Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

McCarthy’s Witch Hunt

Arthur Miller saw striking resemblances between Joseph McCarthy’s attack on Communism and witch accusations during the 17th century, especially the infamous Salem Witch Trials. He noticed that many aspects of what Joseph McCarthy was doing were eerily similar to that of the people who accused witches during the Salem witch trials. The three main similarities that Arthur Miller saw between the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were the judges, widespread paranoia, and influential leaders.

In order to understand The Crucible and McCarthyism, you must know Arthur Miller and Joseph McCarthy . Joseph McCarthy was a Wisconsin Senator in from 1947 until his death in 1957. His job was ordinary until 1950, when McCarthy gave a speech to the Ohio County Women’s Republican Club in Wheeling, West Virginia. During the speech McCarthy declared that he had a list of 205 known

members of the Communist Party who were in the State Department (History.com Staff). This speech would lead to a myriad of wild accusations against political figures, and others who were not involved in politics, that McCarthy accused of Communism. These acts of baseless accusations upon people that were seen as enemies to the accuser are similar to the Salem witch trials, in which people accused others for personal gain, taking advantage of widespread paranoia ("McCarthyism”). Arthur Miller was a graduate of the University of Michigan and pursued a career as a playwright. He first became famous for his play Death of a Salesman. Later he became even more famous for his marriage to famous hollywood star Marilyn Monroe and by the time of his death, Arthur Miller was acclaimed as one of the greatest playwrights of his time. His play, The Crucible, was written in response to Joseph McCarthy’s actions during Arthur Miller’s time.
One of the reasons that Miller saw the relation between the Salem witch trials and McCarthy’s actions were the actions of the judges. Judges during Joseph McCarthy’s accusations would convict people with little evidence on a wild accusation. People were so paranoid of Communism, McCarthy could accuse anyone even while, “At no point did he manage to produce concrete evidence to back up his claims, but it did not seem to matter, even after a Senate subcommittee investigated his allegations in the spring of 1950 and found them to be baseless” (“McCarthyism”). These convictions were destroy the lives of the people that were convicted, even though many were not even Communist.
Both the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy accusations destroyed the lives of anyone that was accused or convicted. People that were accused of being a witch were either hung or never accepted into society as they once were. The people that were accused by Joseph McCarthy lost their jobs, were sent to jail, fined, and never could recover from the label of being a Communist. “The attacks were often baseless, but they nevertheless destroyed the careers of thousands of individuals, some of whom had done nothing more than attend a left-wing political meeting ten or fifteen years earlier” (McCarthyism). Even Hollywood actors were affected by the accusations. Ten actors were accused of being a part of the Communist party and were tried in court. They were found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison along with a thousand dollar fine (“McCarthyism”). These actors were blacklisted from Hollywood and could not get their jobs back until the late 1950’s. All of this was possible due to the paranoia of the American people caused by the spread of communism.
Another similarity that Arthur miller saw between McCarthyism and the Salem witch trials was the widespread paranoia.

The Communist forces under Mao Zedong had won control of China and The Soviet Union was beginning to spread its global reach. These events were concerning to the American people, as they did not want Communist infiltration in American society ("The Crucible: Historical Context”). This caused widespread paranoia in American society, which allowed the outbreak of McCarthyism. “Originally associated with generic Cold War anticommunism, the term McCarthyism eventually came to refer to a particularly mean-spirited and groundless accusation based on paranoia and characterized by political grandstanding” (“McCarthyism”). Another factor that allowed Joseph McCarthy to accuse people with baseless accusations was his allies in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the most powerful being J. Edgar Hoover (“McCarthyism”). The FBI would provide much of the information in court. Even though the information was often sketchy and illegal, it still fueled the

investigations.
Both the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy trials concluded, unfortunately it was after many people had already been made victims. Eventually Joseph McCarthy had his downfall, when he attacked the United States Army by accusing officers of being Communist. This lost him the support of the general public and the FBI. “It soon became clear that McCarthy had invented many of his accusations out of thin air, and while Americans still feared the spread communism as much as ever, they lost their taste for the witch-hunt. In 1954 McCarthy was censured by the Senate for his misconduct” (“McCarthyism”). Joseph McCarthy had ruined the lives of many innocent people and Americans knew it, just as the people of Salem came to realize the horrible things they had allowed to happen. The judges, paranoia, and powerful allies allowed McCarthy to wrongly accuse people of a horrible crime that ruined the lives of those accused. These are the same factors that led to the Salem witch trials.