亞瑟．米勒（Arthur Miller）因受到瑪麗安．史塔基（Marion Starkey）《麻薩諸塞州之惡魔》（The Devil in Massachusetts）與麥卡錫「非美調查委員會」（House Committeeon Un-American Activities）的影響，而寫成《熔爐》（The Crucible）此劇。米勒在自傳中表示，為了此劇，他曾親訪薩利姆（Salem），視察女巫審判的檔案。他選擇以個人良知（individual conscience）、約翰．普羅克特（John Proctor）之擇善固執與阿比蓋爾．威廉斯（Abigail Williams）操縱集體癔症（mass hysteria）為其創作主軸，試圖營造出非黑即白之善惡對立的戲劇張力，並將他個人對人性良知的堅持，以修改歷史記憶的方式，寄託在字裡行間。此創作手法符合歐文．李本納（Irving Ribner）對歷史劇的見解，亦符合戈特弗里德．馮．赫爾德（Gottfried von Herder）對於作家傾向於文學裡探究歷史、讀者傾向於涉獵文學來獲取歷史經驗之現象的解釋。於是，以文學記存／寄存歷史，或更精確的說，以歷史劇記存/寄存歷史，遂提供人們一個在文學裡接收歷史記憶、型塑歷史經驗的新的時序與空間，允許人們對史實進行情感的延伸與真理的辯證，而藉由閱讀這樣的文學作品，人們更能意識及反思歷史的多層面向，了解歷史並非黑白分明而是充滿各色光譜，這就是歷史劇記存／寄存歷史的獨特性。本文將以米勒的《熔爐》為例，探究米勒如何在他的歷史劇裡處理文學與歷史之關係，期盼觀察出文學與歷史記述如何互補彼此不足之處。

Inspired by Marion Starkey's ”The Devil in Massachusetts” and influenced by ”the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee,” Arthur Miller determined to write ”The Crucible”. In order to write this play, Miller visited Salem to research the archives of the witchcraft trials. He focused on issues of individual conscience, with John Proctor's holding fast to justice and Abigail Williams' manipulation of mass hysteria, as the themes of the play, trying to build up the dramatic tension between good and evil. By remodeling historical events, he presents his beliefs with regard to individual conscience in this work. The method he applies in the play runs parallel with what Irving Ribner has emphasized in his definition of historical play, and also responds to Gottfried von Herder's explanation of the trend in which the author tends to explore history in literature and the reader tends to grasp historical experiences in literature. Therefore, to record history in literature or--put it in a simple way--to record history in historical play, provides people with a new sense of time and space for receiving historical memories and reshaping historical experiences. It allows people to bear further emotions and carry on more debates about the truth of events. Then, by reading these kinds of literary works, people may sense and reflect more on various aspects of history, discovering that it is not just black and white. This is the uniqueness of historical plays in recording history. The essay will examine how Miller deals with the relationship between literature and history in ”The Crucible” and show that literature and historical narrative do indeed complement each other.