Similarities Between Joseph Mccarthy And The Crucible

In both storylines, there are characters that parallel each other and allow the viewers to see the overarching themes that permeate both movies. In Good Night and Good Luck, the main antagonist, Joseph McCarthy, is a foil for The Crucible’s Abigail Williams. They play the same role in the plot development of the movies and serve as antagonists who cause nothing but trouble. Although they differ in some aspects of their character, much of their motives and methods are quite similar.

Joseph McCarthy, the junior senator from Wisconsin, began with little recognition and little power. He was relatively new to the game of politics and in order to climb the political ladder, he had to make a name for himself and do something noteworthy. He went about this in the form of accusing people of communism. He wanted to portray himself as a hero who was saving the future of America from the evil communists who lived amongst the American people. He played on the existing fear of communism and heightened it by accusing random people who, in truth, had no actual connections to the communist party. This situation gained McCarthy a lot of publicity and he became the

It was also, and as importantly, a long overdue opportunity for every-one so inclined to express publicly his guilt and sins, under the cover of accusations against the victims … Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly expressed, and vengeance taken.” (Miller 7) He explains that Williams accusations were not simply the result of her repression of expression due to her status, it also became a channel for all her and her friends hatred to spew out. The pent up feelings and communal dislikes of certain people were now voiced in the form of cries of witchcraft. This is similar to McCarthyism because people already feared the crime and when given the opportunity, jumped on their neighbors in fear they were