Authority In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

During ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, a story about the Salem witch trials in early American colonies, people constantly fight over what they believe is right as well as their personal authority. Throughout the story, the thought that people will abuse the sometimes small bit of authority that they have is prominent, one case being how Abigail and how she affects the trials. In many cases this authority also affects the capacity of independent thought throughout the colonies at the time much like the laws set in place that require the population to be Christian. Abigail, the daughter of parris, is a major part of the abuse of authority throughout the play and this is primarily due to the fact that she is the niece of the town reverend, Parris.

“The Crucible” is a timeless play whose ideas can be applied to nearly every time period in history. Arthur Miller’s writing contained insights into human nature and displayed the dangers of hearsay and abuses of power. Those dangers were very present in Arthur Miller’s depiction of the Salem Witch Trials and even in more modern times. Through his fictionalized depiction of the events of the 1692 Salem Witch Trials Miller painted a vivid picture that’s allegories can be compared to even modern events. The events of “The Crucible” are comparable to both the Red Scare and the Covid-19 Pandemic.

In the late 1940s – early 1950s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy made the grandiose pledge to uncover a communist plot to overthrow democracy in United States. No one was safe from persecutions, and the “witch hunts” for communism began. In response to the mass hysteria over this communist infiltration, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. In the play, the people of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 sought to destroy the devil’s influence by seeking and destroying witches. This began the Salem Witchcraft Trials.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote the play because he was inspired by McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the hunt for communists that was taken too far. In The Crucible he presented a universal message. He was comparing how communists did exist and witches did not, but yet they were both taken as serious.

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.

Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.

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.

People tend to justify their actions, regardless of the outcome. With knowledge of their actions, people misemploy their authority. A remarkable playwright of the American theater, Arthur Miller continues to capture his audience with The Crucible. In the play, Miller portrays several characters, who abuses their authority. However, of the very few, Miller creates a character who makes an important contrast to these corrupt people.

Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.

Why Did Arthur Miller Write The Crucible? Fear very often leads to unexpected and unwanted results. Decisions made in fear are often more dangerous than the thing being feared. In the United States during the Cold War fear had been running rampant.

The crucible is an allegory for McCarthy and the red scare of the early 1950, in the early. Many Americans were afraid that communism might infiltrate the American government and cause the US government to fall. Arthur Miller, the author of the crucibles wrote about Salem witch trials, but used the story to illustrate the unsubstantiated fear, panic hysteria of looking for communist support in America. In the early 1950 Americans became fearful that their friends, neighbors, or cow-workers might be communists attempting to undermine American democracy and spread communism throughout the world. Playwright Arthur Miller, in researching the sale, witch trials and a red scare of impending communism.

Everyone longs for success. They desire the acceptance and approval for following their moral compass, being rewarded, and being acknowledged. However, one cannot maintain success without a purposeful and achievable position of power. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the power of society is bound upon a pronounced hierarchy. Men naturally are deemed as having higher status than women in society.

The threat of Communism and the Red Scare put fear of group mentality into many people during the late 1940-50s.   The authors of 1984 and The Crucible used their respective works to comment on the social injustice going on in their own lives, which connects to injustice the exists throughout time anywhere in the world. Miller wrote his play, set in 1692, about Puritans and the Salem witch trials because he believed that, similar to his trial for HUAC in the 1950s, the trials in Salem were caused by false accusations and mass hysteria led by powerful individuals. In 1984, Orwell creates a world in the near future that shows group mentality and its threat to conform society with the government.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, as a response to McCarthyism, which is, in general, accusing people of crimes with little to no proof. It ran rampant through the United States during the Second Red Scare through the early 1950s (exactly when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible). In The Crucible, Miller juxtaposes the leaders, who rationally think for themselves, and the followers, who believe what everybody else believes, through irony, imagery, and denotation. The Crucible is riddled with irony, and Arthur Miller utilizes situational and dramatic irony to show the difference between followers and leaders.