preview

New Historicism In The Crucible

Decent Essays

New Historicism: The Crucible started with The Red Scare New Historicists look at events occurring in the world at the time a literary work was written. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, was accused of being a Communist in 1957 during The Red Scare. “In developing his script, when Miller visited Salem in 1952 he immediately realized the parallels between Salem in 1692 and the then-current United States” (“Why I Wrote The Crucible”). The parallels are what caused him to write the play. The citizens of the United States and Salem were both plagued with anxiety. Is it human nature to follow into and/or create mass hysteria? During The Red Scare and The Crucible innocent people were condemned, and the injustice of the matter amplified …show more content…

There’s a scene where all of the girls start shouting out numerous names of the people they saw with the devil. Abigail accuses John Proctor’s wife of being a witch because she’s infatuated with John. Abigail knows the people they’re accusing are innocent, because near the end she runs away. “Rumors of witchcraft throughout the town lead to accusations, roundups, and forced confessions. Eventually the innocent were sent to the gallows” (Miller). In the play when the innocent people didn’t falsely confess of being a witch, they were hung (Miller). Similarly, in the United States, people feared communism as the Cold War was happening. Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many people of being communists. According to Yale Law professor Ralph Brown, 10,000 people lost their jobs because of McCarthy. A large majority of them being innocent (“McCarthyism”). “His [McCarthy’s] interrogation tactics were brutal and his accusations often unsubstantiated, but his hearings brought public condemnation to the accused and resulted in the general persecution of many innocent people (“McCarthyism”). Arthur Miller saw the parallels between the accused innocent people during the Salem Witch Trials and from

Get Access