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Distaste For Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Stories are more based on the author's life than how much you think it is based on. Arthur Miller made “The Crucible” based on some events in his life that affect him. “The Crucible” is mostly based on the Salem witch trails but Arthur Miller added things from his personal life into his play. He added his affair with Marilyn Monroe into the book using the character Abigail Williams and John Proctor. Arthur had added personal experience getting arrested for not giving names of communists to Congress. The most effecting his life was the man hunt for communist. The experiences in Arthur Miller’s life that led him to write specific parts of the play were his affair, going to jail without reasoning, and the hunt for communists.

In The Crucible …show more content…

The hunt for communists affected his writing of The Crucible. Arthur Miller had written The Crucible as a reaction to the tense political climate. In the Article, “McCarthyism and The Crucible: What to Know,” by Samantha Lindsay its states, “Arthur Miller had a distaste for McCarthy’s investigations in the early 1950s, and he claims to have written The Crucible in 1953 largely as a reaction to this tense political climate.” Miller had a hatred for McCarthy’s investigations. Because of the power McCarthy had it would give the communist fear. Miller states in an article that “The Crucible was an act of desperation.” Miller had been trying to branch out in desperation. The Crucible was trying to be related to the U.S. State Department’s fear of China after the communist had taken over the country to the black magic being in The …show more content…

These were all some big reasons for Miller to start writing and putting these events in The Crucible play. His affair with Marilynn being the main event led to Abigail and John having an affair. Also, with Elizabeth believing she wasn’t enough for John when that is also what he thought of his first wife she wasn’t enough for Miller. Miller being arrested for no reason is like when the innocent people would get arrested for no reason. Just because one person said you had been with the devil, they had gotten arrested. Miller got arrested just because he wouldn’t say the name of another communist. Then the biggest event being the hunt for communists. That is what really led him to write The Crucible for desperation. Miller’s life was a part of the play. He has connections with the play that most people in general wouldn’t have with their life

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as an outlet for what experiences he was going through during the Red Scare. It is no surprise that Arthur Miller would put things in The Crucible that he and others were going through during The Red Scare. Arthur Miller made these characters the way they are because of his experiences during The Red Scare. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller wrote himself as John Proctor and he purposely made him the way he is and what he goes through. John Proctor and Arthur Miller are parallels of each other in the way of being accused by their own government, not signing the names of communists/witches, and people’s reputations were ruined.

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Even with the play’s puritan disguise Miller was still sent on trial for suspicion of communism. If “The Crucible” had been written at another time it probably would not have gained much interest and there would not have been something to bring people to the realization that McCarthy’s accusations and methods were really somewhat uncalled for. Both the Salem Trials and McCarthyism were cause by the spread of something that created fear and paranoia and allowed chaos and revenge to take

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The author of "The Crucible" Arthur Miller, was influenced by social problems and personal problems. Arthur Miller was experiencing problems in his marriage and was influenced by the events during McCarthyism. One theme in "The Crucible" is that people lied for both good and selfish reasons. In the story "The Crucible" a group of girls were found dancing in the woods. These girls were doing more then dancing, they were conjuring the dead.

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote the play because he was inspired by McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the hunt for communists that was taken too far. In The Crucible he presented a universal message. He was comparing how communists did exist and witches did not, but yet they were both taken as serious.

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Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 during Senator Joseph McCarthy 's congressional investigations to root out suspected Communists in the State Department, the entertainment industry, and the US Army. Miller himself had been blacklisted after being accused of supporting communism. The Crucible mirrored by Miller of how McCarthy accused people for communism, just like the people in Salem, both McCarthy and The Crucible accused for revenge towards their enemy 's. One theme of The Crucible is that fear motivates people to do unspeakable actions. The girls in in Salem had fear towards the punishment that would happen if they were caught lying about conjuring spirits. Some of the girls faked to be in a spell out of fear of their

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, as a response to McCarthyism, which is, in general, accusing people of crimes with little to no proof. It ran rampant through the United States during the Second Red Scare through the early 1950s (exactly when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible). In The Crucible, Miller juxtaposes the leaders, who rationally think for themselves, and the followers, who believe what everybody else believes, through irony, imagery, and denotation. The Crucible is riddled with irony, and Arthur Miller utilizes situational and dramatic irony to show the difference between followers and leaders.

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“Character Analysis over The Crucible” Arthur Miller is a commonly-known playwright, most famous for his 1953 play, The Crucible. The basis for The Crucible came from the witch trials which occurred in Salem, Massachusetts during the puritan era. Miller even uses some of the same characters in his dramatized play that were a part of the original witch trials in Salem. However, Miller made a few alterations to the historical members of the Salem society in order to suit his dramatic purpose in The Crucible, particularly Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Reverend Samuel Parris.

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Reasons Behind The Crucible Arthur Miller’s main purpose in writing The Crucible was to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials and to warn against government propaganda. At the time that The Crucible was published, America had a huge fear of communism. Anyone accused of having ties with the communist party was shunned. It much resembled the Salem Witch Trials in how the government, or leader of the time, used fear against the people to gain power. For example, Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Reverend Parris in how they both lead the people into the belief that there were intruders in their mists that had plans to sabotage the community.

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They had many rules and disciplinary actions for breaking these rules. Miller wrote the play as an allegory to McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists. The Crucible revolves around power, and the sacrifices made to

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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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From the freedom snatching ways of McCarthyism and the “Red Scare” to his troubled marriage and lust for Monroe, everywhere there seemed to be parallels with the play and his life. Millers’ life poured into this story a bit with some of the characters and the way the characters acted and talked and that is how Arthur Miller, and the writing of the play gave us some insight into his life and some of the crazy and heart-breaking stuff Miller had to deal with at that time. McCarthyism led miller to write about this and it gave us a story so deep and thoughtful story for all to read and gave himself a great way to express himself, and that is how Arthur miller’s experiences in his life affected his writing of The Crucible such as his marriage, how he was treated during the “red scare”, and his

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Miller’s purpose of The Crucible was to represent and mirror the social injustice under McCarthyism as people falsely accused each other because their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another. Although, around 1950-1954 the “innocent until proven guilty” clause existed, most trials and accusations were led by “guilty until proven innocent.” Despite Miller’s efforts to criticise people’s actions as

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Soon after the release of his play critics began to notice the allegorical nature of the play. It was released in a time when the paranoia and hysteria was very relevant. It was dealt with by people regularly. Miller comments though that the reality of the situation was that The Red Scare was almost a more serious event in his mind. “Inevitably, it was no sooner known that my new play was about Salem than I had to confront the charge that such an analogy was specious -- that there never were any witches but there certainly are Communists.(Miller, Why I wrote The Crucible)” Miller was guilty of egocentrism.

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624 Words | 3 Pages

The issues it dealt with then are much the same as the issues we deal with now. The modern audience can still relate to the issue of corrupting power, or the struggle to uphold the conscience, the issue of society's 'rules' and our condemnation of those woof those who go beyond those 'rules', along with our inherent desire to 'blame someone else', because of this connection. As with many good plays, The Crucible has many timeless facets, which Miller has incorporated, and these can give us valuable insight into many of our own

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