Allegory For The Red Scare In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Have you ever been accused of something? So to keep from getting into deep trouble you quickly exclaim ‘you saw so-and-so do this’. Suddenly, you’re put on a back-burner, as this new evidence is looked into. This is what happened back in the 1940’s. People in the U.S. were scared by Joseph McCarthy on the sudden rise in communism in other areas of the world, the closest being the Soviet Union. The Scare inspired Arthur Miller to write his play. The Crucible is an allegory for the Red Scare. Arthur Miller wrote the play to show people that the craziness of the witch hunts were extremely similar to the communist hunts, and to show the dangers of being quick to accuse others to avoid consequences.

The central idea of The Crucible the power of suggestion and how we self-deceive ourselves due to others opinions. Arthur Miller wants to explain that history truly does repeat itself by giving off many clues and examples in his play, how similar the Red Scare was to the Salem witch trials.

Any individual could be found guilty due to the claims of their neighbor. During the McCarthy trials; Senator McCarthy accused a majority of the State Department of being communists, because he blamed them for China turning to Communism. In both occurrences, those who had been accused had no way to defend themselves. This was due to the idea that if someone accused you of being a witch or a communist then there was no doubt that the accusation was credible, and therefore you were guilty. In modern times, if a person is accused of sexually harassing women, they too have no way to defend themselves from the accusations. An example of this from The Crucible is when Rebecca Nurse was put on trial for witchcraft because one of her neighbors claimed that she had killed all of the woman’s children during childbirth. This was an effective way to represent how witch hunts bring such great harm to people, due to the fact Rebecca Nurse was portrayed in Miller’s play as a respectable, kind, and religious elderly woman. As the audience comes to realise that such a noble character will be destroyed because of false claims from a resentful person, they are angered. This appeal to emotion helps the reader to consider coming to understand both the victim and the accused before finding them

In both The Crucible and McCarthyism, people are accused of being either witches or communists. The accused are placed in such a dire situation where they are either forced to lie to save themselves, or to remain honest, at the risk of their social or physical lives. In The Crucible, John Proctor is accused of practicing witchcraft, and when asked if he is a witch, he responds,“Why it is a lie, it is a lie; how may I damn myself? I cannot, I cannot.” (Act IV pg. 140) He refuses to confess to something he did not do, even if lying means that he can save his life. During the McCarthy trials, people who were accused of being communists refused to confess that they were, although it hurt their reputation. In both

In the late 20th century the hysteria of communism was plaguing the United States. This madness developed into something on a much larger scale, this being called the Red Scare. The red scare was hysteria over the perceived threat of communism enveloping in the US. This era caused a fluster among citizens as they felt that their own could be conspirators of communism. In Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, the events that occur in Salem over witchcraft mirror the Red Scare. The imposed threat caused people to accuse others without evidence of unprincipled acts that could affect everyone. In The Crucible, fear surrounds each character into making preposterous accusations against people in the town and causes the vulnerable to unhinge.

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible focuses on the Salem Witch Trials along with the pointing of fingers that went along with it. Miller wrote this to reflect upon what was occurring during the Red Scare in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The Crucible is written in an ironic and cynical tone mocking the Red Scare.

Arthur Miller, an American playwright and the author of The Crucible, explained the incident involving within the series of Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible and the Second Red Scare demonstrated a comparison in order to establish an allegorical parallelism between the two. Joseph McCarthy caused the fear of communism throughout the American politics and culture, which referred to the Second Red Scare. In the play, the innocents got falsely accused of witchcraft without factual evidence, similar to the situation when McCarthy indicted numerous well-known, innocent Americans for un-patriotism. The parallelism based on the two events can be embodied through the fallacious allegations upon individuals employed by Miller and McCarthy: the mass hysteria that overwhelmed the innocent civilians, leading to an outbreak which occurred due to its chaotic presence, and the act of integrity over reputation put forth on the individual.

Authors used their literary work to get a point across to the public in the story The Crucible; Arthur Miller used events and characters to show the similarities to McCarthyism which was prevalent in the 1950s. McCarthyism was associated with the period in the United Sates also known as the Second Red Scare. McCarthyism is very similar in the way that Joe McCarthy accused Americans of being communist and in The Crucible people were being accused of being witches. It is known that Arthur Miller wrote this story as a reaction to a tragic time in our history.

Martin Niemöller once said,“First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” The culture of accusations is a part of hysteria. As paranoia ensued in “The Crucible”, Joseph McCarthy made false allegations that influenced many peoples lives. An affair integrated in Arthur Miller’s play created controversy among the community. Trials were held for those accused and lying was the only way to survive. The harsh truth that was revealed in “The Crucible” and the parallels between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials show patterns in which fear was used as an advantage, unsubstantiated claims occurred, and unethical punishments were given.

During the 1940s and 1950s there was a mass hysteria in America because people suspected others of being Communist. A man named Arthur Miller wrote ‘’The Crucible’’ as a way to signify what was happening in the U.S. . He used this story to show how bad things were and how easy it was for people to be falsely accused of being Communist. Miller connects America's Red scare to his fictional story ‘’The Crucible’’ because in the fictional drama the normal people of Salem where falsely persecuted as witches and just like the people during the Red Scare , their lives were ruined beyond repair and they were even killed for suspicion of being a witch even if there was littler evidence to state them as being one.

The salem witch hunts and the Red Scare caused big problems and death in the U.S. In 1950 everyone was scared that communism would spread to the united states and McCarthy wanted to get rid of all communist in the united states but instead accused innocent citizens. In salem 1692 multiple girls were out in the woods dancing and were thought to be possessed and working with the devil. Girls accused many citizens in salem claiming they were witches and causing the witch trials.The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy Era because of false accusations and ruined lives.

In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” it tells the tale of the Salem Witch Trials. At the time of the play, the McCarthy trials, named after Sen. Joseph McCarthy, were underway. Though, instead of hunting for witches, they were hunting for communists. These two trials may have happened at different points in history, but were in many ways the same. Whether it was death to job loss a lot of lives were changed on account of these trials. “The Crucible” and the McCarthy trials have become historically important because they show the process of power, fear, and turmoil.

In “The Crucible,” people were scared that they would be accused of being a witch even if they had done nothing wrong. That because some didn’t like them they could be arrested, and people in power said that they should have nothing to fear because we are never wrong and you should only fear if you have something to hide, “Then there is a prodigious guilt in the country. Are you afraid to be questioned here?” (Miller 44). People in the Red Scare were scared to speak their mind because they didn’t want to be accused of being a communist. Even if they did nothing wrong and wanted to exercise their rights they couldn’t because of fear of powerful people, “Americans also felt the effects of the Red Scare on a personal level, and thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted. They were hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. While a small number of the accused may have been aspiring revolutionaries, most others were the victims of false allegations or had done nothing more than exercise their democratic right to join a political party” (“Red Scare”). In “The Crucible,” people always thought that there were things they couldn’t see but they had to be there, “Why could there not have been poppets hid where no one ever saw

The novel, The Crucible was written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, which was based on the Salem Witch Trials existing in the late 1600s. In the play, Abigail and several other young women accuse innocent citizens of Salem for the action of witchcraft. During the trials, many individuals were unfairly persecuted; such as John Proctor. This event in history may be associated with the Red Scare, in which individuals were tried for their questionable influences of communism in the United States. When Miller compares the character of John Proctor to himself, the reader is able to relate the similar experiences that both men faced. The Crucible demonstrates the struggle against corruption involving the court, which lead to the death of many innocent individuals in Salem. The Crucible generates an allegory for Arthur Miller’s struggles with McCarthyism because of his similar experience relating to John Proctor’s battle against the Salem Witch Trials, and the relation between the actions of the court in both situations. Arthur Miller uses several writing methods in order to convey The Crucible as an allegory for his struggles with McCarthyism. Miller demonstrates how the Crucible represents an allegory for his conflict with McCarthyism by relating his experiences with the plot of the novel. Miller relates the novel to his struggles by stating, “Should the accused confess, his honesty could only be proved by naming former confederates.” (Are You Now… 34) Miller is explaining how the court

The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.