Goodner ENGL III AP LANG & COMP 1
Feminist Critical Perspective in Miller’s The Crucible
Directions:
A. Read the Notes on the Feminist Approach carefully and thoughtfully. Read through the list of
Essential Questions for a Feminist Reading to keep in mind as you complete your task.
B. Complete the three following activities.
C. Create product for presentation.
Examining the Effect of Societal Gender Roles on the Action and Outcome of the Play
1.
In your group, list the characters in the play who hold the most power within the Puritan society of 1692
Salem.
 If you name female characters, ask whether these characters are strong individuals or powerful
within their society.
 If you name the accusers, ask whether these characters held any power within their society the
day before the action of the play.
2.
List the characters in the play who hold the least power within their society.
 Discuss and list the various factors (gender, politics, economics, theology) that keep these
characters powerless.
3.
List the accusers’ names.
 Identify each accuser’s motive for participation.
 Determine the social role or class of each of the accusers, especially noting how many of the girls
are, or have been, servants.
 To what extent is gender a factor in the accusers’ role?
4.
List the victims’ names.
 Note who of these was executed.
 Note who was ultimately released.
 Discuss the extent to which gender plays a role in who was accused, executed, released.
5.
Analyze the role of gender in the play. How would the plot have evolved differently or how would the
outcome of the play have changed if any of the key characters were of the opposite gender?
Examining Arthur Miller’s Treatment of His Male and Female Characters
1.
2.
Working with the Activity Two handout, examine the play and cite specific examples of dialogue and
action to complete the chart, especially deciding whether the character is, overall, a sympathetic
character or not.
Discuss whether Miller’s development and treatment of his male and female characters would support
any thesis regarding his being more sympathetic to one gender than another.
Examining the Women in the Play as Either Victims of Manipulation
or the Manipulators Themselves
1.
2.
Working with the Activity Three handout, examine the quotations, identify the speaker, and determine
what the quotation is revealing about how the allegation of witchcraft originally arose.
Discuss who is “most guilty” of the witchcraft hysteria, and the extent to which gender—especially the
gender of the key accusers—played a role in the play.
Goodner ENGL III AP LANG & COMP 2
Feminist Critical Perspective in Miller’s The Crucible
Presentation:
Once your group has completed the comprehensive Feminist Critical Perspective
of Miller’s The Crucible, you will:
 Use the information you’ve learned from your study of a feminist approach
and the three assigned activities.
 Create a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation demonstrating what you’ve
learned about a feminist approach AND how it is used by Miller in The
Crucible.
 Presentations must include:
o Description of approach (remember, you are “teaching” this material
to your classmates)
o Identify & Explain main areas of study/points of criticism
o Examples (direct quotations with commentary) of the approach used
in the play (from your three activities)
o At least 3 graphics that are relevant to topic
 Your group must be ready to present on the assigned date (TBA) and, with
all members participating, “teach” your classmates this approach.
Goodner ENGL III AP LANG & COMP 3
Feminist Critical Perspective in Miller’s The Crucible
The Crucible: Feminist Activity Two
Character Chart
Character Chart
Mercy Lewis
Betty Parris
Susanna Walcott
Mary Warren
Abigail Williams
Sarah Good
Rebecca Nurse
Elizabeth Proctor
Giles Corey
Francis Nurse
John Proctor
Reverend Hale
Reverend Parris
Gender
Positive
Character
Traits
Negative
Character
Traits
Treated
Overall
Sympathetically
or No?
Goodner ENGL III AP LANG & COMP 4
Feminist Critical Perspective in Miller’s The Crucible
The Crucible: Feminist Activity Three
Read the quotations. Identify the speaker and determine the extent to which the information
revealed by the quotation contributes to the final conclusion that there is witchcraft afoot in
Salem.
1. “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.”
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2. “The witch-hunt was not however, a mere repression. It was also and as importantly, a long
overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of
accusations against the victims.”
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3. “Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it—and I’ll be whipped if I must be.”
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4. “And I thought I saw—someone naked running through the trees.”
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5. “Now look you child, your punishment will come in its time. But if you trafficked with spirits in the
forest I must know.”
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6. “But we never conjured spirits.”
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7. “How high did she fly, how high? …Why it’s sure she did, Mr. Collins saw her goin’ over Ingersoll’s
barn, and come down light as a bird, he says.”
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Goodner ENGL III AP LANG & COMP 5
Feminist Critical Perspective in Miller’s The Crucible
8. “He [Reverend Hale] has much experience in all demonic arts.”
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9. “There are hurtful, vengeful, spirits layin’ hands on these children.”
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10. “Don’t you understand it, sir? There is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself dark.”
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11. “What’ll we do? The village is out! I just come from the farm; the whole country is talkin’
witchcraft!
They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby!”
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12. “He knows Tituba conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of the grave”
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13. “I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies?”
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14. “You are not undone! Let you take hold here. Wait for no one to charge you-declare it yourself.
You have discovered witchcraft.”
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15. “Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year
ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You’ll only be whipped for dancin’ and the other things!”
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16. “You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him that!”
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Goodner ENGL III AP LANG & COMP 6
Feminist Critical Perspective in Miller’s The Crucible
17. “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”
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18. Speaker 1: “The road past my house is a pilgrimage to Salem all morning. The town’s mumbling
witchcraft.”
Speaker 2: “Oh posh! Winningly she comes a little closer, with a confidential wicked air. We were
dancin’ in the woods last, my uncle leaped in on us. She took fright, is all.”
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19. “Oh, she’s only gone silly somehow.”
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20. “That is a notorious sign of witchcraft afoot, Goody Nurse, a prodigious sign!”
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21. Based on your findings above, would you conclude that it was the girls or others who contributed
the most to the specific allegations of witchcraft in the village?
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22. To what extent does gender play a role in the allegations?
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