...McCarthyism and The Crucible During the tense era of McCarthyism, “The Crucible” a book about the Salem witch trials was written and published. The Salem witch trials of “The Crucible” , were women making accusations of people participating in witchcraft. Arthur Miller the author of “The Crucible” is compared to McCarthyism because Joseph McCarthy, a senator, accused people of being communists, or having relations with communist. During the 1950s, if anyone was accused of witchcraft they would be put on trial, or anyone having confession of participating in witchcraft would be given an execution. In Act 1 of “The Crucible”, Betty is the daughter of Rev. Parris who has fell ill after participating in witchcraft with her cousin, Abigail. Abigail...
Words: 252 - Pages: 2
...In “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller talks about history about the Salem witchcraft. “The Crucible” is a story in which they talk about Salem Witchcraft in the 1600s. In the story some girls got caught dancing in the woods and people stated that they were connected with witchcraft. The girls began to point fingers at others and blamed the innocent people of also being connected with witchcraft. Those innocent people that were accused of practicing witchcraft did not get along with the girls’ families. McCarthyism is a practice that unfair accusations are made. Mccarthyism was practiced in the 1950s. Senator Joseph McCarthy was the one who carried out Mccarthyism. During the period of McCarthyism, people were being indicted and they were either blacklisted or lost their jobs because of that. Throughout history, Salem and McCarthyism kept happening. A big similarity between the two is the Salem witchcraft trials. The Salem witch trials are when innocent people were accused of practicing...
Words: 819 - Pages: 4
...Crucible Essay History repeats itself in many ways sometimes it will be a man making a simple mistake like a man forgetting to pick his dry-cleaning up or it can be something along the lines of people becoming paranoid and fighting and preparing for things that aren’t really there. The Red Scare of 1947 to the late 1950s is a perfect example of our nation repeating a history event from 1692, The Salem Witch Trials an event that our nation still remembers today innocent lives lost that definitely didn’t deserve it. One of the victims to the Red Scare Arthur Miller made a satire of it using “The Crucible” (A play based on the witch hunts) comparing the Red Scare to the Salem Witch Trials, he claims everything he was accused for is just as ridiculous and embarrassing to our country as the Salem Witch Trials were. In this Essay I will be comparing Arthur Miller's Crucible to the Red scare of the 1940's. There’s this Guy who basically claims our government is filled to the brim with communists and we need to weed them out, His name is Joseph McCarthy, he was born in Grand Chute, Wisconsin in 1909 and he died in 1957 on May 2nd due to Alcohol poisoning.(Joseph 1) On 9th February, 1950, at a meeting of the Republican Women's Club in Wheeling, West Virginia, McCarthy claimed that he had a list of 205 people in the State Department that were known to be members of the American Communist Party (late he reduced this figure to 57)(Joseph 1). Joseph McCarthy was a dirty man who in fact...
Words: 1605 - Pages: 7
...The Crucible and McCarthyism have many similarities when it comes to unjust accusations and the persecution of the innocent. What exactly is McCarthyism? McCarthyism was started and fueled by Senator Joseph McCarthy in the late 1940’s. He proclaimed and insisted that communist spies were all over the U.S. and that he was the country’s only salvation(2). This lead to a wide-spread panic across the country, which led to hundreds of people being accused with little to no proof. This panic was referred to as “The Red Scare”. What does this have to do with The Crucible? The Crucible has many similarities with McCarthyism and the Red Scare. For example, the accusations made by the young girls in the story can be compared to the accusations made...
Words: 285 - Pages: 2
...was altered The Crucible, a historic play, by Arthur Miller to provoke the witch trials, to develop the protagonist, John Proctor, and to draw parallelism McCarthyism. Abigail, at the age of 17, who is 5 years older than the historical Abigail, was the main accuser in the witch trials. According to the Shmoop Editorial Team, “Abigail is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a magnificent liar...She has an eerie sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them”(n.p). In regards to their remark towards Abigail, we can infer that her personality caused the entire witch trials in the play. Arthur Miller also had to alter Abigail’s real age in order to match her nasty personality and to make her...
Words: 641 - Pages: 3
...One of these societies, Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692, is described in the play, “The Crucible.” Written in the McCarthy era, this play highlights the injustices during the Red Scare in America. As history continues to unfold, more links can be drawn between the message of “The Crucible” and today’s discrimination. The allegorical qualities of Arthur Miller’s, “The Crucible,” relate strongly to McCarthyism, but still have relevant connections to...
Words: 1432 - Pages: 6
...jennifer lux 12/8/15 The Crucible analysis “We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterday”- Persius. There have been moments in history where people were too consumed in fear that they broke many of their morals and due to powerful situations people behaved differently than their normal self. A play called the Crucible was written in 1953 by Author Miller to portray the unfairness at that time due to people being accused of witches with little to no evidence and then hanged. This event was called the Salem witch trials, which took place in the province of Massachusetts Bay. This play is an allegory to the McCarthy Hearings that took place from 1950 to 1956. The McCarthy hearings occurred in 1947; President Truman ordered background checks of every civilian in service to the government due to a fear of people within the United States being a communist spy. The fear of communism intensified when a high ranked official Alger Hiss was convicted of being a communist spy. Senator Joseph McCarthy stepped in and convinced/alarm people within the U.S that there were Communist and Communist sympathizers that would try to overthrow the government. As a result, he formed a special Congressional committee to investigate Americans who were suspected of Communist activities and this movement was named McCarthyism. The Crucible is a play that is universal and enduring because it uses allegory and archetypes to teach readers...
Words: 951 - Pages: 4
...The Connection by Kathleen Orozco P. Sepesi English 3.1 December 5, 2011 Outline I. Introduction II. America in the 1600’s A. Puritanism B. Salem Witch Trials III. America in the 1950’s A. Communism B. Joseph McCarthy IV. McCarthyism A. McCarthy Trials (HUAC) B. Blacklisting C. Elia Kazan D. Arthur Miller V. The Crucible A. The Summary B. The theme VI. The Allegory A. Danforth and the HUAC B. Danforth and Joseph McCarthy C. Elia Kazan and Abigail Williams VII. The conclusion The Connection The Crucible written by Arthur Miller has a symbolic meaning. It is an allegory, “a story in which people, things, and events have a symbolic meaning, often instructive.” (Agnes 17). The setting, the Salem witch trials of the 1600’s is similar to the McCarthy trials of the 1950’s. The people, the events, the details relate to one another. Miller purposely wrote his story to instruct the fact that the mentality of the people in the 1950’s was no different than the mentality of people in the 1600’s. In the 1600’s people followed a strict religion known as puritanism. The Puritans believed they were sent by God to purify the world of sin and evil. Because of this they believed they were superior to others. Consequently, when they did sin, they tended to feel guilty and blame others for their faults. This blame and guilt led to one of the most fearful times in America. The Salem witch trials happened during the 1600’s and at a time where everyone...
Words: 1816 - Pages: 8
...In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the tone of irony boats from every corner you look, this story casts a mirror onto McCarthyism and reflects the outcomes of this ironic process. The Crucible depicts the reality of the Salem Witch Trials in a time of hysteria and fear. Miller uses a past event to emphasize the effects of unnecessary fear imposed by McCarthyism, indirectly relating to the Salem Witch Trials. Miller’s, The Crucible, is one of irony in which it obliquely equates to the consequences of fear and blaming others by relating the Salem Witch Trials to McCarthyism. Abigail’s intentions regarding John Proctor are nothing if not ironic, you can see this perfectly in which Abigail acted out in a complete façade so that she could be...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
..."The Crucible" Hanging Ending? "The Crucible" was a 1953 play written by Arthur Miller that focuses in on Salem Massachusetts in the breaking point of the 1690's. This work was written to not only inform but to demonstrate the hard times and wrong doings of the Salem witch trials. Miller wrote the play to show the people McCarthyism in its full depth. Having Miller speak his voice in the form of a play write he rose some red flags for many other Authors and pushed them to make works about the issue. Let's just take a look into some of the major discussion topics that make Crucible the great work it is today. My initial thoughts and reactions after finishing "The Crucible" were grief and I felt cheated.It ends completely when John Proctor (our protagonist) is hanged publicly (Miller 1073). John Proctor was a simple and humble man that made one mistake and it haunted him until the day of his death. All of this being said Proctor fits perfectly into Aristotle's concept of being a tragic hero because Proctor is haunted throughout the whole play about one mistake he made, this being the affair with Abigail Williams. Us as...
Words: 602 - Pages: 3
...As Arthur Miller once stated,“there is prodigious fear in seeking loose spirits.” The theme that the tragedy fiction play, The Crucible, displays is hysteria and desire leads to unconscious consequences. As conveyed throughout the play, hysteria is most clearly observed in the villagers' illogical acceptance of the girls’ claims of witchcraft. Specifically, Act III depicts the idea of mass hysteria devastating the community when the afflicted girls led by Abigail, accuse Mary Warren of witchcraft for testifying against them. Furthermore, several people including Mary Warren have indicated that the witchcraft accusations are false yet the court refuses to be persuaded. Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible was an exaggeration of the Salem witch...
Words: 727 - Pages: 3
...In the 1950s, America was involved in a Cold War with the Soviet Union, and the U.S. government was deeply concerned with national security. Some federal agents, had been convicted as spies. As a result, Americans became suspicious of plots, treason, and Communism at home. It was in this atmosphere that President Truman allowed Joseph McCarthy, a junior senator from Wisconsin, to lead the interrogation of alleged spies. But as we look, there’s a lot of similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthyism such as Innocent people were accused of things they didn’t commit, They both had mass fears that happened to them such as worshipping the devil and witches and the other was communism accused all immigrants being communist which made U.S not trust anyone, and lastly Both villains down fell and eventually killed themselves....
Words: 680 - Pages: 3
...Historically, witch-hunts are known as an unfair judgement against innocent people derived from fear. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller talks about the Salem witch trials, writing an allegory that references the communists who were being persecuted during the red scare. In fact, witch-hunts can still be compared to events that occur in modern day’s American society. With this in mind it is important to point out racial profiling, which has been increasing lately. It is known as the inclusion of racial or ethnic characteristics in determining whether an individual is considered likely to commit an illegal act, leading to the unfair targeting of its victims. Arthur Miller profits from Salem’s history to address a higher concept, the McCarthyism,...
Words: 808 - Pages: 4
...“The Crucible” The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller and was published in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote this famous play during the well known “Red Scare” when McCarthyism was first established. The similarities between the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the Red Scare of 1950 were shown in his writing. Reading The Crucible in high schools today, educates society on the poor judgement of the 1690’s and 1950’s also putting a stop to the chance of it reoccurring in the future. From the 1690’s to the 1950’s, our leaders have made certain decisions that have greatly affected the way we think and act today. The Salem witch trials of 1692 took place in a small farming town in Massachusetts that was categorized as mostly as Puritans. Puritan religion basically opposes anything that is not modest and or proper, this is why it was a big shock when Abigail had told people she conversed with the devil. “I danced for the devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book”. When the town heard this news their fear became overwhelming and they began making...
Words: 502 - Pages: 3
...Miller followed Death of a Salesman with his most politically significant work, The Crucible, 1953, a tale of the Salem witch trials that contains clear correlation to the McCarthy anti-Communist hearings in the mid-1950s. While Miller primarily wrote The Crucible to enlighten the motivations and circumstances behind the Salem witch trials, and he also wanted to highlight the story of the "Red Scare" of the forties and fifties which had reached its peak under the leadership of Senator Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy, who was a relatively unknown Senator from Wisconsin, gained instant fame when he stated that there were many Communists in the American government. America at that time was in the middle of the Cold War with Russia, and McCarthy's charges...
Words: 427 - Pages: 2
