Mccarthy Trials Vs Salem Witch Trials

In 1692, when the Salem Witch Trials thrived, everyone feared a common enemy, witches. Abigail Williams, the niece of the powerful Reverend Parris, begins accusing women of being witches after she herself is accused of conversing with the devil. “...I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(45) The people of Salem originally had nothing to fear until Abigail William’s wild accusations. These claims led to the majority fearing that anyone was capable was witchcraft. This turned friends and even family members against each other. John Proctor, a seemingly innocent man, had been accused of participating in dark magic. Reverend John Hale is conversing with his wife to convince her to persuade her husband to confess to his sins.

History is known for having ways to replay itself, for example, the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials. The Salem Witch Trials were a sequence of hearings and accusations that took place between 1692 and 1693. In these trials over 200 people were accused of having contact with the Devil and around 20 were victims of false accusations and death. The McCarthy trials, extremely similar, a series of hearing were Senator Joseph McCarthy accused the U.S. of allowing communist to have a seat in their government causing over 2,000 government members to lose their employment. Both the McCarthy Trials and Salem Witch Trials display history’s repetitions with the similarities of mass hysteria, the absence of proper evidence, and accused outcasts.

“Arthur Miller made the play called “The Crucible” during the 1950’s as a response to McCarthyism and the U.S. Governments blacklisted people.”(Blakesley). Miller was then question and accused of “Contempt of Congress” for not identifying people that were at meetings he attended. McCarthyism and The Salem Witch Craft Trials have been two very wrong things that have happened in the history of the United States for a lot of reasons. First off they both wrongfully accused innocent people of performing not accepted actions of those times. In America you have a right of free will and in both cases they were denied this right just because of someone else’s opinion. In both cases of the Salem Witch Craft Trials and McCarthyism people were being accused of acts with little evidence. People pointed fingers at others so they wouldn’t get blamed for anything, so there was a scare factor taking place. Large groups of people supported these acts maybe because of a get on board everyone’s doing it theme, and if you disagreed you were considered a witch or a communist. Our country supported McCarthy until later we soon regretted it. During the 1940’s and 1950’s communism was a scare in the U.S. so McCarthy capitalized on the subject and said two hundred card carrying communist were in the U.S(PBS). With the Salem Trials people capitalized on the scare of witches and everyone starting accusing the “weird” people. Accusations weather true or false can

If one observes the past, they will notice that history is inevitable to repeat itself, and that throughout time there have been several events that shape how we live today. Two examples of those are the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism, both of which were a string of trials that charged people with being things they were not. The trials took place in Colonial Massachusetts from 1692 to 1693, while McCarthyism lasted from 1950-1957. The Salem witch trials involved accusations against alleged witches while the era of McCarthyism consisted of investigations held against alleged communists. Despite the two being over two hundred fifty years apart, they were still caused by the same basic reasons. The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism also had many resemblances. These included false accusations against citizens, unfair trials without any substantial evidence to prove a person’s innocence or guilt, and a widespread fear in the society against the people accused of the supposed crimes.

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.

Before any of the witch trials began, Abigail and her cousin Betty were in the woods with their slave Tituba. Reverend Parris, Betty’s father, found them and other girls. The next day Betty started acting strange. Reverend Parris accused Abigail of using witchcraft. Abigail turned it around, and accused Tituba and others in the town of witchcraft. That’s how everything was started. Anyone that Abigail had a grudge against would later be accused of witchcraft. Since she had a grudge about John Proctor’s wife she was Abigail’s biggest target. Now let’s talk about why she accused Elizabeth Proctor of being a witch.

The United States of America is filled with many historic events, enriching its history. Many events that occur are compared to past events in our history. In particular, the McCarthy Era in the 1950’s was compared to the Salem Witch Trials which occurred in 1692. This correlation was first made by Arthur Miller who wrote the play “The Crucible”. He connected the time period of McCarthy to where there was a hunt for communists, to the Salem Witch Trials where there was a hunt for witches. Following that, many comparisons and contrasts have been made between the two. The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthy Era are both similar, yet different.

Hysteria (noun); meaning an exaggerated or uncontrolled emotion or excitement especially among other people. The Salem Witch Trial and McCarthyism’s connections run deeper than what appears on the surface. Joseph McCarthy was a U.S. senator. Joseph was born and raised in Appleton, Wisconsin during the early 1900’s. He was elected in 1946, four years later McCarthy came out publicly stating that there were around 205 communists that have invaded the U.S.. This makes him known for his ways of accusing those without actual factual evidence to prove his suspicions. Both of these incidents have caused a grand amount of hysteria and both happened because of suspicion and personal vendettas and both made a lasting impact on history (Brooks).

In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, faith was central to the government, just as freedom was the basic foundation of the American government in 1947. Faith and Freedom are both taken personally to a sizable sum of people, but the true meaning of those words varies from each individual to the next. Despite the thought that each person owns their own definition of the words “Faith” and “Freedom”, people who resided in Salem in 1692 were judged so harshly due to the fact that they did not have the same beliefs or morals as politicians or others who were put in charge above them. Salem is a direct parallel to the McCarthy era when people were accused of being communist due to a different thought system that they possessed that others in the government

The McCarthy hearings have been trials in which Senator Joe McCarthy accused authority’s personnel of being Communists. He exaggerated and exploited the proof and ruined many reputations. Blacklists have been created and lots of employers refused to rent the suspected or accused. (If they did then they could be accused.) Because of the exaggerated evidence and the seriousness of the charges, the hearings struck fear in many people. Even though at the start famous, the public began to surprise how some distance it would pass. After McCarthy accused the U.S. navy of housing Communists, his committee started to head downhill.

The trials first began because a pubescent girl named Abigail was in love, and likely in a sexual relationship, with a man named John Proctor. Abigail worked for the Proctor family as a sort of housekeeper, and Proctor’s wife Elizabeth was skeptical of her husband and Abigail’s relationship, so Goody Proctor discharged Abigail, and began spreading foul rumors about her in Salem (Miller).

There is a phrase, 'those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.' The two events in history this paper will be comparing and contrasting, proves just that. Chronologically speaking, the Salem witch trials held in Salem Massachusetts, 1692, were a series of trials in which three women falsely accused over two hundred people and even one dog, of practicing witchcraft. The McCarthy era began many years later in 1950 and lasted 4 years until its unpopularity rose in 1954. The McCarthy era, much like the witch trials, were loosely a set of interrogations and trials against many people who were being convicted for something no one had proof of.

The Story Of Witchcraft In the story “the crucible” (1952), Arthur Miller, John Proctor was the one most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in “the crucible” because John Proctor knew beforehand bud didn't spoke out until toward the end where he confessed but chooses the route to be hung. Why did John Proctor toward the end chooses to be hung? Was John Proctor really the witch who started this hysteria? Briefly, John Proctor was the one most responsible for the witchcraft hysteria in “the crucible”.

Abigail Williams wanted what was best for her. She did not care of others. Due to Abigail’s actions a whole conflict outbursts in Salem, Massachusetts. The girls have been caught in the woods dancing and even naked. They have been caught and accused of doing witchcraft. Betty is then “very ill” and they believe she is going to die. Betty awakes. Abigail threatens the girls to stay quiet. “You did. You did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (Miller 18). This shows that Abigail Williams was a villain because she was hoping for the death of a person in order to get what she desired. Abigail and the girls were caught doing witchcraft. Abigail comes up with a different story to tell. “Now look you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the back of shudder

In Salem all females including adults were powerless. Therefore they looked for any opportunities they could to gain some power. One way in which they gained power was by accusing people of being witches. If one of the teenagers doesn’t like someone for some reason, they just accuse them of being a witch and they get convicted. When Elizabeth said to John, “ She wants me dead, I knew all week it would come to this.” (Miller 60) she was referring to when Abigail accused her, She accused Elizabeth because she was jealous and wanted John, so she accused Elizabeth to try and get her killed. Without any facts or reason, Elizabeth were to hang because Abigail made something up about her being a witch. Another reason why a justice system like this wouldn’t work is because, the girls are young and immature and make poor decisions. They blindly rattled off names to take the blame off of themselves. When Elizabeth was talking to John about the matter she said, “ It is her dearest John, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name”... “she dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it. She thinks to take my place, john.”(61) This shows that Abigail claims Elizabeth for personal gain, which is unfair in a justice system. This shows that power in the wrong hands is