Allegory In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Have you ever seen a symbol that had much more meaning than what it look liked? Have you read two completely different stories but they both ended up expressing the same meaning? Or have you read a small children's story and it reminded you of a much bigger world issue? That is called an allegory. For example, The Crucible written by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era of the 1950s. They both consist of the same problems. False accusations, lies, and fear.

The first allegorical meaning of the Red Scare and The Crucible is false accusations. In an article called “McCarthyism was wrong- and right” from The Epoch Times says “He (McCarthy) sometimes lied about details and made false accusations” Throughout the Red Scare McCarthy had made claims and accusations that were believed to be false. Along the way he might have falsely accused 205 people. In The Crucible on pg. 71 it says “For murder, Rebecca is charged. For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam's babies.” throughout the whole story of The Crucible Abigail Williams makes false accusations upon other people in the town of Salem for reasons we will get to later.

There was a lot fear in The Crucible and McCarthy era. In an article called “McCarthyism and the Red Scare” from Study.com it says “The fear of communism, known as the Red Scare, led to a national witch hunt for suspected communist.” During McCarthy’s time people were very afraid of the government. In the Red Scare people didn’t challenge the government because they feared them. In The Crucible on pg. 93 it says “ We cannot blink it more. There is a prodigious fear in this court in the country.” Everything in the Crucible was ran by fear. John Proctor was afraid everyone would find out about his affair with Abigail. Abigail was afraid her cover would be blown and everyone would find out about everything she did and Tituba was afraid everyone would think she conjured