind of thinking/action where a large number of people act on poor information or they act using emotions, rather than logic.

23. Themes in The Crucible Hypocrisy
Individual vs. the community (unity and exclusion)
Authority
Greed
Justice vs. retribution and revenge
Godliness vs. worldliness
Ignorance vs. wisdom
Value of reputation
Order vs. Individual Freedom
It is also a story about the struggle between good and evil inside the heart of one man.

24. Works Referenced
Burns, Margo. "17th Century New England." Information from Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE: Fact & Fiction. 21 August Aug 2006 <
Cautru, Laurent. "les baladins de Marly." les sorcières de Salem Baladins Organization. 10 Aug <
Greenleaf, Timothy C (director). "NationalGeographic.com features The Salem Witchcraft Hysteria." Salem Witchcraft Hysteria National Geographic. 10 Aug <
"Indiana University Theater." In Performance. 04 January Indian University. 10 Aug <
"Monolith the Doom and Heavy Gloom Asylum." MONOLITH. 07 August The Doom Crew. 10 Aug <
Mufson, Jeffrey Allan. "More than Just about the Music." Jemstar Entertainment: More than Just about the Music Jemstar Entertainment. 10 Aug <

25. Works Referenced, continued
Ray, Benjamin. "Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive and Transcription Project." Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive University of Virginia. 10 Aug <
Salem in the Late 17th Century Salem Witch Trials. Salem Witch Trials. Discovery Channel School unitedstreaming. 9 August <
Salem Witch Trials. Discovery Channel School unitedstreaming. 9 August <
"UMKC." University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. 10 Aug <
"University Massachussetts Education/Library." Interpreting Witchcraft. University of Massachussetts. 10 Aug 2006 <