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Your name:
Teacher:
English 3 – CP
Date:
The Crucible Webquest
Who is Arthur Miller? http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335

1. What is Miller’s full name?

2. Where was he born?

3. In what year?

4. When did he die?

5. Where did Miller attend college?

6. Name another play Miller wrote besides The Crucible.

7. Why was Miller brought before the House of Un-American Activities Committee?

Use this site for questions 9 and 10: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Miller

8. What did he study in college?

9. Whom did Miller marry soon after he appeared before the HUAC?

10. What do Mary Slattery, Inge Morath, and Agnes Barley have in common?

B. McCarthyism link
Miller wrote The Crucible in the 1950’s, when something called McCarthyism was
something of a modern-day witch hunt that affected Miller directly. Click on this link to
McCarthyism and read up on
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/mccarthyism.html

11. Who was Joseph McCarthy?

12. What was his public accusation?

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13. The paranoid hunt for infiltrators was especially difficult for w___________________ and
e___________________, many whom were labeled Communist sympathizers, and this made it
difficult for them to continue working.

14. Name three artists mentioned in the article who were singled out as Communists.
a.
b.
c.

C. Characters
Who are some of the main characters in The Crucible? Click here to find out. (If you want
to read the summary of the play, go ahead. However, it’s not required for those who like
some element of surprise).
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/characters.html

15. Describe the following characters:

a. John Proctor

b. Elizabeth Proctor

c. Abigail Williams

d. Mary Warren

e. Rev. Parris

f. Rev. Hale

g. Tituba

D. Watch the short video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HQQ_tqhxe8 on

context in The Crucible and answer the questions.
16. How are John Proctor and Arthur Miller similar according to the video?

17. Write out what Arthur Miller says to the House of Representatives Committee on Un-
American Activities.
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Similarities between McCarthyism and The Crucible

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/homework-help-literature/52748-mccarthyism-and-the-crucible/

18. Americans felt like they were surrounded by the ____________________ threat.
19. Salem had established themselves as a ________________ community in the midst of
__________. People in Salem considered the forest as the domain of the ___________.
20. ______________ was surrounded by the _____________.
21. What happened because both communities felt threatened?

22. Joseph McCarthy claimed there were more than __________ _________ carrying
communists who had infiltrated the U.S. government.
23. In Salem, __________________ girls made unsubstantiated claims about the existence of
________________.
24. What did neither Joseph McCarthy nor the girls have when making their accusations?

25. Why weren’t the media during McCarthy’s time and the townspeople during the Salem
witch trials stand up to the court during this time?

E. Salem Witch Museum website. Go to the Salem Witch Museum and read about the
historical background of what happened.
http://www.salemwitchmuseum.com/

26. The daughter and niece of whom became sick in 1692?

28. What four factors “created a fertile ground for fear and suspicion” in the Massachusetts
Bay Colony, according to the article?
a.
b.
c.
d.

27. 19 people were ______________, one man was pressed to death, and seventeen others
died in prison as a result of the witch trials.

29. A “belief in the power of the accused to use their invisible shapes or spectres to torture
their victims” is known as what type of evidence?