The Crucible Essay
In America during 1953, the fear of Communism was at its peak. Many people falsely accused and prosecuted during this time, being labeled as communists, losing their jobs, and harassed because of rumors and fear mongering. This stretch of time was labeled the “Red Scare” or the McCarthyism Era because of the witch hunts being spearheaded by Joseph McCarthy. Many people saw this as wrong and one of those people was an author by the name of Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller created an allegory to signify the era of McCarthyism in 1953 when he wrote The Crucible, arguing that power is often used for the wrong reasons, false accusations, and the use of fear tactics.
History has often shown that power in the hands of the wrong people can be dangerous and often lead to nothing good. This is proven true in the Crucible through the girls and the church. The girls in the book were given much influence because the villagers thought that they could accurately convict those who were accursed with the devil and that is exactly what Arthur Miller saw in real life with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Americans thought that he was able to convict communists when in reality it was nothing more than guessing off of rumors. For example,
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In the crucible, many men and women were falsely accused of doing witchcraft. For example, on page 35 danforth states“There lurks somewhere in her heart, a desire to undermine the court.” speaking of Mary Warren who used her power to convince Danforth that there are no spirits nor witches in order to save her own neck. Another example is on page 202 Abigail says, “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!” speaking of john proctor’s wife, Elizabeth. The false accusations that occurred in the crucible was what caused the witch trials to be such a huge deal, much like the McCarthyism
In The Crucible, the fear of witchcraft precedes the Salem witch trials; however, the accusers capitalize on this fear by alleging that neighbors committed acts of witchcraft in order to obtain their own wishes. An example of their manipulation of the public fears stems from Abigail's intentions behind accusing Elizabeth Proctor. In an attempt to remove Elizabeth from the scenario so she could live with John, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft with tampered evidence, demonstrating her misuse of the court system and the public’s fear. Thus, Murrow’s description of McCarthy’s actions relate to that of Miller’s The Crucible on a fundamental
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was written when Joseph R. McCarthy sprung forward with a list of so-called communists in our government. This was an action that helped create the red scare throughout america, in which many would be accused of communism with little proof. Miller showed that by writing what's seen as a metaphor for a modern day witch hunt. His story gives us a good chance to know the characters with rich text allowing deeper analyzation of them. Many become personally affected in which we can see following each ACT.
Arthur Miller fell victim to what many labelled McCarthyism. Miller wrote “The Crucible”, with the intention of showing how unethical these accusations were. The expectation that Miller had for his
In The Crucible, a lot of characters were not judged fairly. Most of them were jailed or killed and it provided little proof of witchcraft. One character for example was Rebecca Nurse. Rebecca was first brought to trial when her name was brought up into court and so she was brought in to determine if she was capable of witchcraft or not. During the trial, Mary Warren pretended that Rebecca has summoned her soul to choke her.
During McCarthyism Arthur Miller did not confess and he was charged with contempt of court also during McCarthyism if you were labeled a Communist you were theoretically dead to everyone else. The last way The Crucible compares to McCarthyism is both societies are scared of something completely out of hand the things that they are scared are not really going to happen. Both of these events prove that people are very gullible and believe everything they hear. In conclusion, both of these events got very out of hand due to the unreasonable fears that all societies have also Thomas Putnam and Joseph McCarthy blew all of this up because Putnam wants to take down a very powerful man in Salem and McCarthy was just power hungry. Salem Witch trials and McCarthyism were just people trying to take over by scaring people into believing in scares that were
the crucible by Arthur miller is an allegory for the red scare in the McCarthy Era because of the trials, false accusation and the lack of evidence One of the ways that the crucible can allegorically connect to the McCarthy era is the trials. In the crucible if you confess that you are a witch then you had to give up name of alleged witches. According to “what is McCarthyism? And how did it happen?” By Ellen Schrecker and “Hunting the communist” the same thing happened in the McCarthy era trials, if you were accused of being a communist, then you had to give a list of
“We are who are always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys to the kingdom, and a common vengeance writes the law (Miller Act II:389-390) ” This quote, by Arthur Miller in his famous play The Crucible, depicts McCarthyism as the Salem witch trials. Miller shows the resemblance of both events when people are being falsely accused with little to no evidence, and the trails were prejudicial and horrific. Using this approach has its strengths, weaknesses, and ideas that differs between the two. Depicting McCarthyism as the Salem witch trials strengthens the resemblance.
The Crucible, is a story of mayhem, deceits, and riot. It is a classic example of how lust and vengeance affects the reality in which we find ourselves in. In The Crucible, the desire for revenge and the resulting spreading panic led to many innocent deaths. It is written to mirror a world where the fear of communism is so widespread - that citizens are arrested on no-solid grounds, and the disruption of daily life and death are prevalent. In short it is a clear example of McCarthyism – or making accusations without the proper regard for evidence.
Fear, it causes people to be blinded by the truth. People can’t tell right from wrong. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show how no one could see what was right. During the 1950’s communism was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire, then it slowly made its way over to the U.S. This was known as The Red Scare.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.