Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

Cassidy Menard Mrs. Myllyla Comparison Essay 1 December 2017 Salem Witch Trials VS. McCarthyism Trials In both The Crucible and McCarthyism, we see that dishonest people get ahead by using distractions of other people. In both instances, falsely accuse other people of wrongdoing in order to divert attention away from their own wrongdoings.

Guilty Even if Not Because of false accusations, many lives have been demolished throughout history. A play written by Arthur Miller,The Crucible, where a group of girls got accused of witchcraft moreover, they were faking it in order to act up as well as accuse people they disliked turning it into a long time wasting uproar, which getting people killed for loathing that person. McCarthyism is when McCarthy starts accusing people of communism for his sake. People made accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. Arthur Miller used The Crucible as a criticism of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his actions by comparing being accused of witchcraft and not confessing to witchcraft from the play to being accused of communism

McCarthyism was a period in America where there was an intense suspicion of Communists in the Government Department. McCarthyism was named after U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin. McCarthyism took place during the Red Scare in the 1920s. The Crucible and McCarthyism are parallels because both of them lacked evidence, people were blaming each other, and some people were resisting

Both the Salem witch trials and the red scare of the 1950’s are significant events in American history, but how are they connected? An analysis of The Crucible and McCarthyism of the 1950’s shows similarities between being accused

Imagine pursuing your dreams only to have them taken away from you under false pretenses and against your basic rights as a human being. From 1947 to 1956 this was prevalent due to the communist hunt in America. This hunt provided the proper environment for which innocent people were charged with little to no evidence. Arthur Miller was targeted by HUAC for his play The Crucible because of its correlations between the play and modern events.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in response to the “Red Scare”. The story took place on Salem, Massachusetts, where people accused others of being witches. They didn’t have evidence to prove their accusations, but the government ignored the facts and decided to believe rumors. This play is a contemporary example of what was happening to the American society during McCarthyism.

The Crucible, written by playwright Arthur Miller, is an accurate representation of the Communist Red Scare. The play is a metaphor for McCarthyism; the act of falsely accusing without any evidence. It is written based on the Salem Witch Trials, a time during the 1600s when men and women all over Salem, Massachusetts, were being wrongly prosecuted for practicing witchcraft. In both history and the play, many innocent people were proceeded against for a crime they didn’t commit, being communist. Even though the fear of being accused of communism was widely known, and not one person would dare to commit such a crime, many guiltless individuals were charged anyway.

There is a contagious sort of corruption rife amidst 17th century Salem, as depicted in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. Salem, supposedly a pious, saintly township, is represented as everything but, as sanity and control is soon decimated at the hands of said corruption. “Judgement waits...all” once the villagers fall under varying forms of primitive lust - affecting their choices, actions, and moral senses - highly reminiscent of the lust for power that fuelled the McCarthy era. Keeping this context in mind, the rapid spread of lust amongst Salem, whilst not justified, is understandable, as The Crucible is Miller’s direct response to the trials and tribulations of the McCarthy era.

Because of an endless cycle of fear, that led to false accusations, which led to more fear, and never having real evidence, that many people lost their lives during the Red Scare. Since false accusations, fear mongering, and lack of evidence, are all themes in the Crucible by Arthur Miller, it shows that the play was an Allegory for what happened during the McCarthy era and for the Red Scare. Works Cited “History's Greatest Hoaxes McCarthyism: Joseph McCarthy's Witch-Hunts | History Channel on Foxtel.” History Channel, 12 Oct. 2017,

The Crucible by Arthur Miller can often be misunderstood as just a play written to show the mass hysteria of the 17th century caused by the lack of good judgement made by the puritans. However, Miller was only using the past to show America the path they were following if they continued to persecute communist and also as a warning for the future generations of Americans, through the use of an allegory. If the reader does not see what Miller is trying to accomplish from writing this play then there is a potential danger of repeating the mistakes made by both Salem and the entire country. In order to avoid this it is important for the reader to understand the motivations behind the false accusations made and the unjust court proceedings that

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.

Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.

Also, since The Crucible was written to be parallel to McCarthyism, the same idea is shown. The same situation can be seen in The Crucible as Arthur Miller was influenced by the events that occurred during McCarthyism. In the Crucible, anyone whose name that had been mentioned underwent an investigation and was asked to prove that they were not partaking in witchcraft. Because this task was impossible, the court made rash decisions such as sending people to jail or sentencing them to be hanged. This scenario is seen in the crucible when Rebecca Nurse is accused.

Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.

The Crucible PRESENT TENSE CHECK! After reading The Crucible, there is only one question left in the mind of the reader and that is: how do bad things happen to good people? Perhaps the author, in his own creative way, addresses this universal question through the notorious witch trials of Salem. Miller wrote this play in the background of the McCarthyism Era during which anti-communist government men and other influential politicians led by Senator Joseph McCarthy “witch-hunted” people in the 1950s that were believed to be communists by bringing them to trial and punishing them.