Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

The Crucible, an allegorical play, was written by Arthur Miller because he observed and personally experienced events occurring in America during the McCarthyism Era in the 1950s that were similar to those of the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692. Now, there are various ways to how the Crucible and the McCarthyism Era are similar, these reasons being the strongest ones. McCarthyism and the Crucible both contained the idea of higher status people having the most power in these situations. To illustrate, Abby accuses the wife of a government man in the Crucible movie. Danforth tells Abby that she must be mistaken and that she should rethink about it again.

Maria Evans Mrs. Busick English 3 03 February 2023 The Crucible & McCarthyism: What are the parallels? Have you ever been so wrapped up in hysteria and fear that you end up doing things that you would normally consider irrational, extreme, and completely against your values? This situation was perfectly played out in The Crucible based on the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and the McCarthy Era in the United States in 1953. The Crucible was a book written by Arthur Miller, dramatizing the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts.

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

Once the U.S. government started the false accusations many continued to panic wanting to avoid being accused of being a Communist with barely any evidence. With no evidence, the Government was arresting with a testimony from someone and no physical proof, which enlargened the widespread fear. McCarthyism was brought upon by Joeseph McCarthy and

The term McCarthyism was adopted in the 1950s by one Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator who used his power to ensure that communism was not spread throughout the United States. This time period is known as the “Red Scare”, in which McCarthy accused 205 officials from the U.S. Department of State of being communists or communist sympathizers. Not only were US officials targeted, but many of those involved in the entertainment business got blacklisted when they would refuse to answer questions about their involvement with the Communist Party at the time. Consequently, this caused the public to avalanche into a state of mass hysteria and paranoia because no one wanted to be accused of such a crime knowing that this could cause major repercussions.

At the time when Arthur Miller wrote the play “The Crucible”, he was coming from the position of a victim. Arthur Miller was accused of being a member of the communist party in the McCarthy era better known as The Red Scare. “The Crucible” is an allegory to The Red scare that was going on when Arthur Miller wrote the play. An allegory is a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning. “The Crucible” contains many similar events to what had been happening during the Red Scare, with some events being very similar, making “The Crucible” a perfect allegory for Arthur Miller to write a play about.

The Salem Witch Craft was one of the main themes in the play “The Cruicible” by Author Miller. Injustice, inequity, and fear were experienced throughout colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. The Salem Witch trials consisted of a series of hearings and prosecutions towards people accused of practising witchcraft. In order to survive; one would blame others for something they have not done. While the witchcraft was the biggest topic in the seventeenths century, McCarthyism was in the twentieths.

In the play, “The Crucible”, author Arthur Miller uses the play as an allegory to connect the accusations of witchcraft to the politically motivated accusations and subsequent trials of suspected communists in America during the 1950s. The Crucible has drawn connections to events like the Salem Witch Trials, the Red Scare, and the HUAC trials that show that these events are all similar. The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller that resembles the period of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote this play as an allegory for McCarthyism, which was a political witch-hunt against supposed communists in the United States during the 1950s. The Red Scare was a period of political persecution and

In modern times, witches are fantasy characters seen in media, but in the town of Salem, they are a real fear. A fear that drives people to insanity and leaves some questioning if reputation is more important than integrity. Arthur Miller enlightens these questioning people in his play The Crucible by describing the witch hunts in Salem. The play follows the people of Salem as the town falls into a witch hunt when a group of girls accuse an innocent slave of witchcraft to save themselves from getting in trouble. It describes the corruption of the authority figures as they force innocent people to confess and accuse others of witchcraft, and it shows how fear can cause a whole town to go against their better judgment.

People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.

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.

Fear is inherent in many Witch Hunts, especially the witch hunt of Salem in 1692. Like said previously fear spreads like fire. In the play “The Crucible” everyone was struck by fear. Fear influenced people to take extreme measures and act irrationally. Abigail Williams a character in the play had many fears.

“The Crucible” is a play about the unfortunate Salem Witch Trials but if one dug deeper, the events of “The Crucible” closely relate to the events of McCarthyism in the 1950’s. The people during the 1950’s were very distraught and constantly looking over their shoulders in fear in search of Communists because they were a national and social threat to the Democratic Republic. People were turning their backs on their moral and personal values to point out yet another victim to the Communist chase. The US authoritative figures conjured a hysterical fear of their government collapsing and the people losing their rights which turned them into hypocritical pursuants. Arthur Miller targets these points in “The Crucible” with his knowledge of the Salem

In history there have been many major events that have shaped the times we live in. Two of the major events of our time are the "witchunts" of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a drama and fictional story of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-1693. Miller wrote the play as a parable for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists.

Throughout the course of American history there has been many two persecutions that have been very similar to one other, but they were separated by almost 3 centuries. One of these events was the “witch hunts”, Salem Witch Trials, and the other was McCarthyism. Because of these controversial topics, Arthur Miller wrote his play called The Crucible, in which he uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to exhibit the dangerous McCarthyism, the bystander effect, and mass hysteria. Another intention of writing was the hope that society would learn and grow from the past, instead of ignoring and repeating it again.