Play: The Crucible, by Arthur Miller

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Recommended: McCarthyism and its effects

Buddha once said, “Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.” Buddha states that the truth is one of the things that cannot be overlooked as the truth is eventually revealed, and the truth might end up having bad effects. Buddha’s quote is significantly true in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller which discusses the Joseph McCarthy era. Miller shows that McCarthy manipulated and abused his power and fame, leading to his downfall. In The Crucible, Miller uses parallelism between Judge Danforth and Joseph McCarthy to accentuate the horrific, unlawful, and untrustworthy complications that they brought to the United States in the 1690's and the 1950's. As an act of portraying parallelism, Miller renders the characteristic of self-pride between Danforth and McCarthy. In the play, Miller reveals one of the multiple methods in which Danforth shows his pride. For instance, Danforth “is a grave man in his sixties, of some humor and sophistication that do not, however, interfere with an exact loyalty to his position and his cause” (79). This establishes an image that Danforth is not to be interfered with. Miller enables the reader to understand that Danforth is a sober gentleman when it comes to the court. Danforth’s method of defense against an unanswerable question is using the court as an excuse and turning the question around to get citizens arrested. Likewise, J. Ronald Oakley, author of The Great Fear, noted that McCarthy had a thirst for everlasting fame. McCarthy was once nicknamed “Pepsi Cola Kid” (200) and “Water Boy of the Real Estate Lobby” (200). After all the fame he received, he was still not satisfied. Finally, in an “extemporaneous speech” (200) he was able to get beneath the skins of the citi... ... middle of paper ... ...to Buddha’s quote, the truth is not to be hidden as it will eventually be revealed and have a spiteful consequence. History proves this quote by presenting McCarthy’s downfall due to his dishonesty. As a result of Miller’s parallelism between Danforth and McCarthy, we can now understand Miller’s intention to produce a play to emphasize the horrific, unlawful, and untrustworthy impediments that Joseph McCarthy brought to the poor citizens of the United States in the 1950's. Like Proctor stated, “God is dead!” (111), which displays the fact that good and evil have swapped places, and Danforth and McCarthy are soon reaching their downfall. Works Cited Miller, Arthur. The crucible and related readings. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell, 1997. Print. Miller, Arthur, and Christopher Bigsby. The Crucible: a play in four acts. New York [u.a.: Penguin Books, 2003. Print.

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