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MAY 04: Lesson Five - The Crucible

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Course: ELA 20-1
Book: MAY 04: Lesson Five - The Crucible
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Date: Tuesday, 11 November 2025, 4:47 AM

Table of contents

Introduction

match_stickLesson Four - The Crucible
Duration - 6 blocks (6 x 80 min + homework)

"But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between." - Deputy Governor of the Province, Danforth in The Crucible.

Have you ever wondered where the term "witch hunt" came from? You are about to find out! For the next few lessons, you are going to be studying The Crucible, playwright Arthur Miller's dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials.

"Imagine a super-constrictive time in history. Think confining apparel. Think proper social etiquette. Think mass hysteria that makes entire communities suspicious and paranoid.

"There is something about the potent cocktail of fear, anxiety, passion, and jealousy in The Crucible that we find disturbingly familiar. As wild as The Crucible’s plot is, we’ve seen this episode in history over and over again.The Crucible drives home just how sickeningly often history repeats itself.

"The Crucible is a parable that tells the tale of a similar 'witch-hunt' that went down in playwright Arthur Miller’s time. Fearing the spread of Communism and seeing it as a threat to the nation and to individual freedoms, the American government, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy,sought out every single communist in the U.S. They put suspects on trial and forced them to “name names” and rat out their friends and compatriots. Soon the whole country was whipped into a moral frenzy.

"Arthur Miller, playwright extraordinaire, realized that the lingo being thrown around by McCarthy sounded very similar to the language used in the Salem Witch Trials (some 300 years before), a historical period he researched heavily while in college. So he wrote The Crucible.

"This might sound moderately cool to you, even if it contains two layers of retro—the 1950's and the 1690's. 'Oh, how nifty,' you might think, 'A dated morality play.'

"Except these aren't the only two examples of witch-hunting in history.

"In the 1980's, a similar a witch-hunt developed over the issue of child molestation. Stalin's Great Purge was eerily similar to a witch-hunt in its erratic and demented nature. Today in Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific, there are still witch-hunts taking place... and yes, they're hunting actual witches. And in America, parallels are being drawn between the events of McCarthyism, the Salem Witch Trials, and measures being taken to guard against 'the threat of homegrown Islamist terrorism.'

"Where would you stand if history were to repeat itself once more and you found yourself in the middle of a witch-hunt? Would you agree to say something that wasn’t true in order to save your family? What would you do if you became the scapegoat? Arthur Miller helps us try to think about how we would handle ourselves if we were to find ourselves in this situation... and he also makes us think about how emotional humans can get when justice is on the line." - Shmoop

Lesson 1

Read the Word documents, linked on the Resources 1 page, on the background of the play, Arthur Miller, and superstitions.  

Browse the PowerPoint that provides a brief introduction to The Crucible.


Take a virtual tour of the Salem Witch Trials - linked on the Resources 1 page. Can you survive the hysteria?

Lesson 2

Armed with an understanding of theocracy and the mindset of the Puritans in the colony at Salem, you are ready to begin reading The Crucible. Pay attention to how easily religious, upstanding citizens become isolated from their society, due to the responses to hardships exhibited by others.

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  • Read the play, The Crucible. You will be reading it twice. Don't stop for analysis or even to read Arthur Miller's commentary the first time through.
  • Read the play a second time. Carefully read Arthur Miller's commentary throughout the play. At the end of each of the four acts, stop and read the analysis linked on the Resources 2 page. 
  • Read and study the documents on elements in The Crucible, as well as the document containing Miller's essay on why he wrote The Crucible, and the one which references the FBI.

 

 

Assignment 2

(100 marks)

Open a new Word document. Label it E201U3L5surname
In this document, write the good copy of your critical response essay as outlined below.
Submit this assignment using the Dropbox for U3L5 Crucible essay

Your response should be between 800 and 1600 words.
Historically, students who write 800 words tend to score around 50%. Those who write closer to the upper range of 1000 - 1600 words tend to reach the Standard of Excellence, which is 80% or higher. View 1600 words as a cap, however, and not as a target. Writing MORE than 1600 words does not necessarily improve your mark. It may, in fact, do the opposite. Choose your words judiciously. smile

Write a critical/analytical response to text (literary essay) which addresses the question, In the drama, The Crucible, what idea does playwright Arthur Miller develop about what is revealed through an individual's responses to hardship?

Focus your essay on ONE character - either Abigail Williams or John Proctor.

Use the thesis planner and the essay skeleton to aid in your planning. Begin by first filling in the red cells of the chart, followed by the evidence, and then the explanations. Use the information you charted in this skeleton to write the good copy of your essay. You are not limited to writing only three body paragraphs! 

Your essay will be evaluated using the Critical/Analytical Response to Literary Text RUBRIC.

Conclusion

Arthur Miller's The Crucible explored how easily people become isolated through scapegoating and hysteria - the manifestations of the responses to hardships of others in their society. As long as such practices ensue, the play's historical context will continue to be revised and reapplied.