Crucible Project

The goal is to examine the ways in which Miller interpreted the facts of the witch trials and successfully dramatized them.

After completing this lesson, students will be able to:

·      Examine the historical context of a consciously historical work of literature

·      Compare facts with the fictional or dramatic treatments of the facts

·      Ponder the differences between history and literature

·      Discuss what makes a drama or tragedy compelling

·      Recognize the close ties between a nation's history and culture and the literature it produces

·      Consider the ways in which an historical event and a work of literature may mean different things for different generations of citizen readers.

·      Keep a reader’s writers notebook tracking a characters’ evolution.

·      Deliver an oral presentation on comparing a fictional and historical character

·      Complete a essay that successfully analyzes an aspect of the text.

Activities:

Students will examine some of Miller's historical sources: biographies of key players (the accused and the accusers) and transcripts of the Salem Witch trials themselves. The students will also read a summary of the historical events in Salem and study a timeline. The students will then read The Crucible itself.

By closely reading historical documents and attempting to interpret them, students will be able to put themselves in the place of playwrights; that is, they will be able to look at historical events and the people involved with them and ask, what makes these trials so compelling? What is it about this particular tragic segment of American history that appeals to the creative imagination? How can history be dramatic, and how can drama bring history to life? A reading of The Crucible will reveal how one playwright not only "outdid the historians at their own game," but also created an authentic American tragic hero.

As students examine historical materials with an eye to their dramatic potential, they can also explore the central questions of psychology and society that so fascinated Miller.

·      Why were the leaders of Salem's clerical and civil community ready to condemn to death 19 people, who refused to acknowledge being witches, based on spectral evidence and the hysterical words of young girls?

·       Why would the church and government authorities continue to credit these wild and unsubstantiated stories as respectable people from all walks of life—landowners, women of independent means, neighbors, even clergy—were arrested and brought to trial?

·      What was it about the time period that made such hysteria, and ultimately tragedy, possible?

Activity I-

Student will be assigned one person from the following group of historical figures upon which to do research:

Cotton Mather

Bridget Bishop

Rev. Samuel Parris

Judge John Hathorne

Tituba

Abigail Williams

Mercy Lewis

Mary Warren

Sarah Good

Rebecca Nurse

John Proctor

Elizabeth Proctor

Martha Cory

Giles Cory

Students will have in-class and homework assignment time to do Internet searches for their historical figure. The research they do will manifest itself in first a written and then an oral report presented to the whole class (PowerPoint or Keynote). Both written and oral reports should respond to the questions: What about your character seems especially interesting or compelling? How would you dramatize your character to make him or her come to life for a contemporary audience?

For both the oral and written reports, biographical information may be found at the

 Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft/

to see if their figure is included in the 3 lists of court room transcripts available; if the answer is "yes," the student should print out the transcript for his or her chosen figure's case. This transcript may give more insight into the figure's life and will certainly be a helpful source of comparison when the class begins to read The Crucible.

Written Reports. To help guide student research for the written report, you have your Researching the Salem Witch Trials handout. If you need another copy, download the worksheet for this lesson, Researching the Salem Witch Trials: Inference and Evidence Chart. Click for Worksheet CopyHere are some of the questions (reproduced on the chart provided on the worksheet) that can help guide students as they gather information on their historical figure:

·      What was your historical figure's social and economic status in the Salem community? That is, what did your character do for a living? Was he or she well off? Would he or she be considered educated, upper class, middle class, lower class, poor?

·      How old was your character at the time of the trials? Was your character married or single?

·      Was your character regarded as a good Christian?

·      Was there any gossip swirling about your character?

·      What was your character's reputation in the community?

·      Did your character suffer from ill health or any other sort of hardship?

·      Did your character bear a grudge against anyone in the community?

·      Was your character accused of witchcraft? Or was he/she an accuser?

·       

Oral Reports/PowerPoints. The purpose of the oral report is to think like a dramatist: what aspects of this character are most interesting or engaging? The oral reports may be delivered straight or with a dramatic flair--by telling the audience what is interesting about this character, or by showing. Those students inclined to high drama should feel free to "become" their historical figure and address the class as such. See PowerPoint rubric from earlier in semester on website.  Remember ~ 3 points per slide, Fonts must be visible in back of room.

Activity II- Reading the play and Journaling in your Reader’s Writer’s Notebook.

As you read the 4 acts of The Crucible, keep a daily journal. In your RW notebook.  In your RW notebook, students should focus on the portrayal of your historical figure.

·      How is the character similar to the person revealed in the court transcripts or biography?

·       How is the character different?

·      Then they should ask the key question: Why has Miller chosen to portray a historical figure in a certain way? How has he embellished the figure to suit his own dramatic aims? And what are Miller's dramatic aims?

·       Finally, do you agree with how Miller has presented the figure? How would you have presented the figure any differently?

·      (Note: Make sure you re-read carefully read Miller's prefatory material, "A Note on the Historical Accuracy of the Play." Also, make the students aware that Miller offers his own interpretations of the historical figures in his digressions in Act I.) Students should be prepared to discuss their findings in class.

General questions about the nature and purposes of drama and tragedy. Students should think back to movies or books they have seen and read and ponder what kept them watching or reading: this brainstorming should lead into a discussion of what is effective drama.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller was writing a tragedy.

Discuss as a class the meanings of "tragedy" and "tragic hero."

·      What understanding do students have of these terms? What do students think is the purpose of tragedy? That is, why would audiences willingly want to spend their time witnessing painful and terrible events unfolding on the stage?

·      What makes a tragedy effective?

Activity 3. Specific Analysis of Act IV—John Proctor as Tragic Hero

Students should focus on the following questions in their reading of this act. Their responses should be written in their journal.

·      What is John Proctor's dilemma in Act IV?

·      What motivates Proctor's initial decision to lie?

·      What does Proctor mean when he refuses to let Danforth take his signed confession and explains, "Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!" Pay especial attention to Proctor's emphasis on his name and his distinction between it and his soul.

·      How are Elizabeth Proctor's final lines—the final spoken lines of the play—essential to our understanding of John Proctor? "He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him!"

·      Finally, how does this act illustrate the paradox that Arthur Miller highlights in Act I: "for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all organization is and must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space. . . The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom."

Activity 4. Essay Project

The final project will be an essay that each student will write. Students who have completed the worksheet, Researching the Salem Witch Trials: Inference and Evidence (see Activity 1), will find it a useful aid for developing and supporting a thesis.

Possible topics include:

Further exploration of the comparison between the student's historical figure and its dramatic counterpart. In a well-argued analysis, show the reader how Miller works with a historical figure to make him or her a compelling, dynamic, dramatic figure. Point to examples from history and from the play text.

How or why does The Crucible still speak to audiences today? Students who are particularly savvy about current events could begin with Miller's own quotation in the introduction of this lesson plan and spin a paper off from it.

Analysis of The Crucible as an American tragedy with John Proctor as an American tragic hero.

Pretend that you are a playwright who has a keen interest in history. Tonight is the night that your writers' group meets to discuss individual projects. Your goal is to present to your group your idea for dramatizing a past event—it may be a recent current event. Describe, in writing, why you think the event would make good drama and how you would dramatize it. Be sure to think carefully about story, conflict, character, and resolution.

Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive