Salem Witch Trials Under Mccarthyism

History is passed on from generation to generation. Back in history, many unfortunate and dreadful events took place. People look back on these times in shock, thinking how depressing those times were. By learning about the history, we may understand some of these events better and strive to prevent them from recurring. In the late 1690’s, the Salem witch trials took place, when innocent people were accused of being involved with witchcraft. Similarly, as part of the House Un-American Committee (HUAC) congressional investigation into the cold-war era suspicions of communist activities, McCarthyism was a campaign against alleged communists in the United States government and other institutions promoted by U.S. senator Joseph McCarthy in the

period between 1950-1954. When Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) became a known disease in the late 1900’s, before it was totally understood, people were afraid to come into direct physical contact or associate with people who were presumed to have the disease, and likewise anybody outside their immediate family and friends. The McCarthy Era and The Crucible reflect the time during the 1900’s. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, Miller wrote the novel, The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings, the Salem witch trials, and the AIDS period.
Under McCarthyism, people feared associating with communists or people conceived of being supporters of communism.

People were therefore blacklisted and many have lost their jobs regardless if they were supporters of communism. Public hysteria made people behave irrational, insensitive, and sometimes even reacting illegally. When AIDS was first discovered it was believed to only infect homosexual men. As a result of the fear of the unknown, people altered their everyday lifestyles to avoid contracting HIV. AIDS became a crisis when millions of people died in different countries while medications were being developed. Magic Johnson, who is arguably the best NBA point guard of all time, has been living with AIDS since 1991. He is a figure that people looked up to. He is quoted saying that "Life doesn't stop because something happens to you". This quote is a positive outlook on life regardless of what life presents you with. Magic Johnson successfully made people in similar conditions, understand that HIV isn’t the horror that they all thought it was and it shouldn’t hold you back from living your

life.
The witch trials against gay men in America and elsewhere are noteworthy relative to the Salem Witch Trials of the seventeenth century. During the trials, extreme accusations were made of the witch trials against many of Salem’s most respectable citizens, as well as some of the low-lying people in the town. Just like the witches, gay men in the AIDS epidemic, and even now, are signed out as threatening to the world. AIDS was prominent in Africa among the local black population. Gay people in Uganda and other countries may face death if they are discovered. Such actions could have damaged the way the twentieth century would be viewed in the history books, and could be as damaging as AIDS itself. During the AIDS outbreak, those with a dispute against gays accused them of having it with no scientific proof, just as Abigail Parris’s accusation against John Proctor was. It was at many times suggested that people with the AIDS virus be imprisoned or quarantined. The world feared gays, just as the town of Salem feared the “witches”.
Many people look back on events of the Salem witch trials and laugh at the irrationality of the accusations.

It seems crazy that humanity could be fooled into believing in fairytales such as witches and devils. It is a common belief that witch-hunts occurred in the past and no longer exist today. The Crucible is an attempt to create ethical awareness for society by making changes and creating parallels in the book with racism, human tendencies, and the HUAC activities. However, the author of The Crucible, points out that society has not come very far from the days of the Salem witch-trials. 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. In the 1950’s, America was engulfed in the civil rights movement. Racism was a huge concern and people were struggling for equality and respect. Miller touched on the subject of racism and related it to the present time by his characterization of the woman, Tituba. Generally, Tituba was a native woman; however, in the book she was described as a black woman who was a servant of Reverend Parris and one of the first to be alleged of witchcraft. Her different original heritage, culture and skin color made her stick out, which caused people to assume she was a witch. The fact that she was a minority made her an easy target for blame as well. Naturally, people who were not guilty still testified because that was the only way to

stay alive. Miller concluded that Salem reflected today’s society because all people were out only for themselves. It is a human tendency to defend oneself and have no concern for others. They didn’t care about the people they were hurting. Miller was aware of that and linked it to people who were involved in HUAC who had no regard for others and blamed them of being communists. In writing The Crucible, Arthur Miller voiced his opinion against HUAC and McCarthy. He made the events of the Salem witch trials parallel to those that occurred in 1950’s. In both situations, people were wrongly accused, forcing them to accuse others of the same crime in an attempt to clear their names. Today, society can learn from both of those circumstances because history tends to repeat itself, and society has not outgrown its witch hunting days.
To wrap up, Hysteria is a psychological disorder in which the sufferer experiences physical symptoms of an illness or an injury without any physical cause of illness. Though referred to as hysteria in the past, psychiatrists and psychologists today commonly refer to the disorder as conversion disorder, which is a disorder that causes pain that doesn’t appear to be caused by injuries or infections. Hysteria caused in the past many accusations of witchcraft throughout The Crucible. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, Miller wrote the novel, The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings, the Salem witch trials, and the AIDS period. In The Crucible, through hysteria, characters are falsely accused of being involved in witchcraft, much like the manhunt for anyone resembling a communist from the McCarthyism era and anyone who was under the effect of AIDS. The Crucible deals with issues to all people of all time and is therefore an unchanging and historic play.