The Crucible Critical Analysis

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a tragic play set in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, where Miller uses the Salem Trials as a metaphor for the 1950s McCarthy hearings. In Salem, people value their good names. The Puritan community acts as a theocracy in which there appears to be no right to privacy, and people must conform to a strict moral code. The theme of reputation, lying, and deceit are shown in Abigail, John Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor, Mary Warren, and other characters. In the play’s dialogue, Miller uses Biblical allusions, situational irony, and dramatic irony to develop these themes.

The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the time of the Salem witch trials. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses revenge as the main theme throughout the playwright. Revenge is the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong done to someone else. Revenge is shown throughout the characters actions in the play. Witch craft is used to represent revenge. If someone didn't like another, they could accuse that person of witch craft and inflict harm on him or her. Many characters in the play are motivated by their desire to seek revenge. During the course of the play, revenge motivates the characters and has a huge significance in the play.

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.

The Crucible is a play, which explores the witch- hunting hysteria that happened in Salem 1692. Miller uses this “organized mass-hysteria”[1] to comment on his own similar experience during the 1950s. Through “The Crucible”, Miller is able to draw an analogy between the hysteria of the Salem witch-trails and its modern parallel of the anti communist ‘witch-hunts’ which occurred due to the HUAC-House of un-American Committee, which were lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy; who with the help of the committee were “ruthlessly determined to hunt out communists as the Salem judges had been to hunt out witches”[2]. Miller used “The Crucible” to criticise this unmitigated

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.

Martin Niemöller once said,“First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” The culture of accusations is a part of hysteria. As paranoia ensued in “The Crucible”, Joseph McCarthy made false allegations that influenced many peoples lives. An affair integrated in Arthur Miller’s play created controversy among the community. Trials were held for those accused and lying was the only way to survive. The harsh truth that was revealed in “The Crucible” and the parallels between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials show patterns in which fear was used as an advantage, unsubstantiated claims occurred, and unethical punishments were given.

In this paper, I will be talking about The Crucible, a story written by Arthur Miller in 1952 about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, and the Red Scare, a time in the 1950’s when Americans were scared that Communists were a threat to them. I will also talk about how Arthur Miller uses “The Crucible” to help the reader understand that similarities such as fear and nationalism occur in historical witch hunts such as the Red Scare still exist, and society persecutes those who do not fit into society because it fears those who are different.

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s America was overwhelmed with concerns about the growing threat of communism in Eastern Europe and in China. One senator in particular, Joseph McCarthy took this one step further and made more than two-hundred accusations against these supposed communists, one of these people being Arthur Miller. Miller dared to stand against McCarthy and used The Crucible as a way to show McCarthy’s flaws without approaching him directly. The Salem Witch Trials and the Scares in the Mid Nineteen hundreds both remind us that no man is perfect, and we do make mistakes.

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

As Vladimir Lenin once stated, “A lie told often enough becomes truth.” This quote indicates that if you constantly repeat a lie, eventually people will come to believe it. I definitely agree with Lenin. A lie won’t stay a secret forever. Lenin’s quote remains true and evident in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. There are many characters Miller uses to prove this quote true through the literary elements Characterization, Theme, and Setting. Some characters include Abigail, John Proctor, and Thomas Putnam.

It is always best to think before you act otherwise the situation could go from bad to worse. As in The Crucible, having trust on one another can be a risky choice because we don't know who to rely upon or who will eventually be deceiving and not be fully honest about the truth and simply abuse the trust being given. The play is about how viewing one’s mistakes can lead to various consequences. Proctor refused to accept his mistake on having a sexual affair with Abigail and because of that, he was sent to the gallows to be hanged. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, he demonstrates the themes that by remaining silent people get hurt, mistakes cannot be forgotten once they have been done, and speaking up can remove power from a person.

When people condemn others, the accuser affect themselves the most. Marc and Dianna MacYoung, the authors of No Nonsense Self-Defense, in their article “Blaming Justifies Your Own Bad Behavior” writes, “Unfortunately, blame is

Have you ever wonder what life was like during the McCarthy Era? As many generations passes by, a lot tend to look back reminisce on those who had lost their lives. Innocents were accused without any evidence, suffered, tortured, and killed. People were arrested with no doubt just because of accusations that were made. In the story, The Crucible which takes place in Salem is about innocent people getting accuse with false accusations because of witchcraft. However, McCarthyism is similar to The Crucible because of those who were accused and tortured. Which then the innocent no longer had that pride of being who they were because of the false accusations. Therefore, The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the

“The Crucible,” a play by Arthur Miller later turned into a major Hollywood movie, explores the politics of fear, social norms, and the fight to recapture a man’s moral compass. Miller paints his story using the small tight knit community of Salem circa 1692 as his canvass, brilliantly weaving historical fact and fiction to portray a scenario not unlike events seen since. The infamous witch hunts of 1692 and wild accusations of a subversive culture that threatened to tear away at the fabric of society are at the center of the film. Originally conceived in the 1950’s during the red scare, it is well known and accepted that Miller sought to highlight the similarities with the ongoing persecutions of accused communist sympathizers. The

During the rise of European Fascism and brutal anti-semitism, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible out of an act of desperation, by writing “The Crucible” he was able to express McCarthyism during the 1950s, When everyone accused each other of being a “Communist” the main fear during that time, that brings a unique smile to our generation. To write The Crucible Arthur Miller had to use a different language, a new language that set it apart from the 1950s, he created a story that could be teachable and relatable to the reader and himself. By using master characterization, false accusations, and confession, he was able to make The Crucible relatable to 1950s McCarthyism.