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The social criticism of the crucible
The impact of mccarthyism
The social criticism of the crucible
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Crucible Essay
Ever wonder is if a small lie could escalate so much that 19 deaths occurred? Abigail Williams told a lie in the book, The Crucible saying in a forest she saw all these innocent people performing witchcraft when they were just living a normal Christian life. This event of the witchcraft in Salem and another event in the 1950’s are very similar. In the early 1950’s during the Cold War, communists lost their friends and jobs. While Arthur Miller clearly wrote the play The Crucible to demonstrate his belief that an individual should never give up the power to think for him or himself, he also intended it to be allegory for the Red Scarce of the 1950’s called McCarthyism.
The Crucible is an allegory of the Red Scarce, in both of these events caused by an individual running someone’s life over what that person believes
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in or a small lie ending up to kill 19 people. The Crucible was written to represent what was going on during this time period with the Red Scarce. Even though the Red Scarce no one had died, innocent people, “They were… fired from their jobs”, because of what they believed in. This connects to The Crucible because the people that were accused were sent to jail then hung. “ John… it will frighten them”, Elizabeth Proctor was accused of witchcraft, but she and John are devout Christians. The Crucible and the Red Scarce are allegories for each other.
Both of these events is formed by a lie spread by a person or group of people to prevent themselves from being harmed, killed or severely messed up someone’s life. In The Crucible Abigail Williams and a group of girls were dancing in the forrest and her uncle, Parris caught them and told everyone the girls performed witchcraft. Abigail then tells Parris and Hale that Tituba, “she made me do it”. Tituba and the girls didn’t perform witchcraft that night, and a lot of people were accused or killed over it. In the Red Scarce McCarthy and Hoover made life for Communists living in the United States not a fun experience, “Figures such as… that possibility”. The United States allows people to have their opinion, and in my opinion the people that agree with communism should be able to tell people they do without having their life being torn apart.
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show his beliefs that an individual should never give up power to think for themselves, he intended it to be an allegory for the Red Scarce. Today it is illegal to do what McCarthy and what the girls
did.
In the article, Miller discusses the rise of McCarthyism, and how it affected the American people and him personally. Being that Miller lived in the time of McCarthyism and was interviewed by the committee in charge of “Un-American Activities”, Miller is a very credible source on the effects of mass hysteria and paranoia. The article “Are You Now or Were You Ever” can be used as a source when discussing McCarthyism and its effects, and other studies of the era. This article is a valuable resource for studies of The Crucible and studies of Arthur Miller
Joseph McCarthy was a Republican senator who did as much as he could to whip up anti-communism in the 1950s. In the time of his term, he didn’t attach his name to anything significant until February 9, 1950. On that day, he gave a political speech claiming that he had a list of 205 Communists in the State Department. Although nobody saw the list of names and it wasn’t clarified by anybody else, the speech made national news. Furthermore, this relates to The Crucible because Abigail, like McCarthy, made multiple false witch accusations on women in Salem. Arthur Miller’s historical play, The Crucible, portrays the historical events of the Salem witch trials through a number of memorable characters and a background based off of McCarthyism. While
In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as a protest paper to the brutality of the Red Scare .The Red Scare was the inoperable fear of Communism within the United States. This scare was caused as a result of the Cold War in the 1950’s. During the Cold War the US was scared of an attack of the Soviets, and the Soviets were equally as scared of an attack upon them by us. Joseph McCarthy, a Senator from Wisconsin, saw this fear as an opportunity to rise to power. McCarthy had many supporters that were primarily Republicans, Catholics, Conservative Protestants, and Blue-collar workers. McCarthy ruthlessly utilized scare tactics to get people to believe and follow him blindly into his accusations as to innocent citizens supporting Communism and either having them jailed or killed by providing phony evidence. Arthur Miller was not intimidated by this he wrote the Crucible as “an act of desperation” (Miller). This desperation was to counteract the lack of speaking out about personal beliefs during the Red Scare for the fear of breaking the law. In The Crucible, Miller wrote about a character named John Proctor who is very similar to Miller himself. Both the author and the character had to overturn the same personal paralyzing guilt, not speaking out soon enough. Nonetheless, their eventual overcoming of this guilt leads them to becoming the most forthright voice against the madness around them.
Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, lived during the Red Scare, which was anti-Communist as the Salem witch trials were anti-witches. The whole book is a symbol of two events that happened in history. The Red Scare and McCarthyism both serve as symbols of the Salem witch trials, which makes it an allegory. Although the play is based off of the witch trials during seventeenth century New England, the author meant for it to address his concern for the Red Scare in an indirect way. For example, just like the witch trials accusing people of witchcraft, Americans during the Red Scare accused others of being pro-Communist. The same widespread paranoia occurred as a result.
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.
As once stated by Joseph R. McCarthy “I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department” (Joseph). The red scare occurred in the 1950’s when United States senator Joseph McCarthy lied when accusing people for being communists. McCarthyism is the practice of making false accusation for the purpose of ruining the lives of innocent people. In the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 when the townspeople were accusing and being accused of witchcraft. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as a reference to the red scare because in 1692 and 1950’s, both societies were being watched closely, were restricted of certain opportunities, and in both there were false accusations. In The Crucible, Salem’s downfall was caused by theocracy because the church plays an enormous role in
During the 1690’s in Salem, Massachusetts, one of the most disgraceful events in American history took place. 20 innocent people were sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft (Kortuem). At the time there was a witch scare sweeping across the North East of America in a time we know today as the Salem Witch Trials. The witch trials was one of the most shameful events in American history. In fact, it was compared to another event by a man named Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was a playwright from New York who wrote many famous plays like Death of a Salesman, All my Sons, and of course The Crucible (Kortuem). In The Crucible, Miller was comparing the McCarthy Hearings at the time to the events hundreds of years earlier in the
When panic and fear ensue within a community the line between fact and lie often muddle together, only adding to the hysteria. This can be displayed by the society of lies and fear within America during the Red Scare and Salem Witch Trials, as displayed in The Crucible. In particular the Red Scare was fronted with massive propaganda campaigns that pushed false information, “I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the communist party and who. … shaping the policy of the state department”( I have here in my hand). The president here adds volatility to the claims of soviet spies being within the government.The reinforced scare and fear tactics pushed by every aspect of the government, including the president, enforces the idea that everyone should everyone else to be a threat. This is false evidence and only continues a trend of ignorance only creating more distrust and fear waslt it legitimized the claims. This is also evident in The Crucible when so many of the girls have solidified the claims of witchcraft and startled the town into thinking the devil was within salem. They are able to lie successfully many times over and hide the truth to wreak havoc on the town. Because of the false claims of witchery and devil worship proven in the courts of
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.
There is a strong connection between McCarthyism and the Salem With Trials, which are what The Crucible is based on. Arthur Miller immediately recognized this link, and displayed a great example of an abuse of power, and people going to great measures to get what they want (Brater). The desire for power, unsubstantiated accusations, and the detrimental effects of these accusations are the ways in which The Crucible is connected to McCarthyism. Power and selfishness can destroy the lives of those that possess it, and the lives of people around them. Humans are easily influenced by what others do and say, which is why people can gain power so easily. It is the choice of the powerful to use their power in the correct way. When power is misused, paranoia and chaos, as well as many other negative effects result.
The horrors of history are passed on from generation to generation in hopes that they will never occur again. People look back on these times and are appalled at how horrendous the times were; yet, in the 1950s, history repeated itself. During this time, Joseph McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, began accusing people of being communists or communist sympathizers, which is parallel to the Salem witch trials in the late 1690s when innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the people McCarthy accused was author and playwright Arthur Miller. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, miller wrote The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials.
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 Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.
People are often wary of things that they find to be different than what they are used to. In 1692, a series of witch trials occurred in Salem, Massachusetts, where Puritan religion was heavily practiced. A group of girls, including one named Abigail Williams, were caught dancing and singing in the woods, which is not allowed in the Puritan religion. This situation is described in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller. To take the focus off of getting caught, Abigail Williams and the girls accuse innocent people of being witches and conjuring with the devil, and claim that these people practicing witchcraft cause them to act differently. In the 1950s, Senator McCarthy acted similarly by accusing many different people of being communists, although his claims were false. Arthur Miller based his play on the Salem witch trials because he was similarly accused of being a