Carrie Rushman
English III Honors B
Mrs. Conroy
November 27, 1999

Hawthorne and Miller's Use of History in their Works

During the 1690s, Puritan ideals led to the notorious Salem witch trials.¹ Centuries later, in the late 1940s and 1950s, the fear of Communism prompted what we now call the Red Scare.² Then in 1956, Miller was suspected of being a communist and had to testify against himself and others.³ He noticed a similarity between the fear America was experiencing and the Salem witch trials.⁴ Hawthorne lived in the 1800s. He felt some discomfort regarding the Salem witch trials because one of his ancestors had been a judge in the trials and convicted numerous innocents accused.⁵ Both men went on to write about these experiences: Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter and the short story Young Goodman Brown, and Miller, the play The Crucible. While Hawthorne uses history to create a fictional story discussing the past, Miller uses history to tell about an actual occurrence that takes place in the present.

In the 1500s, religious upheaval instigated by Martin Luther kept people spiritually active. They were forced to constantly think about faith and their church. By the late 1600s, however, the focus on religion had died down, even in the Puritan colonies in New England. Prosperity reigned, and with it came slothfulness and restlessness.⁶ Some ministers were still fascinated by the supernatural, and some, such as Cotton Mather, did extensive research into the area, trying to prove the validity of their theories.⁷ In addition, in the 1680s England and her colonies experienced controversy in the government.⁸ All these factors eventually fed the witchhunt in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.⁹

In the late 1940s and 1950s a new kind of witchhunt plagued the American people. World War II had ended and the Cold War had begun. There was much anxiety about the spread of Communism in Europe and Asia, and some Communist sympathizers had already been found in the United States' government.¹⁰ To add to the tensions, Senator McCarthy, eager for attention, claimed to have the 205 names of "'all the men in the state department' who were 'active members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring.'"¹¹ Soon, the House Un-American Activities Committee began questioning suspected Communists, including Miller.¹²

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a descendant of Judge Hawthorne who served in the Salem witch trials. Hawthorne's Puritan heritage haunted him all his life, and his method for coping with his feelings regarding this was his writings.¹³ In The Scarlet Letter and Young Goodman Brown, he explores the consequences, falsity, and obsession of Puritan beliefs. In The Scarlet Letter, a Puritan town in New England has penalized Hester Prynne for adultery.¹⁴ Normally, her sentence would have been hanging, but due to the circumstances, she must only stand on the scaffold for three hours and wear a red "A" always on her bosom.¹⁵ The townspeople find this a very merciful penalty. Says one woman, "What do we talk of marks and brands, whether on the bodice of her gown, or the flesh of her forehead?... This woman has brought shame upon us all, and ought to die. Is there not law for it?"¹⁶ Throughout the novel, Hawthorne portrays the Puritans as heartless hypocrites as they alienate Hester while claiming to be God's holy people. He also uses description to paint an accurate picture of 16^th century New England.

In the 1800s, the Puritans were no longer the heart of New England society. American literature, however, was growing. They were molding English to fit the American ideals. Authors began springing up from the American soil: Melville, Whitman, Longfellow, Emerson, and Hawthorne.¹⁷ Some, like Whitman and Melville, write about America as they saw it. Others, such as Longfellow and Hawthorne, write about America's past. When Hawthorne writes, he is not telling the reader about his life in the present, but rather, about life in the past. He is, as stated earlier, trying to cope with his heritage.¹⁸ When he writes about Goodman Brown, he is exploring the emotions of a confused Puritan man. When he writes about Hester, he is presenting Puritan society. He is not trying to explore his own emotions or present his society's ideals. He is expressing his feelings about the past.

When Miller writes The Crucible, however, he is not writing about the past, but about the present he is familiar with. The 1600s are really the 1900s. The judges are really members of the House Un-American Activities Committee. The supposed witches are really supposed Communists. Miller uses a familiar historical story to express his feelings about a present dilemma. What is uncanny is how similar the two incidents are. An excerpt from The Crucible sounds very much like an excerpt from Miller's testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. In The Crucible, Giles is questioned by Judges Hawthorne and Danforth. Giles is asked to name the person who told him Putnam was trying to acquire property using the trials. He refuses to name anyone, so Danforth arrests him for contempt of the court.¹⁹ In 1956, Miller himself is questioned regarding Communist writers' meetings he has attended. It is suggested "that the witness be ordered and directed to answer the question as to who it was that he saw at these meetings." Miller refuses to name anyone, so the court finds him guilty of contempt, fines him, and imprisons him for a thirty days.²⁰

Another very important similarity between the two incidences is the personal interests also involved in the trials. The Salem witch trials may have been largely based on conflicts within Salem regarding land ownership, and also clergymen who had lost importance in Puritan society.²¹ The Red Scare was in part prompted by Senator McCarthy's desire for power and publicity.²² Also, in both cases, the public was manipulated using fear. In the Salem trials, the girls screamed and thrashed, awakening in the judges a feeling of panic, and therefore fear. The horror of war and the post-war hostilities of the 1950s created tension in the United States, and all that was needed to set off the witchhunt was the discovery of Communist spies in America. When Miller realized these similarities, he used history to express his feelings about the present. It was much easier to show the falsity of the McCarthy Era by likening it to the already proven false Salem witch trials than to prove false the McCarthy Era using the evidence available at the time.

Hawthorne tries to tell us about the 1600s in his writings. Miller uses the 1600s to explain the 1900s. Despite their differing focuses, however, both do tell us the story of the American people. Hawthorne presents the beginnings of American society, our background in Puritan ideals, and also, though unwittingly, a little about the 19^th century feelings on that subject. Miller speaks to us about America in the 1950s, and about the fear America has carried with her from the very beginning. Both authors are needed, just as both eras are important parts of American history.

Works Cited

Donovan, Robert J. Tumultuous Years. New York: Norton, 1982.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. New York: Bantam, 1986.

Johnson, Paul. A History of the American People. New York: HarperCollins, 1997.

Lewis, Allan. American Plays and Playwrights of the Contemporary Theatre. New York: Crown, 1965.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible and Related Readings. Evanston, Illinois: McDougal, 1997.

Miller, Arthur. Readings on Arthur Miller. San Diego: Greenhaven, 1997.

Endnotes