Study Questions for Salem Witchcraft Trials, The Crucible, Witchcraft at Salem

  1. What were the two conspiracies of the Salem witchcraft trials?

  2. What are the main primary sources for the Salem witchcraft trials, and can we consider them reliable? What are the secondary sources? Could Miller’s play ever be a primary work? Could Hansen’s history of the Salem trials ever be a primary source?

  3. Why should we consider the on-line version of the Salem trial transcripts reliable? Why should we be more skeptical about some of the other “witch-pages” on the Web?

  4. What are the components of the witchcraft trial?

  5. According to Tituba's first examination, who is hurting the children, and why? What kind of "attendants" or familiars do the witches have? How are they nourished? According to Tituba's in her second examination, the next day, who is it that came to see her? What does he want her to do, and what does she do? What does she see when she does that? Exactly what is Tituba indicted for? Why are Tituba’s examination and testimony so important?

  6. Why and how is the examination of Abigail Hobbs on April 19th interrupted? How does Abigail afflict people? What was Abigail doing in Samuel Parris's pasture?

  7. What evidence is there that George Burroughs has made a covenant with the Devil? How does he get along with his wives? According to Ann Putnam, Jr., what is especially dreadful about Burroughs's appearance to her on April 20th?

  8. What does Susannah Martin do when the girls accuse her of afflicting them? Why won't she describe her thoughts to the examiners? How does she explain the accusations against her? According to her male accusers, how is Susannah Martin likely to afflict them? What kind of conflicts often precede affliction by Martin?

  9. Why was John Proctor’s response to Mary Warren’s charges an important step in resistance to the trials? How did his friends defend him? What are the grounds on which Proctor petitions for a change of venue to Boston? Why does he want Cotton Mather there? Compare the actual petition to Proctor’s final speech in the film. What does that tell us about Miller’s (and Director Nicholas Hytner’s) own interests in the trials?

  10. What is the traditional interpretation of the Salem witchcraft trials according to Hansen?

  11. How does Hansen revise that tradition?

  12. Why was John Proctor’s response to Mary Warren’s charges an important step in resistance to the trials? How did his friends defend him? What are the grounds on which Proctor petitions for a change of venue to Boston? Why does he want Cotton Mather there? Compare the actual petition to Proctor’s final speech in the film. What does that tell us about Miller’s (and Director Nicholas Hytner’s) own interests in the trials?

  13. According to Hansen, why do we remain fascinated by the Salem trials? How does that fascination reinforce traditional interpretations of the Salem trials? How does it support Hansen’s revisionist interpretation of the trials?

  14. According to Arthur Miller, why was Puritan society responsible for the Salem trials?

  15. Why did Puritanism become a problem only in 1692, according to Miller?

  16. To Arthur Miller, what is the “paradox in whose grip we still live”?

  17. Why does Arthur Miller think the U.S. is like Salem?

  18. Why does Miller believe some notion of the Devil is a “necessity” to such a society?

  19. According to Nicholas Hytner, the director of the film-version of The Crucible, why is the story told by Miller still topical fifty years after the play, and four hundred years after the actual trials at Salem?