...An Allegory for McCarthyism “Over there! There’s the commie!” was a sound that was all too common during the 1950’s, or otherwise known as the McCarthy Era. The “threat” of Communist infiltration and nuclear holocaust was at an all-time high. It was a time of fear and paranoia for everyone, and it wasn’t just from the threat of the Communists. There was a nationwide search for Communists, Communist sympathizers, and even anyone who acted suspicious. There was no requirements for an accusation, which led it to become a modern day witch hunt. This idea of the McCarthy Era being a modern day witch hunt is what countless historians, authors, and poets have tried to relate. Which means there is no surprise that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an allegory for the Red Scare and the McCarthy Era as well. To start off, the background of The Crucible was awfully similar to that of the McCarthyism Era, making it viable grounds for creating an allegory....
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...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...
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...The Crucible is an allegorical tale of McCarthyism because of the similarities between the two events. Arthur Miller tries to convey the witch trials to the anti-communist trials in 1950. The 1692 Witch Trials were people accused of witchcraft without any real evidence. They relied on the words of little girls that in reality were trying to keep themselves from getting in trouble. Innocent people were accused and no one had really been a victim of witchcraft. In 1950 when McCarthyism, as it was named by Senator Joe McCarthy, became part of this time period. People were being accused of communism without any real evidence. They were only relying on someone else to tell them who was to blame. Abigail Williams was to blame for the girls to accuse...
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...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...
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...archetype of the puritan society. As the governor of Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials, Judge Danforth was called, along with Judge Hawthorne, to deal justice and deal with the situation. Throughout the play he is made out to be incredibly precise and scrupulous with everything he does. Due to a perhaps pompous position of power, his attitude and demeanor come across as very stubborn. Nearing the end of the play, his mindset that any wrongdoing is punishable becomes applicable to him, and he is unwilling to consider the possibility he might have made a grave mistake. Almost ironically however, the real-life Thomas Danforth is much the opposite. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to criticize the McCarthy hearings and the hysteria surrounding them and he used the Salem witch trails to do so; as he saw many parallels between the two. To do this, Miller portrays Thomas Danforth, who, in real life, did not even sit on the Court of Oyer and Terminer,(Linder 1) (A group dedicated to the prosecution to those accused witches) is a bitter, scrupulous, controlling old man set on keeping order, or, what he believes to be order. The McCarthy hearings were quite harsh and Miller needed a reciprocated leadership shown in the Crucible. (Lorcher 1) To do this, Miller bent the more level headed, genuine Thomas Danforth and transformed him into the domineering Judge we know in the crucible. While the McCarthy era and witch trails follow each other closely, they are not a perfect mesh. To add onto...
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...Witch-Hunts, Then and Now Witch-Hunts, Then and Now, is the topic I have chosen for my research paper, which will define similarities and differences between the “Salem Witch Trials” and “The Second Red Scare”. The actions that took place during both events played on the fears of citizens to further the personal, political and social agendas of those individuals that conducted the trials. These two events are just two examples of how history repeated itself, where hysteria of the masses has been used as justification to trample on the basic rights that we, as humans, have come to believe as essential to our lives. I chose this research project because the effect of the McCarthy era tactics that infringed on the Constitutional rights of many Americans can be seen today in the policies and actions implemented since September 11, 2001. As an American, I am disturbed to see that we as a people and our government appear not to have learned from our past. During the eras of the Salem Witch Trials and that of McCarthyism, there existed a fear that the values of each society were being threatened from both internal and external entities. During the Court of Oyer and Terminer, influential members of the Salem community used the trials to punish ministers with in the colony who were seen as tolerant to other religions. There was a movement within the colony to relax the strict customs of the Puritans, but the community leaders wanted to maintain a tight control on their spiritual beliefs...
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...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...
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...History is said to repeat itself if we do not learn from our past mistakes. The Salem witch trials and the time of McCarthyism have many uncanny similarities. Both incidents, 258 years apart, involved a mass hysteria that many people got swept away in. During these times, anyone who seemed unusual or suspicious got accused of witchcraft/communism. These two events were started by people who took advantage of a fear that everyone else had. Abigail Williams and Joseph McCarthy kept the accusations going and gained a large following before eventually being shut down by someone of authority. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy was running for a second term in the Washington senate in 1950. His first campaign was fueled by lies and propaganda, but...
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...problems in their society. Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, was written when McCarthyism, which involved the persecution of suspected communists, was at a high. The play explores the seemingly timeless parallels of panicked groups hoping to protect themself and their own between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era trials that are still applicable today as the fight on terror advances. Notwithstanding the likeness between the three, anomalies appear that show growth or even regression in a culture do remain. Events such as unfair stereotyping, magnified paranoia, and targeting ideas through accusing people,...
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...When you compare two time periods with such time in between ,you rarely find any similarities but with expert crafting by Arthur Miller was able to draw lots of the same moods and evidence from both time periods . Using the basis of the witch trials and the red scare he was living through I believe Arthur Miller wrote “”The Crucible” to show how stupid the current era of McCarthyism. The Red scare was a time period in the 1950’s where American senator Joseph McCarthy was accusing many Americans of being communists. This was a time where the entire country was weary of their neighbors because of the thought that they supported the communist opposition. Most of these if not all of the accusations were false and only caused hysteria . The...
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