What Is The Difference Between The Crucible And The Red Scare

Research Paper: The Red Scare and Arthur Miller

“There are today many Communists in America. They are everywhere -- in factories, offices, butcher stores, on street corners, in private businesses. And each carries in himself the germ of death for society.”

― J. Howard McGrath

The Red Scare was the threat posed by the Communist in the United States. Often times the Communist were referred as “Red” because of their faithfulness to the Soviet flag. There was a variety that had an immense effect on the United States government and the society. There were many people involved in this complication; including Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller finished writing The Crucible in 1952. He wanted his plays (especially The Crucible) to cause people to start asking questions. The Red Scare was the panic of the rise of Communism and there are many ways that Arthur Miller was involved.

The first Red Scare was after the Bolshevik Revolution. The Bolshevik became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in Russia in 1917 (ended in 1920). The second Red Scare was before World War II. It created the fear of the American Communist and created McCarthyism. It was significant because it came in the aftermath of the first World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. Furthermore, they showed an extreme fear that lead to the violations of individual rights.

The first scare

occurred after World War I was over but of course there was a state of delirium. After the end of the Bolshevik Revolution the Red Scare took hold in the United States. “The nation was gripped in fear.” There were innocent people in jail because they were expressing their views. The civil liberties were ignored and many feared that a revolution similar to the Bolshevik style would occur.
(Burnett, 3)
The United States government was massively involved in the Red Scare. Senator Joseph McCarthy were one of the main individual that was against communism. The senator was determined to expose the communists. “As this nationwide Red Scare accelerated, Communist Party members were forced to take refuge underground.” J. Edgar Hoover was also involved. Wiretaps were used to spy on the suspected communists, McCarthy and other anti-communist leaders were given the information. It affected Hollywood executives, screenwriters, and directors of being communists.
(Curwick, 62)
Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many public figures of being a Communist and made them out to look like a villain. Communist were seen as a traitor. American feared that anyone could had been a communist, anyone that seemed, “non-American”. “The trials, which were well publicized, could often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated accusation.” Among those accuse there was Arthur Miller.
(PBS, 15-16)

“Many critics and audience members, and even McCarthy himself, pointed the finger at Miller as spearheading his own attack against what was then perceived to be the very core of American Values.”
Douglas Lavanture

Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York on October 17, 1915. Miller was the middle child of his family. He remarried 3 times. He left his first wife, Mary Slattery, for Marilyn Monroe in 1956. However they got divorced in 1961. His father owned a wealthy business, which was a women’s clothing line. Their family was well respected until the Wall Street Crash of 1929. “They subsequently fired the chauffeur and moved from the Upper East Side in Manhattan to Gravesend, Brooklyn.” This Crash lead to the family moving to Brooklyn.
(Bio, 5-8)
After graduating from high school, Miller worked several jobs to try and save up for college. In 1934, he attended the University of Michigan, where is spent most of his time learning to write and worked on a a great deal of plays. Miller’s first play was, “The Man Who Had All the Luck”, in 1944. It received horrible reviews. Miller’s first play on Broadway was, “All My Sons” in 1946. It earned a large amount of success. Miller dedicated himself to the research of the American working class. “His insight into the psychology of desperation and his ability to create stories that express the deepest meanings of struggle.”
(PBS, 41-42)
Miller received a Tony and an Obie award for his play The Crucible.

He wrote The Crucible in the early 1950’s, during the Red Scare and finished the play in 1952. The famous play was about the Salem witchcraft trials. Many thought that Miller was trying to attack McCarthy. Miller responded with, “It was not only the rise McCarthyism that moved me, but something which seemed much more weird and mysterious.” Miller wrote the Crucible because his reaction from the Red Scare, it reminded him of the Salem witchcraft trials. The playwright went to Salem and completed research and with the research he wrote his play, The

Crucible.
(Lavanture, 11)
Miller wanted to audience’s reactions to ask questions. “What does it mean to be American? How do we as Americans define ourselves, our culture, our sense of humanity in a world that pervasively encroaches our borders and becomes, to some, ever more threatening?” The audience saw personal dramas unfold up on stage and could not help but feel that there is something larger and scarier that is represented in the characters. “We are at times ruled by the collective fear of each other and of those who may take away our rights and persecute us. We live in fear of losing our identities. This is something which Arthur Miller wants us to be conscious of.”
(32-33)
The Red Scare was the fear of rising communism in the United States. The first Red Scare was the Bolshevik Revolution during 1918 to 1920. The second was from 1947 to 1950’s in the United States. The most famous support of anti- communism was Joseph McCarthy. He accused many of being a communist, including Arthur Miller. Miller responded with this accusations with the writing of the Crucible. The Red Scare reminded Miller of the Salem Witchcraft trials.