Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthy Era

The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller, an American playwright who has

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

“I have here in my hand a list of 205 State Department employees that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department”, McCarthy’s speech in the State Department, (“McCarthyism & the Red Scare”, History.com). The Red Scare era was a haywire of communist infiltrations during the Cold War, in the 1950s. On February 9th, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy a republican of Wisconsin, accused originally 205 state department employees of being a part of a communist party. McCarthy’s speech sparked an uproar of nationwide hysteria about the renegade people in the American government. Overall, McCarthy accused 224 people for being involved with a communist party. One of the 224 people, Arthur Miller, an american playwright who wrote The Crucible to warn the american people against the government misinformation. The Crucible is about the salem witch trials in 1692. He compared the witch trials in The Crucible to the McCarthy investigations. The Crucible, a play, written by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy Era, which took place in the 1950s, because of the false evidence provided, the false accusations, and the hearsay in the courts.

n the time of being treated like nothing, there were multiple things that made people feel that way and were brought to light. McCarthyism and The Crucible were examples of horrifying events in history that gave a whole new meaning to unfair trials. For witches, if they were found guilty, their life would be spared. If they chose to stay with God, they were killed for choosing the right choice. The Crucible and McCarthyism are very alike and different because of the way Arthur Miller made people feel based on assumptions.

Witch hunts have been mentioned in the times of McCarthyism and in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Being put on the list for being a witch like in The Crucible, or being blacklisted in McCarthyism times was not a good thing. McCarthyism and The Crucible are similar in the concept of witch hunts, but the consequences are rather different.

Arthur Miller's The Crucible, depicts the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 but is analogous to the McCarthy trials of the 1950s. In both situations, widespread hysteria occurs, stemming from existing fears of the people of that particular era. The Salem witchhunt trials parallel the McCarthy era in three major aspects: unfounded accusations, hostile interrogation of numerous innocent people and the ruination and death of various people's lives.

I think the story was more about hysteria than supernatural. The book is based on mccarthyism which happened in the 1950”s that's also when the book was written. Mccarthyism happened around the 1940’s and 1950’s many people at the time feared the encroachment of communism. The book was very similar to the mccarthyism, in the story the crucible salem established itself as a religious community in the middle of evil. In the crucible there was girls who were delusional and would make unreasonable claims about the existence of witches in salem, they wouldn't have any proof of it. In the McCarthyism “Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator, made unsubstantiated claims that more than 200 "card carrying" members of the Communist party had infiltrated the United States government, but like in the book he had no proof”. I found an article who talks more about how the crucible and the McCarthyism are alike in many ways. Another part of the article which caught my eye was how in the McCarthyism “the media were not willing to stand up to the senator Mccarthy for fear of being accused of being a communist”. As in the book the townspeople weren't willing to stand up to the court for fear of being accused of being a witch. The book was more about hysteria because it couldn't be proven. The events that happened back in time in which the story takes place were just myth. The girl would often put the blame on other people in the book to protect them self. The people who were being accused would be innocent but since they were being blamed for being witches they would get lynched.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy Era because in both The Crucible and the McCarthy Era, people accused others, were punished, and did whatever they had to to keep themselves out of trouble.

According to the New York Times, “Neither Mr.Miller nor his audiences are unaware or certain similarities between the previsions of justice then and today.” In 1962, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to dramatize the witch trials of Salem. The Salem Witch Trials were a set of trials where 20 people were put to death for witchcraft.He wrote the play despite of the anti-communist issues. In the 1950’s, Joseph McCarthy used a certain method called McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the use of unjust methods to hunt for communist collaborators in America. The similarities between The Crucible and McCarthyism are naming names, false accusations, and resistance.

"Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity" ("Enemies From Within"). This quote establishes a similarity between the McCarthy era, and Arthur Miller's The Crucible. In the book, Arthur Miller writes about the Salem Witch Trials, where men and women in Salem, Massachusetts were arrested and hanged for being witches on little proof. Anyone who spoke against the majority, saying there were no witches were persecuted. This is similar to what happened to Dr. Stockmann in Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. How do humans believe in lies so easily? This is what Arthur Miller examines in his book. Arthur Miller's The Crucible explores the dangers of humans' capabilities of building truth from lies and creating a situation where the truth is indefinable.

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.

'Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.' (George Santayana) During the events of The Crucible, the citizens of Salem are in a frenzy as people are accusing one another of witchcraft in order to further their own selfish agenda’s, and mirrors the real-life events of the Red Scare during the The McCarthy Era, where mass hysteria swept through the public, as the country tried to root out Communist agents from Russia, signifying the untrusting nature of humans and what selfish means we will go to accomplish our own agendas.

Image, being brought in forcefully, thrown in front of an audience like a wild animal or a deformed being, to give them (the court) some entertainment, while hearing that you're being sentenced to death. McCarthyism is the hysteria of believing that everyone around you is a communist. It was named after McCarthy, who accused and hunted people down, using unjust methods, who he believed to be communist. By being accused, people would be blacklisted and they'd be shunned by society. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible because he believed that, what was happening was similar to the Salem Witch Trials. In the story, people would accuse other people to save themselves and at the time of McCarthyism, people were doing the same in The Salem Witch Trials. The HUAC also noticed that as well. Why is it that The Crucible and McCarthyism are similar? While many people have found many different parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism, the main ones are the unjust accusations, inaccurate information, and

Government structure was a big deal during the late 1940 's -1950’s. The US was democracy and the Soviet Union was based off of communism. The two forms of leadership played a major role throughout the upcoming years. In the US, you were either for democracy or not. If you were not you would be black listed and an outcast. This is because during that time, the government thought that there were spies from the Soviet Union and other countries who were into communism. A man named Joseph McCarthy added unto the fear of people by saying he knew 205 communist and 81 in the state department. Many American told on others just to save themselves from being questioned or accused. The act of doing so was later called McCarthyism. This relates to

McCarthyism and the Salem witch trials have a lot in common. “For him [Miller] the parallel between Salem in 1692 and America in 1953 was clear ” (Bigsby xv). Though there maybe a large year gap between these two events, the premise is still the same. Mass fear and paranoia over a common enemy, in salem it is the devil an in 1950 it is communism. Then to avoid being accused people start pointing fingers and all of the sudden you have mistrust and uncertainty on a large scale within the community.