Fear And Corruption In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In the history, there are have many major events that have affected the times we live in. Two of the major events of our time are the Witch-hunt of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. In these two events, there are many similarities like anger, fear, and Consequence. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red scare in the McCarthy Era because the example is McCarthy accused many people of being part of the communist party. It is said to have been a modern-day witch hunt, and it showed another example of a time period in which false and unsettling accusations led to forced confessions.

In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, the characters' motivations seem to be corrupt. Taking a persons life away or saving it, is what motivation can do. The people of Salem tend to use it for there own personal gain instead of helping others. This can be traced back to Thomas Putnam's greed, Mary Warren's fear and Abigail William's lust to falsely accuse there neighbors of witchcraft.

Sometimes people can be too afraid of something or too caught up in hearing what they want to hear that they lose sight of the truth, and this can lead to many bad things including people losing their lives unjustly. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because both had figurative and literal witch hunts, bandwagoning with accusations and hysteria, and social drama in the news and rumor’s. Joseph McCarthy came forward with a list of 224 names, that he claimed were part of the communist party and had infiltrated the US. In the Crucible, Abigail constantly accuses different people of being witches or bewitching her, even resorting to acting like something is happening when in reality she is just

Mrs. Putnam accuses Tituba of using witchcraft to kill her children. The importance of Tituba being accused by Mrs. Putnam shows that the people of Salem are twisting the fear of the unknown in order to bring vengence to others. People, like Mrs. Putnam, will always try to shift their problems on others so that they might get false justice for their own actions. Moreover, it is clear that the people are too afraid of being accused of witchcraft to stop this from happening thus affirming that the fear of unknown overpowers people senses making them very unreasonable. To wrap up, the people of Salem are to afraid of being accused of something they know nothing about which, affirms that the fear of the unknown skewers justice, and

History has proven many people choose themselves over the truth. In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, shows the effect of this exact problem in Deputy Governor Danforth. Danforth impacts many conflicts which relies on his political motivation. His decisions, even with many new discovery, highlights his own career making himself look more powerful. Danforth discovers many internal and external conflicts throughout The Crucible.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller leaves readers wondering if fear and pride can have a fatal partnership. He uses the opposing forces, the court and the accused, to display how the pride of the judges cost many of the accused their lives. Throughout The Crucible, readers are shown that the pride of the court feeds into the fear of witchcraft all throughout Salem. For instance, Hale, who is a well-educated man, thinks he is above being at fault. As a result, he wrongfully sends many citizens off to their deaths.

Fear often leads people to make rash, harmful mistakes. This emotion is to be afraid of (someone or something) likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening. The Crucible is based on the Salem witch trials of 1692. A bunch of girls claim they are corrupted by the devil and accused many of witchcraft to get out of trouble because they were caught dancing in the forest by a fire which is forbidden. Fear is the reason why the village of Salem dealt with the witchcraft incidents so badly.

Cameron Oldfield Mrs. Brincks English III 15 November, 2015 The Crucible and Red Scare Imagine being thrown in jail, blamed for something that you didn't do .The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a story about how certain propaganda and false accusations can ruin lives, just like in the case of the Red Scare. Although 1692 the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare were over 200 years apart, The similarities are striking. both trials used intimidation, fear, hatred, and false accusations to ruin innocent lives. Both trials resulted in terrible outcomes, with both ending with innocent people being put to death and shunned from society.

In the play, Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” many themes are shown. Throughout the themes the hunger for power, authority and respect stands out the most in male characters, which are the majority gender in the story. According to Webster’s dictionary, power is “the ability or right to control people or things.” Also, according to Webster’s dictionary authority is “the power to give orders or make decisions.” And lastly, Webster’s dictionary tells us that respect is “a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good.”

Power is a huge aspect of how people see an individual and how they are treated in Salem, Massachusetts, which is the setting of The Crucible. Factors such as gender, religion, and how much land one own’s are truly what separate the powerful from the powerless in this Puritan society. However, a surprising person in Betty Parris is able to maintain great power from simply lying “asleep.” Although she must defy the odds of power through gender and age, Betty Parris establishes herself as the most powerful person in Salem through her ability to influence the actions of people around her and cause the town to enter a state of hysteria.

For others fear is suppressed by getting 'buzzed '; "My courage bolstered by booze, I 'm ready to eat a lip." (Edge 143). In essence, Survival Mechanistic fear becomes habitual when, there are families that would not touch upon a subject that is percieved to be painful and/or clearly avoidable. Such is the case for the inmates at a federal prison camp, "The mothers never say what they want to say to their children. They say things like, "Do well in school," "Be nice to your sister"" (Coyne 74).

When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

What are some times in history where fear became a motivator? Fear is motivator because every time in history there is a war the people fighting that war are terrified and the fear motivates them to stay alive and sometimes they do or they don't. What are some times today where people use fear as a way to get what they want?

The play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller demonstrates the implications of a society in complete chaos over an irrational fear of witchcraft in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Fear plays an immense role in the way people make their decisions, such as when the characters of Danforth and Mary Warren resort to hypocrisy when no other options remain. Danforth and Mary Warren both embody hypocrisy, as seen when Mary says she cannot lie anymore and then lies when she becomes scared for her life, and Danforth when saying lying will send a person to Hell, but then forcing people to choose between lying and death. Mary Warren exemplifies hypocrisy extraordinarily well in the scene when she and Proctor travel to the courthouse so she can confess that the girls have pretended everything and they never actually saw spirits.

Human Nature has always been about survival and self-preservation. We see this repeated over and over in history, literature, and even in our own lives. “The Crucible”, written by Arthur Miller, is a web spun on deceit, lies, fear, and the strong will to preserve one’s self. Set in the late 1600’s, a witch hunt grips the small town of Salem throwing its residents into a state of constant hysteria. Many characters if not all, have been the spider and the fly, some more obvious to one side than others.