Annotated Source 1 & 2

Research Question: How dose Arthur Miller speaks on the hazards of mass
hysteria in society by using the Salem Witch Trials and false accusations?

 "The Devil Made Me Do It! Hiatoey to Play to Opera: Media Transformation

in Arthur Miller"s The Crucible" by Robert Kolt.
Kolt goes into great detail in this article as to why Arthur Miller based The
Crucible on the Salem Witch Trials and the parallels, he drew between the events
of seventeenth-century Salem and twentieth-century Washington. Additionally,
Kolt went into great length regarding Miller's study of the Salem Witch Trials
while writing “The Crucible”. This article will serve as one of my primary sources
for Paper #3 as I utilize it to examine why Miller chose to use the Salem Witch
Trials as a metaphor for the events of his day. And to examine how he incites
terror by falsely accusing the characters in the play in order to exert some
measure of control and fear in hopes of warning his readers of the outcome and
effects the McCarthy case will have.

 "Beware the Loss of Conscience: The Crucible as Warning for Today" by

Judith A. Cerjak.
In this article by Cerjak, the symbolism of the Salem Witch Trials and the
warnings Miller is trying to convey to the readers about the McCarthy era are
both thoroughly examined. Cerjak believes that the message Miller is attempting
to spread is that the political figures on the far Right are associated with parts of
the Christian fundamentalist movement, and that their influence is on the verge
of inciting widespread hysteria. I also plan on this article as one of my sources to
take a deeper look into understanding why Miller uses the Salem Witch trials to
warning the people about the hysteria that the McCarthy era will cause and by
writing “the crucible” to show the effects of false accusations.