Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

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.

In order to be accurate in accusing someone of a crime, you must have the appropriate evidence to back up your story. In The Crucible, many people were accused of practicing witchcraft. The ones who confessed, were sentenced to jail and the ones who denied it, were killed. The only way they had to prove what was being done, was spectral evidence. Therefore, the only person known to tell the truth was the victim. McCarthyism involved communists, like The Crucible, those who were accused were sentenced to jail time. The parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism are naming names, the lack of evidence, and rebellion against the government in which they served.

History has always had a strange way of repeating itself, but this could not have been more evident when Mccarthyism and The Salem Witch Trials showed great similarities. The Crucible by Arthur miller emphasized major similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and Mccarthyism.

Even though the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism occurred in different time periods in American history, the two share a lot of comparisons than one tends to believe. The Salem Witch Trials consisted of false accusations being made towards mostly women in the town of Salem for practicing witchcraft. As a result, many women were hung and fear that the devil would take over kept the trials alive. Arthur Miller wrote a play in 1953 called “The Crucible” and used the trials as an allegory for the McCarthyism paranoia in the 1950s. Both historical events contributed to the spread of hatred, fear, and zealotry.

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,

McCarthyism is the practice of making the accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity (“McCarthyism”). This term has become a byname for the defamation of character or reputation by means of widely publicized indiscriminate allegations, especially on the basis of unsubstantiated charges (Achter). During the Era of McCarthyism, the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy manipulated and capitalized off the fear of the Red Scare by proclaiming that communist spies were present and McCarthy was America’s only salvation. Arthur Miller was brought upon the House Committee on Un-American Activities to testify against other entertainment industry. Arthur refused to reveal the names of alleged communist writers, he was found in contempt of Congress, and was blacklisted from work (“Arthur Miller Biography”).

The horrors of history are passed on from generation to generation in hopes that they will never occur again. People look back on these times and are appalled at how horrendous the times were; yet, in the 1950s, history repeated itself. During this time, Joseph McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, began accusing people of being communists or communist sympathizers, which is parallel to the Salem witch trials in the late 1690s when innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the people McCarthy accused was author and playwright Arthur Miller. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, miller wrote The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials.

Communism. Witchcraft. These two highly controversial topics are either feared or adored by people. There are numerous similarities and differences between both, yet one thing is prominent: they both incite hysteria. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegorical play mirroring 1950’s America during the Red Scare. “McCarthyism” is the act of accusing someone of an act of treason without substantial evidence. It relies on the uncertainty and the fear of the unknown among people, which in turn, incites hysteria. Joseph McCarthy accused many people of being communists without much evidence or reason. The accusations in The Crucible also are proposed without evidence and cause much hysteria among the town. Since The Crucible was written as an

The playwright, Arthur Miller, wrote ‘The Crucible’ in the time period in which World War 2 had just ended a few years back. This affected Arthur Miller’s writing process because the United States was concerned about the rising of communism ideals and the expanding power of the Soviet Union. People pointed fingers at each other and accused each other of being communist. Arthur Miller conveys the Salem witch trials as an allusion to McCarthyism, which led Americans to feel that they were surrounded by a Communist threat. In the play, ‘The Crucible’, during the spring of 1692, in the small Massachusetts village of Salem, the Salem Witch Trials were commenced by a group of infamous girls who were suffering from hallucination and seizure, as if

What does it mean for something to be fair? Fair means “in accordance with the rules or standards”(Merriam-Webster). The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the trials of the Red Scare were anything but fair. In fact, they were completely unjust and immoral. The Red Scare consisted of Mccarthyism and public panic. Mccarthyism is when “a campaign or practice that endorses the use of unfair allegations and investigations”(Banes). The Crucible and McCarthyism share many similarities including that the law operated in unfair ways and failed to maintain justice, one person was the root cause of this mass public hysteria and both people lied to protect themselves.

‘The Crucible’ is an allegory. An allegory is a story with an obvious meaning but if you look deeper into it, there is another meaning. In this case, the obvious meaning is the Salem witch-hunt and the hidden meaning is McCarthyism. McCarthyism started in the early 1950’s and it was governmental accusations with no evidence. Joseph McCarthy started doing trials on those he thought were communist, but he had no evidence for it. This is the same as the witch trials in The Crucible. Arthur Miller wrote this in response to McCarthyism.

The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is a chronological narrative including a large cast of characters with a constantly moving setting.* The Crucible is a dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and an allegory of the McCarthyism period. Throughout the play, Miller explores the destruction of freedom by the ignorant and tyrannical society in which his characters live.* By exhibiting how easily a member of the community can become an outcast, Arthur Miller displays social criticism in the Puritan society as well as in today's society in The Crucible.

The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller. This play takes place in Salem, Massachusets during the time of he famous Salem Witch Trials. However, this play is an allegory which Miller used as a way to mock a Senator at the time, Joseph McCarthy. The Red Scare was a time during the Cold War when the U.S. when into a frenzy trying to find and improsion any communist. Unfortunitly for Miller some of his friends had communist views and Miller was jailed because of it. While in jail McCarthy came to Miller and told him he would be freed if he told the names of the communist he knew. These communist being Millers friends, he did not give any names to McCarthy. After eventually being freed, Miller was outraged and needed a way to write about what had happened. Miller used the connection between the Witch Trials and the Red Scare to write The Crucible. He mocked all of the government officials by showing them that they are no better than the townspeople of Massachusetts in 1690.

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

It is often said that history repeats itself, which is the reason there are History and English classes where a student would read historical books and plays. In the late 1940’s, amidst the second World War, America was apprehensive of the threat of Communism and the Soviet Union. During this time, the House of Representatives had created a committee to protect America from the Red Menace, The Un-American Activities Committee investigated possible communists in the U.S. This is when Senator Joseph McCarthy started the unjust hunting of possible Communists. It was during this same time that Arthur Miller, a playwright and essayist, wrote a play based on the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. During the Salem Witch Trials, many young women were accused of witchcraft and put on trial. The whole town was soon afraid of the courts that tried the witches even more than they feared the witches themselves. The parallels between the Crucible and McCarthyism were due to the lack of evidence, victims being pressured to confess names, and being rewarded compliance.