Witch Hunts and Communism The Second Red Scare, a string of words denoting the mass hysteria and confusion of the mid-twentieth century, has come to be closely tied with the Salem Witch Trials chronicled in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In this tale, the pervasive fear of witchcraft demonstrates that intense pressure from others can bring out resentments and anxieties from the past. Specifically, Mary reveals that Abigail will murder her for telling the court that Abigail put the needle in the poppet, Proctor exposes to the community that he had an affair with Abigail, and Abigail slowly revealing the occurrences in the woods, emphasizing her hatred of Goody Proctor. The first instance of detestation highlighted by pressure is Mary’s anxieties towards Abigail surrounding the needle being found in the poppet. Upon being commanded by Proctor to tell the court how the needle was stuck in the poppet, Mary exclaims, “‘she’ll kill me for sayin’ that!’” (80). At this moment in the tale, it is revealed that Mary is deeply threatened by Abigail and frightened even of the idea of going against Abigail’s desires, though the girls seem to be friends. In essence, the pressure placed upon Mary Warren by those questioning her, especially Proctor, forced her to …show more content…
Ultimately, a very similar occurrence took placed in the mid-1900s, known as the Second Red Scare. Citizens of the United States were intensely scrutinized to find the roots of communism, occasionally coercing deep, long-held secrets pertaining to the communist influence. Ultimately, history repeated itself in the 1900s upon the occurrence of the Second Red Scare, once again demonstrated mass hysteria characterizing the Salem Witch