Examples Of Allegory In The Crucible

The Crucible is the fictional story of the Salem witch trials in which many women were accused of being witches. The Crucible is written by Arthur Miller, who was recorded as the greatest American playwright (“Arthur Miller” 1). The scene for the play is based in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1692. McCarthyism was the act of accusing people of treason without evidence, attacks on a person's character, and attack on their patriotism by accusing many Americans of being communist (Ortega). Lisa Martin says, “Communists control led the two world superpowers, China and the Soviet Union Americans feared a takeover in their own country” (Martin 1). Many people tried to accuse the men and women who were spreading the fear. One man named Joseph McCarthy was a senator that charged communists that interfered with the U.S. State Department (“Joseph McCarthy” 1). The accusations lead to investigations, questioning and finding people guilty without evidence,

During the Salem Witch Trials, there was a time of hysteria; everyone was accusing everyone, and no one could defend themselves. What the accusers didn’t realize, was that that they all had a common motive behind their accusations, and that was power. The power in a Puritan society was only given to specific people, but by making accusations, it could be gained. This wasn’t just specific to this time period though, because throughout different time periods, power has always come with status, and no matter a person’s position in society, status wants to be gained. In The Crucible, the struggle for power is made evident through characters and their subliminal actions during the witch trials, which reveals that power is held within the church,

In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.

Fear can motivate people to do despicable things; actions people would never commit in their right minds. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about Salem, a small town in Massachusetts, and its outrageous witch trials conducted in the spring of 1692. The accusations started out of pure fear, and then others in the village began to accuse for their own benefit. Eventually, the situation escalated out of hand, resulting in the deaths of some very innocent people. Out of the many motifs presented in this play, one that was particularly prevalent was accusations made with specific intentions. This motif is displayed when Thomas Putnam, Abigail Williams, and Ann Putnam accuse others because of their personal motives.

Firstly, in The Crucible no one feared each other and everyone lived in harmony and no one questioned one others faith in God and they had a sense of safety which led to the trials. When the first person is accused it immediately sends everyone into a panic and they start accusing who even remotely fits their “description” of what a witch would be like. An example in Act II is Proctor talking about how the girls only accuse some people and not others.

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was created in the age of McCarthyism where trust, truth, and integrity were lost to suspicion, lies, and back-stabbing. The entire play is a metaphor for the 1950s witch hunt for communist in the media, government, and country led by McCarthy, and this can certainly be seen in the Salem witch trials described by Miller in The Crucible. Because of this power in an accusation, grudges and personal rivalries had the power to destroy people's lives as seen in the relationships between Abigail and John Proctor and Abigail and Elizabeth Proctor. These relationships, or there lack of, are the catalysts in the whole ordeal of the witch trials because Abigail had a grudge against John Proctor and had a personal rivalry against Elizabeth.

The Crucible displays an allegory that compares the Salem witch trials to the Hollywood 10.  In the 2010 article, “A Decade of Fear”, Sam Roberts writes, “McCarthy dropped a bombshell: ‘The State Department is infested with Communists . . . a list of names that were made known to. . . being members of the Communist Party.’”  Before saying this, McCarthy’s low status led no one to listen to any of his ideas.  However, after this he took the lead role in the Red Scare.  In this way, McCarthy relates to the girls in The Crucible.  Many of the girls had low eminence in Puritan Salem, but their status grew after they cried witch on the members of their society.  Another comparison can be drawn between the witches of Salem and the Communists in the

In the story “The Crucible”, there seemed to be two distinct sides to the accusations of witchcraft: the accusers and the accused. Nearly all of the characters fell onto one side or the other, whether it was by choice or it was because they were forced into it. Many of the poorer, subservient people in the story were accused simply because others did not like them. Many who tried to stay out of it or tried to defend the accused, got accused themselves. These people were put through much calamity even though they were innocent of the crime of witchcraft.

Many of us have made accusations and judgements about others that are false and have people

Arthur Miller wrote the play The Crucible in 1953, in the middle of the Red scare of the 1940s and ‘50s. Miller himself was accused of being a communist, which he was not, and was brought before the court to name his accomplices. He was convicted because he would not, and could not, name anyone else. This conviction was later overturned. The play he wrote, was about the Salem witch trials, in which the young Salem girls are caught dancing in the woods. They are suspected of being bewitched, and to get the blame off themselves, they blame other townspeople, often ones whom they or their families do not like. Those blamed in turn blamed even more. By the end of the trials, nearly half the town has been imprisoned and many innocent men and women had been hanged. This could all have been avoided, however, if, at the beginning, certain key bits of information had come forward regarding Abigail Williams, the “leader” of the girls. But why did these bits of information not come to light? John and Elizabeth Proctor, and Mary Warren each had their reasons for not wanting to testify: John Proctor wanted to protect his good name; Mary Warren was afraid of Abigail and, because of this, ultimately failed in her confession; Elizabeth Proctor could have condemned Abigail,

The Crucible took place in Salem, Massachusetts and the people there were insane. There was very little margin for error when walking the paths there. Anyone could be accused of witchcraft at anytime for any reason, and there’s not much you can do about it. Keeping your head down, and not making eye contact with people was a good idea in Salem, as this was the rule in the town. This place was so messed up that judge Danforth states in court, “You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time—we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God’s grace, the

The Crucible, a twisted playwright, written by Arthur Miller is an allegory to the McCarthy trials of the 1950’s. An allegory is a story with two levels of meaning- literal and symbolic. In an allegory the characters, events, and instances relate to real people, events, and instances. (“Definition of Allegory” R104). Characters like John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and the Court, represent real people like Arthur Miller, Joseph R. McCarthy and the organization created, the HUAC. Events like the puritans being brought into the court and John Proctor having to choose between staying to oppose the court or using his wife as leverage were similar to the accused that were brought in, as well as Miller refusing bribery. Instances when the court had no substantial proof were in comparison to the HUAC having no evidence and taking away the passports of the accused. Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory to show that people in power take advantage of their authority. He wanted to teach that being under pressure and living in fear can affect the decisions that are made in everyday life and to criticize the institutions that wronged the vulnerable people during these times.

The theme of the play The Crucible written by, Arthur Miller, Is mainly reputation, blaming others and its either one side or the other. Arthur Miller is trying to convey that, people and as a society, only care about themselves and their reputation. They start to accusing other people just to find their way out of trouble and to keep their reputation clean. Even if that means that lives would be lost. Some people believe that you could only be on our side or you are against us. They also believe that there is only one leader, which is god. In The Crucible, this is what the court/government believes. You can make the same connection with American history during the Salem Witch Trials.

The terrified community cannot live a normal life with the constant fear of being hanged. Throughout the play, The Crucible, many people, frightened and terrified that they could be next in line for death (Miller 1089-1119). Crucible means a severe trial which throughout the play is accurately portrayed. The word crucible is prevalent in the play with multiple trials of witchcraft as a result of their religious beliefs. The author, Arthur Miller, wrote this tragic play in the mid-1900’s based off the true events that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. The main characters sway the people in the town and convince them to do things that they would never do before. Characters in the play such as John Proctor are forced to change when it could affect the life of many people (Miller 1089). John’s change results in a very different outcome in the play. When the characters are faced with what is going on in their society two different approaches are taken. The characters either go along with it and don’t say anything or they express their opinion on it. The characters Abigail Williams is faced with the daunting task of making everyone believe she is truthful, Mary Warren is innocent and did not harm Abigail, and Governor Danforth is stern and strict with his actions.

The 1950s was an eventful time in America with the Red Scare and Senator Joseph McCarthy. We also saw this type of chaos during the Salem witch trials of 1693. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller about the witch trials, is an allegory to the Red scare of the 1950s McCarthy era because of the pointing the finger, evidence used in the trials and abuse of power.