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Literary analysis the crucible
Literary analysis of the crucible
The crucible acte ii scene 3 literary analysis
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The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, was published on January 22, 1953. This play was based on the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. He used the 1692 Salem Witch Trials as an allegory to show the similarities between the 1692 Trials and the 1950’s Red Scare and how hysteria tears apart a community. In The Crucible, the mass hysteria, imaginary fear/anxiety, of witchcraft uncontrollably spread into the Salem community leading to many innocent deaths. This draws a clear parallel to the 1950’s Red Scare where the scare for communists spread through the United States of America.
Mr. Miller’s story gives his audience a symbolic story for an historic event known as The Red Scare. The common themes of The Crucible that correspond with The Red Scare and McCarthyism include: hysteria, reputation, and intolerance. Mr. Miller also used the story to portray the similarities between The Red Scare and The Salem Witch Trial. Along with the influential power that Mr. McCarthy had as a senator a recent war contributed to the fear of communism. Another factor that led to Senator McCarthy’s rant of decade was his background.
Author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, used it to symbolize the American government's authoritarianism that made the nation fearful of the alleged "communists" infiltrating America. The novel takes place during the time of the Salem Witch trials. Salem's official court advanced false accusations of witchcraft that led to many people being wrongfully accused and executed. In the story, those who believed in witchcraft were seen as the ingroup, whereas those who did not were seen as the outgroup and were working with the "devil. "Demonstrating how Fascists force societies into going along with their beliefs.
The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare for many reasons, but one is that they are both run by lies spread by people to put themselves out of harm's way. The Crucible was written and used to express what was going on during this period with the Red Scare. “They were hounded by law enforcement… and fired them from their jobs” because of what they believed in their rule of terrorism, in The Crucible where people were hung because of their beliefs. Another example of The Crucible being an allegory to the Red Scare is how in The Crucible, Abigail Williams was over exaggerating her statement that she could see and talk to the devil. Just like how “McCarthy and Hoover… exaggerating that possibility” in the Red Scare.
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.
The Crucible is a piece of literature that can be attributed to a few other situations in history, not simply just the Salem Witch Trials. People throughout history have turned on each other in fear, and have use irrational thinking to justify what they have done. Though the story portrays the Witch Trials, it is able to connect with other events in history due to how the themes can connect with the reader and resonate with how people can feel under certain stress at these moments. Arthur Miller writes in the way that the story can live on in other situations to make points on how we treat each other during these times, the rhetorical appeals he uses becoming important as to why this story is still important to our history in more than one event. As spoken before, The Crucible is set in a certain time period, but advances its meaning into other aspects of history; written in the 50’s, it can be traced back to a connection with McCarthyism, the story an allegory for this period.
In the history, there are have many major events that have affected the times we live in. Two of the major events of our time are the Witch-hunt of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. In these two events, there are many similarities like anger, fear, and Consequence. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red scare in the McCarthy Era because the example is McCarthy accused many people of being part of the communist party. It is said to have been a modern-day witch hunt, and it showed another example of a time period in which false and unsettling accusations led to forced confessions.
Allegory in Miller’s The Crucible and Real-Life Examples Arthur Miller’s The Crucible has been renownedly known for it’s expression of human nature when confronted with fear and the unknown. This allows for the play to develop a lot of allegories and symbolic figures that can further highlight the message the author wants to get through. These hidden meanings, when explored, can enhance the play and it’s meaning to represent something much larger than the initial perceived message. The Crucible constantly explores a theme of fear, specifically a fear of the unknown.
In “The Crucible” hysteria spread by teenage girls in hopes of love in Salem during 1692 causes a drastic number of unfair trials that lacked people's rights, ways of proof, and solid evidence which affects the lives of many innocently accused people of the puritan community. Arthur Miller uses the theme of vengeance; mostly shows the use of ethos in the play to inform the reader of the ways people of the puritan society thought; uses logos to show the lack of logic and science within the community. Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” symbolizes the UNFAIR government in 1692 AND in 1920 during the communist era of THE RED SCARE. Mr. Miller asserts, “Inevitably, it was no sooner known that my new play was about Salem than I had to confront the charge
A crucible can mean either an instrument of heating or a severe trial. In the play “The Crucible,” Arthur Miller uses a great trial in the Salem witch trials to describe how he felt during the Red Scare in the 1950’s. The Red Scare was a national hunt for Communists, or “Reds” as they were called. Arthur Miller felt as if it were a giant “Witch Hunt” after he was accused of being a communist. He wanted to protest these hunts, but he did not want to get arrested for revolting against the government, so he wrote his ideas on the witch hunt based on an actual witch hunt.
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written in response to the abuses of power under McCarthyism, a period in the 1950s when the United States government conducted a witch hunt for supposed communists. The play draws parallels between the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Massachusetts and the Red Scare and its investigations in the 1950s. McCarthyism led to the false accusations of thousands of people, and those accused lost their jobs. Similarly, the Salem witch trials had false accusations that led to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds. We can see another parallel in more modern situations where people use their power to prosecute others.
‘The Crucible’ is an allegory that was created by Arthur Miller during the times of the Red Scare. When A.Miller created the allegory he was being accused of being a communist by politician McCarthy. McCarthy started what is now called McCarthyism in an attempt to root out communism. During this time many people were accused of being communist, because of this many were blacklisted, lost their jobs, and were disgraced. People were accused without any proof, most if not all were innocent.
An allegory is a story that can be interpreted in both a literal and symbolic sense. A great example is “The crucible” which was written by Authur Miller to symbolize what had happened to him during the 1950’s red scare through the 1692 Salem Witch Trials; Where more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 of them were executed. Arthur Miller was convicted of contempt of Congress for failing to name names of communist sympathizers during the McCarthyism era. Many of the people targeted during the 1950s Red scare were writers, actors, and homosexuals. In ‘the crucible’ he symbolizes this by having the poor citizens be targeted.
When Authur Miller wrote the play “The Crucible '' he was coming from a position of victim. “The Crucible” is an allegory for the McCarthyism Red Scare era. An allegory is a story that can be interpreted on both a literal and symbolic level. The allegory was created because of the communism allegations, and the similarities between the hysterias and fears. “The Crucible” is a symbolic representation of the 1950’s Red Scare.
For many, The Crucible was just the next powerful and dramatic venture of Arthur Miller's work, but for Miller himself it was an urgent political and social statement. In the 1940’s and 50’s the cold war led many americans to fear and suspect that communism has taken over the United States. Senator Joseph Mccarthy was a famous activist of the Red Scare. The Red Scare was when people accused of being communists were blacklisted, One person who was accused of being a communist was Arthur Miller, a famous playwright. As a result of these events Miller was inspired to write The Crucible, which was during the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600’s.
