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Comparing Mccarthyism And The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Throughout history, society has pushed down certain groups of people. One daunting example is the Salem Witch Trials, which was a series of hearings and trials wrongfully accusing people of witchcraft. Those accused of witchcraft were either thrown into jail, hanged, or forced to confess a sin that they did not commit. In The Crucible, author Arthur Miller warns of the detrimental persecution of groups by society in order to avoid history from repeating itself. In Puritan society, the principal role of women was to create children. Every person was like thread, and they were weaved together in an intricate web in order for society to flourish as a whole. When women lost their abilities to reproduce, they lost their role and usefulness, …show more content…

It was a campaign in which innocent people were accused of communism, that occurred over 200 years after the Salem Witch Trials. McCarthyism could have been prevented had people learned about the harmful effects of the Salem Witch Trials. Many similarities are shared between McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials that occurred in The Crucible. During McCarthyism, people feared the intrusion of Communism. Similarly, people in the Salem Witch Trials feared the Devil. These fears lead to untrue accusations in which caused innocent people to get in trouble. In both cases the injustice of those assumed guilty was portrayed, and it showed how important it is to have a proper government system with laws and rules. The fear of being accused themselves played a role in the lack of people standing up for what was right. People always looked to better themselves even if it meant great pain for others. In The Crucible, Mary transfers the blame put on her by accusing Proctor of making her do the Devil’s work, “You’re the Devil’s man!” (Miller 110). This shifts the attention of the court in another direction and causes Proctor to look evil. Society was founded under the idea of being a whole combined unit with people working together, while in reality, society was composed of people thinking singularly for their own self

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