The Strengthening Simulation of a Weak Society

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Recommended: Modern relevance of the crucible

Arthur Miller wants to change the way people act toward the McCarthy trials, so he writes The Crucible. It simulates the McCarthy trials through dramatic situations and dynamic and static characters. There are connections that can be made from the communist hunt and The Crucible’s witch hunt. They represent the way Miller sees the society during the trials. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he presents senator McCarthy as the court, the hysteria of the people being claimed a communist as the hysteria of the town being claimed a witch, and the high possibility of being targeted as a communist as the high possibility of being targeted as a witch. According to Miller, the political representatives in the United States were abusing their power. Senator McCarthy labeled and targeted many citizens of the United States as communists. After making “a list of two hundred and five people that were known as… being members of the Communist Party”, he went after them claiming they were unloyal to the US and that they were spies for the communist party. The abuse of power in the United States is demonstrated through the actions of the court in The Crucible. The court, consisting of Danforth, Parris, and Hawthorne, pursue the townspeople that are accused of being witches. They use their power to “try” people of their crimes, but real evidence that the person is a witch is never brought up. The way the people are claimed guilty or not was all up to the judgement of the court after hearing a testimony that may or may not be true. The comparison between the two is they both contain over powering leaders that make decisions based on unverified facts. Likewise, Herblock’s “It’s ok… we’re hunting communists” cartoon portrays how McCarthy took cha... ... middle of paper ... ...ur Miller wrote the Crucible as a response to the McCarthy trials. He was trying to reveal McCarthy's abuse of power, the hysteria he was causing, and hopefully this would stop the terrible happenings in America. Miller twisted in his private life into his play. He was the John Proctor of his time. He displayed what society was like during the McCarthy trials and what needed to be changed. Works Cited Block, Herbert. “Fire!” Cartoon. Washington Post. 17 June 1949: 25. Print Block, Herbert. “It’s Okay… We’re Hunting Communists.” Cartoon. Washington Post. 31 Oct. 1947: 18. Print. Block, Herbert. “You Read Books, Eh?” Cartoon. Washington Post. 24 April 1949: 24. Print Miller, Arthur. Why I Wrote The Crucible. New York: The New Yorker, 21 Oct. 1996. Print. Oakley, Ronald J. “The Great Fear.” The Crucible and Related Readings. Evanston: McDougal Littell, 1997. Print.

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