Julette Grusell, Ed. D.

Using Movies to Support Literature in the Classroom

1. The Crucible, released in 1996, uses a fictionalized version of the Salem Witch trials as an allegory for the McCarthy hearings held in the 1950s.

2. The movie The Crucible was adapted from the play. It is an anti-McCarthy parable written by Arthur Miller and first staged in 1953.

3. The movie follows the play in focusing on a group of young girls in Salem in 1692 who were caught participating in prohibited magical actions. When accused, they lied about their activities and accused others of witchcraft.

5. An allegory is a double story in which the characters or events represent or symbolize other ideas and concepts.

6. When analyzing movies, we examine very closely what we view by asking ourselves questions about the characters, their behaviors, their actions, and their appearance. That is, we describe, interpret, draw conclusions, evaluate and make inferences about the picture.

7. Witch hunting occurs in many different forms including gossiping, religious discrimination, revenge, superstition, extremism, divorce, gossiping, persecutions, reputation, and modern-day slavery.

How do you analyze visual media? What evidence do you see of strategies being used to create feelings of hysteria in the movie? What story elements are present in the scene? What evidence supports the theme? How are the play and The Crucible movie similar and different? What are possible historical and modern day parallels of witch hunting?

Modern-day Witch Hunting Analogies

Analyzing The Crucible Movie

Asking Questions

What did you learn from this scene? What is the message of this scene? Do you agree or disagree with it? Did anything that happened in this scene remind you of something that has occurred in your own life or that you have seen occur to others?

How do you form higher order questions? What higher order questions can be created to analyze what is being viewed?

What other situations are there in which a feeling of hysteria caused the deaths of innocent people? What lesson can you learn from these witch hunting events?

hysteria unfair allegations allegory fair discomfort

parallels exterminate jealousy revenge slavery discrimination superstition gossiping divorce

Goody jabberer licentious ameliorate cleave poppet gibbet gulling effrontery probity trials witches

prohibited metaphor

evaluate apply how

interpret what why

analyze

synthesize

Additional Information:

http://www.teachwithmovies.org/guides/crucible-files/crucible-supplemental-materials.html#BridgesToReading includes bridges to reading of The Crucible and links to the internet.