Allegories In Arthur Miller's The Crucible
In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.
Abigail is indirectly compared to McCarthy at many points throughout the play. Just as McCarthy used
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While Corey broke conformity to do what was right, Betty did quite the opposite. Betty is the best direct representation of the American government of the 1950s. The government of the time served as McCarthy 's puppet, doing whatever he told them and arresting anyone he told them to. In The Crucible, the group of girls act as the government, jumping on the band wagon when Abigail accused others of witchcraft. This is seen in Act 1 when Betty starts naming people she said she saw with the Devil because Abigail started doing it. Betty said “I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil”(45), despite whether they were innocent are not. The quote shows that Abigail could tell the girls anything and they would say or do it, even if it meant accusing innocent people. In Act 3, the narrator says “she [Abigail] and all the girls ran to one wall, shielding their eyes and now as though concerned, they let out a gigantic scream”(109). The quote shows how much influence Abigail had over the girls, enough to make them act in ridiculous ways, similar to McCarthy 's impact on the government and how much power he had and in this way, Miller used Betty as an allegory for the government under McCarthy’s
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