In the past there have been major events that have shaped the country we live in today. Two of the major events of our time are McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials. These two events there hold many similarities like the fear and anger that went on but there is a lot of contrast between the two, such as the consequences. Because of these controversial topics, Arthur Miller wrote his play, The Crucible, which focuses on these issues and makes a connection. He also wrote it so that we would learn and grow from the past, instead of ignorantly repeating it. The first way McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials are similar is that they both were fueled by fear. McCarthyism was fueled by the fear of nuclear war. Communists snuck into America from the Soviet Union to spy on the United States. America and the Soviet Union were on the brink of a nuclear war. He made it hard to trust people, and they were afraid of being accused themselves. The Salem Witch Trials was the same way because no one wanted to get in trouble or worse, killed. When Abby started accusing people of communicating with the devil, people started getting scared that she would accuse them. A lot of people were afraid to do things that they might normally do throughout the day because they were afraid of being accused. …show more content…
There was a lot of anger among the people of this time. During the Salem Witch Trials, Abby hates Elizabeth Proctor because of her love for John Proctor, which causes Abby to accuse Elizabeth of practicing witchcraft and communicating with the devil. In McCarthyism, anger is shown when McCarthy accuses people of being communists. Anyone who expressed their freedom of speech was labeled a communist just because someone might not have liked what they said. There was so much anger from the war and tension in this time that people just let it take
The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were “bad” at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over “19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones”(Linder). “Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice”(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time. Joseph McCarthy was the U.S senator for the state of Wyoming from 1947-1957, the year that he died. McCarthy became the most visible face in public during the time of the cold war in America. “McCarthy pursued unnecessary investigations, imprisonments and unprovoked acts to those who were being accused of being a communist”(Glitterrich). The term McC...
similarity to the Salem witch trials. The McCarthy hearings are trials in which Senator Joe McCarthy accuses government employees of being Communists. He exaggerates and exploits the evidence and ruins many reputations just as the girls do in the Salem witch trials. The accused, in both cases, are used as scapegoats for society’s problems and the only way to escape direct punishment is to admit to guilt.
Many people look back on the events of the Salem witch trials and laugh at the absurdity of the allegations. It seems crazy that society could be fooled into believing in things like witches and deal with the events in such an extreme manner. It is a common belief that witch hunts are things of the past. Many people would agree that they no longer exist today; however Arthur Miller, author of the play, "The Crucible", points out that society has not come very far from the days of the Salem witch trials. In his play, he used the Salem witch trials to represent the McCarthy Era because he saw that the nation was facing the same events that Salem went through back in the late 1600's. Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" in an attempt to create moral awareness for society. He did so by making a few small changes to the history and creating parallels in the play with racism, human tendencies, and H.U.A.C.
During the 1950s, the United States was afraid of the communist party. This caused the U.S. to quickly judge anybody who was assumed to be a communist. A similar story was the struggle John Proctor had. John Proctor lived within a super proper society, with many of the people in it being superstitious with the Witch Trials going on. The Salem Witch Trials were filled with the lies of people being witches that would eventually destroy their reputations.
McCarthyism, became a term that referred to Senator Joseph McCarthy from Wisconsin and the ruthless tactics he employed and institutionalized while seeking to destroy the threat of Communism to the United States government and society between 1950 and 1954. Fears of communism and self-promotion were utilized by McCarthy to promote himself as a politician end protector of the American way of life. Generally, McCarthyism became synonymous with the Medieval Witch Hunts and trials in that unfair prosecutions were based on fears and rumors. Both, McCarthyism and witch hunts were products of generally unfavorable times. Similarly, testimony and confessions were often forced by threat and coercion. Seemingly plausible accusations containing innuendo
Events have played out in history that made people realize the inhumane acts of people and the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era were two of them. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were almost 260 years before the McCarthy “witch hunts” in the 1950s yet there are similarities between them. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is about the Salem witch trials and is an allegory to the practicing of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare in the United States, which Miller was a victim of. Although there may be differences between “The Crucible” and McCarthyism, ultimately the anger, lack of evidence, and the people were alike in both events.
The play “The Crucible” is an allegory for the McCarthyism hysteria that occurred in the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. Arthur Miller’s play “the crucible” and the McCarthyism era demonstrates how fear can begin conflict. The term McCarthyism has come to mean “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty”, which is the basis of the Salem witch trials presented in Arthur Miller’s play. The fear that the trials generate leads to the internal and external conflicts that some of the characters are faced with, in the play. The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society.
In the 1950’s, a Senator named Joseph McCarthy found himself in a position of great power and influence due to his loosely slung accusations. After World War II, communism was viewed as a terrible crime of supporting anti-American views and it was a very dreadful thing to be marked a communist. If a person was put on the blacklist by Joseph McCarthy, their reputation would be destroyed indefinitely and the person might even lose their job. A very similar character to Joseph McCarthy in The Crucible is Abigail Williams. Like McCarthy, Abigail gains a certain power that she desperately desires when she accuses someone of witchcraft. “I am but God's finger, John. If he would condemn Elizabeth, she will be condemned” (Miller 98). When Abigail mentioned a citizen of Salem’s name, their reputation and even life was in jeopardy. “The Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!” (Miller 68). Miller never directly declares it, but Abigail Williams seeks power, attention, and love. Abigail’s parents were murdered when she was young and she desires love that she does not receive from her caretaker, Reverend Parris. She d...
government. He intended to hunt them out, force them to confess, and make them name their associates, almost as the Salem judges had done. In fact, the character of Danforth is based on McCarthy himself. There is a great parallel between the witch trials and the “Red Scare.” Both created a frenzy among the public, involved people going against each other to prove their innocence, and sought to hunt out those who rebelled against the dominant values of the time.
The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.
The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are very similar in what they talk about during each period of time. The definition of McCarthyism is “a voracious campaign against alleged communists in the United States government. The first paragraph of McCarthyism states McCarthy spent five years trying in vain to expose communists. His words were so intimidating that only few people dared to speak against him. McCarthy insinuates disloyalty which is what convinced many Americans to believe that their government was packed with traitors and spies. When McCarthy won his election, he did so by criticizing his c
Second, the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare were compared because in both events, there were intolerant laws that targeted witchcraft and communism. The Bible claimed, “Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:31). This verse concludes it is a sin to practice witchcraft. The Puritan society based their government on religion, thus they were to follow this law and did not tolerate witchcraft. Furthermore, they took serious action on people suspected to be involved with the devil. There were also laws that were intolerant with Communism, such as the Smith Act of 1940 that declared, “Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which details the Salem witch trials, Abigail has an affair with John Proctor, and then tries to kill his wife with a charm. This leads to her being thought a witch, but they point fingers at others to keep the spotlight off of them. Eventually many people are hung for witchcraft because Abigail and her friends will not tell the truth of what happened the night they were dancing. During the McCarthy trials, the Cold War was currently going on, and the public was getting anxious about the recent findings that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of being communist spies. Joseph McCarthy used this to get power by convicting others of Communism in his trials. McCarthy and the witch trials is a classic example of history repeating itself, when there is no way to prove yourself innocent of an invisible crime.
McCarthyism would have power over Americans where his campaign would spread more fear over the people about communist and with no media, there would blind more Americans of what is happening within their own government. What the author relates McCarthy as Abigail were she made sure that the girls would say nothing about what they did in the woods where she tells them they have “Danced.and Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sister. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or edge of a word, about the other things, and I will shudder you”(The Crucible). Abigail had full-on control over people because she had higher power over the townspeople where no-one was willing to stand up to the court in fear of being accused of
Multiple killings of innocent, unarmed people seemed to spark the rise of social injustice of African Americans. Such as Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. The comparison of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism, social injustice against African Americans became greatly common in today's society. The unjust accusations of a specific group of people because of their race or beliefs influenced The Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, and the killings of African Americans. These accusations didn’t just lead to killings but an uproar in the African American community.