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Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

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In the 1940s, America was hysterical over communism with McCarthyism everywhere. Author, Arthur Miller felt that the situation had many similarities to the Salem Witch Trials. In both the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism- fear, hysteria, and danger were common. Miller used his play, The Crucible, as an allegory for McCarthyism to tell one story with an even deeper meaning. Miller stated, “Paranoia breeds paranoia, but below paranoia there lies a bristling, unwelcome truth, so repugnant as to produce fantasies of persecution to conceal its existence.” McCarthyism and the Salem Witch trials relied on unfair evidence, public hysteria, and paranoia to influence and control people.
An important similarity between McCarthyism and the Salem Witch …show more content…

John McCarthy’s McCarthyism, was the consequences a person would face if they failed to admit to their accused offense. If the person didn’t confess to their accused offense they would face a severe punishment. In The Crucible, Parris says to Tituba, “You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death, Tituba!” Putnam adds, “This woman must be hanged! She must be taken and hanged!” “Tituba, terrified, falls to her knees No, no, don’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir” (Miller 44). In this scenario Tituba was being accused of witchcraft, and because she wouldn’t admit to it, she was threatened with being whipped and hanged. Instead of facing punishment she accused other women of witchcraft so the spotlight would no longer be on her. The only way out of punishment for the women was to admit to witchcraft. In this time, these people believed that if a person admitted, they wanted to return back to God, but, at the same time, if they admitted they would adulterate their name forever. The same went for those facing accusations of being communists due to McCarthyism. If a person did not admit to a crime they would face jail time and even sometimes death. In a case with African American entertainer, Paul Robeson, he refused to admit anything to the court and pleaded his fifth amendment, but eventually he was forced to tell the court what they wanted to hear.

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This time period was known as McCarthyism because U.S Senator Joseph McCarthy started to excuse people of being communist. They all the following things in common: false accusations, lack of evidence, and resistance. One parallel of McCarthyism is that they both gave out names in order to save

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Joseph McCarthy claimed to have a list of 205 people they were in the state department that were communist. President Truman received a letter from Joseph McCarthy saying “ he posse 57 communist in the state department” , In the following weeks the number of pele rose to 81and then it shave down to 10 (Doc C). In relation to the story about the lack of evidence of Joseph McCarthy’s list of people the story in Document D can relate to to the topic of lack of proof which was also in the times of The Salem Witch Trials. Basically, during the times of the Salem Witch Trials the court relied upon spectral evidence.

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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.

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People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.

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McCarthyism played a major role in the creation of The Crucible and many parallels were made between the play and the Red Scare. The Red Scare was a period of heightened fear of the communists going back to the Cold War. The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are similar because they both were fueled by fear. The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because everyone thought they would be punished or killed. McCarthyism and the Salem witch hunts had the ability to ruin one’s life through a simple accusation.

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Mass hysteria was present in both The Crucible and McCarthyism. Mass hysteria is when people went crazy because people were accused of being communists and or witches. Mass hysteria was however started by specific people in both scenarios. In Mccarthyism Joseph Mccarthy a United States Senator and in The Crucible Abigail Williams who was accused of having an affair with John Proctor her employer were the specific ones who accused people of being communists and witches. Even though the Salem witch trials happened in the late 1690s and McCarthyism in the 1950s they paralleled each other.

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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.

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McCarthyism was a period in America where there was an intense suspicion of Communists in the Government Department. McCarthyism was named after U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin. McCarthyism took place during the Red Scare in the 1920s. The Crucible and McCarthyism are parallels because both of them lacked evidence, people were blaming each other, and some people were resisting

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In history there have been many major events that have shaped the times we live in. Two of the major events of our time are the "witchunts" of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a drama and fictional story of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-1693. Miller wrote the play as a parable for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists.

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However, during the time of McCarthyism, people suddenly believed if a person went against the government thoughts, they were a communist. Similarly, this is like a time in The Crucible when a mass amount of women were arrested for witchcraft. After Mary Warren comes home from watching the witchcraft trials, John Proctors asks if it is true if only fourteen women arrested. Instead Mary Warren replies, “No, sir. There be thirty-nine now” (Miller, Act II).

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The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.

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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.

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(96). An individual living in that kind of Christian community would not bear false witness against his/her neighbor, but Putnam takes advantage of the widespread panic to benefit himself. The loss of morality is seen in the McCarthy Era in that McCarthy indirectly harmed and destroyed the lives of others with his assumptions and caused a serious threat to the

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The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism have an uncanny relation to one another. In Salem people were afraid of not appearing christian enough, meanwhile during the 50’s Americans feared of being accused of communism. Also during the McCarthyism era and the witch trials innocent lives were ruined when people were forced to accuse others or be accused themselves. Though The Crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism, it focuses some of its attention on the question what is more important, your honor and reputation or your life?

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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.

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