“No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” Is a quote by Edward Murrow that states one man can not harm an entire nation unless the people in that nation help him with the destruction. The whole town of Salem, in The Crucible, was put into a quarrel because multiple girls were calling everyone witches and all of the townspeople went along with their mischief. As Arthur Miller was writing The Crucible a belief known as McCarthyism was being spread about. The belief was that many Americans in the Congress had pro-communist beliefs. New historicism demonstrates how The Crucible was written due to McCarthyism.The book relates very closely to it in many ways such as that people did not support the men and women …show more content…
In The Crucible Mary Warren exclaimed, “ I cannot charge murder on Abigail… I cannot, they’ll turn on me.”( Miller 80 ).The quote demonstrates that people in Salem were terrified of testifying against the accusers solely because they did not want to be accused as well. Media would not even cover the
“communists” side of the story for the reason that they did not want to be called communists and lose viewers and money. In both situations the citizens were deathly afraid of having charges filed on them, so everyone stayed quiet. Although the people that tried helping the convicted had it difficult, the people that were actually in trouble had it a lot worse. The lives of anyone that was accused of either of the crimes was ruined. Elizabeth Proctor lost her freedom, her children, and her husband. McCarthy made an extensive list of all the people that he believed were communist and one of those people was Val Lorwin. Val worked for the State Department and as soon as the list came out and his name was on it he was fired. Although Val’s record was cleared and he was found not guilty his reputation was tainted forever. Even though the people were not guilty of the crime they were accused, the fact that they were even mentioned in the scandal made them unappealing to the public.
The Crucible and McCarthyism: What are the Parallels? Is it true that history repeats itself in different ways? McCarthyism and The Crucible have a lot of common despite them being in different time periods. The Crucible is a book written by Author Miller, which explained why the witch trails that took place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 1600’s. Author Miller wrote The Crucible because he got accused of being a communist during McCarthyism period.
Senator Joseph McCarthy was a far right politcian that thought any american, rich, poor, democrat, rebublican, conservative, liberal and hollywood elites that didn’t agree with his views were communists. Joseph McCarthy let everyone know that there was communism in a local newspaper that the state department was infested with communists. McCarthy rhethoric it repeats to a massive audience in the coming months as he grew the power in fame as a Senator, people believed him just as the very same of The Crucibles they all beleved the one girl and accuse half the town for being witches. Joseph McCarthy was a witch hunter because he believed they are a communist if a person was on a payphone he would accuse for being a communist and they you are
Arthur Miller wrote the play “The Crucible”, during the “Red Scare” era. The “Red Scare” era, also known as the communist scare, was a time period where communists were often unjustly accused of plotting against the Government. Mass hysteria ensued involving these communists and many trials were had regarding these supposed “criminals”. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who accused anyone and everyone of being a communist or communist-sympathizer, single-handedly lead this hysteria. This label cause some to lose their job, have their homes vandalized, and even worse threats on their life.
After some time, people started to catch on to McCarthy: “Through the televised investigations into the United States Army and the reporters’ attack, the nation grew to realize that McCarthy was “evil and unmatched in malice” (Latham). People would do investigations and through those they found out the truth about Joseph McCarthy. This was done by one person, but it hurt hundreds of people. Hurting people can also be shown in The Crucible. After Abigail was
The Crucible Essay In America during 1953, the fear of Communism was at its peak. Many people falsely accused and prosecuted during this time, being labeled as communists, losing their jobs, and harassed because of rumors and fear mongering. This stretch of time was labeled the “Red Scare” or the McCarthyism Era because of the witch hunts being spearheaded by Joseph McCarthy. Many people saw this as wrong and one of those people was an author by the name of Arthur Miller.
A witch hunt is seen as an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and recounts one such witch hunt. During this time, witches and conspiring with the devil were frowned upon by the Puritan church, and were the cause of much fear and suspicion. The Salem Witch Trials were a product of this fear and uncertainty that eventually overwhelmed the village for more than a year. Miller wrote The Crucible during the time America was concerned about the rising power of Communism in the Soviet Union on the heels of World War II.
Fear, it causes people to be blinded by the truth. People can’t tell right from wrong. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show how no one could see what was right. During the 1950’s communism was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire, then it slowly made its way over to the U.S. This was known as The Red Scare.
McCarthyism and The Crucible caused a feeling of hysteria and paranoia in all the people that were accused and others that were not accused. Abigail Williams and McCarthy had no evidence on the people accused except rumors that were
Though the Crucible is fiction, the allegorical character of John Proctor reflects the author, Arthur MIller in the following ways. The Crucible is a comparison to the real life “witch trials “ which we're going on in the real world. Arthur Miller used The Crucible as a way to protest the Red Scare to compare how very similar Salem’s witch trials were to this accusation of communism. The red scare was the inoperable fear of communism within the United States. The Salem trials and communism were times so fearful, when accused you were guilty no matter the verdict.
McCarthy created the uproar of having a ‘witch hunt’ on communists in America. His influence on the people gave him credibility when he accused those innocent people. “He cited 81 cases that day. He skipped several numbers, and for some cases repeated the same flimsy information. He proved nothing, but the Senate called for a full investigation.”(ushistory.org).
Do rumors ever seem to ruin everything? That’s how most people feel when dealing with the Red Scare. Alger Hiss, who was a high-ranking official, lies and gives them fake documents. USHistory.org mentions, “The man who had given him the documents, he said, was Alger Hiss, who had been a high-ranking official in the State Department” (USHistory.org). An editor of Times magazine claims that he gave the Soviet Union classified information.
In the Crucible those who were accused of being guilty, put on trial, and who are expected to confess. Unsuccessful to that led to death. In McCarthy, the media were not disposed to stand up to Senator McCarthy for the fear of being accused of being a Communist. Fear is the main factor playing in both situations, terror of being accused or what people might say, or think.
The Soviet Union was on the verge of a nuclear war, so McCarthy put fear in everyone because no one had any idea who was a communist and who was not. He made everyone afraid to trust people, even the friends other had. They were afraid that they would be accused
In the play, The Crucible, Salem, Massachusetts, along with the United States during McCarthyism, is engulfed with paranoia. Although both situations include different causes, their effects are strikingly similar. For instance, throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is being shown repeatedly accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Her actions begin sending the small town into a panic as they throw people into jail and hang them in an effort to try and cleanse the town from any aspect of evil. Similarly, throughout 1950-1954, Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people within the United States Government of being a member of the Communist party.
Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.