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Examples Of Allegory In The Crucible

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Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" is an allegory that explores the events of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 as a reflection of the Red Scare that occurred in the 1950s. Miller created the allegory to criticize the hysteria and paranoia that characterized the Red Scare and to draw parallels to the Salem Witch Trials as an example of how fear and misinformation can lead to the persecution of innocent people. In the play, the accusations of witchcraft are used as a pretext for settling personal scores and political agendas, and the accused are forced to either confess to false crimes or face execution. The parallels to the Red Scare are clear, as many innocent people were accused of being communists and were forced to name names or risk losing
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1267 Words | 6 Pages

Arthur Miller’s work, The Crucible, was written during the “Red Scare” time period, and many themes and ideas regarding both events are presented through a drama based on the Salem witch trials. In this drama, a lack of justice is shown when some jealous, vengeful characters in Salem are willing to use manipulation and deceit, and sacrifice the reputations and integrity of all involved, in order to empower themselves.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

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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749 Words | 3 Pages

Cameron Oldfield Mrs. Brincks English III 15 November, 2015 The Crucible and Red Scare Imagine being thrown in jail, blamed for something that you didn't do .The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a story about how certain propaganda and false accusations can ruin lives, just like in the case of the Red Scare. Although 1692 the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare were over 200 years apart, The similarities are striking. both trials used intimidation, fear, hatred, and false accusations to ruin innocent lives. Both trials resulted in terrible outcomes, with both ending with innocent people being put to death and shunned from society.

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513 Words | 3 Pages

The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, reenacts the events of The Witchcraft Trials of Salem in seventeenth-century Massachusetts, an event that many people were labeled witches to which were prosecuted. Within the community, it was alarming that anyone can be convicted with just an accusation. This was similar to McCarthyism, an event during the 1950s initiated by Joseph McCarthy where many people were accused with severe consequence. Throughout The Crucible, it illustrates examples of McCarthyism because people were biased on how they assume one's guilt.

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771 Words | 4 Pages

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.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's were a hunt where many people were accused and executed for being charged guilty of witchcraft. Arthur Miller, the writer of The Crucible, created the play as an allegory to portray the events going on during the Red Scare. The Red Scare was when the fear of Communism spread rapidly throughout the U.S. because of accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He believed that many American citizens were part of a secret Communist Party. Most modern day witch-hunts are the same in the sense of how people are accused.

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529 Words | 3 Pages

She’s a witch! He’s a Communist! Two very famous accusations that pivoted the lives of many Americans throughout history. The Crucible by Arthur Miller paints a picture of the 1690’s Puritan settlement in Salem, Massachusetts who conducted witch trials to rid the town of people who had been taken over by the Devil and accused anyone who had ever wronged them, and without any evidence they were hanged for equating with the Devil. Arthur Miller, who was a famous author living during the 1950’s, wrote this play to allegorize the Communist Red Scare when the government and paranoid citizens hunted for Communists in America and without much evidence thousands of Americans were deported.

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1012 Words | 5 Pages

The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is a powerful depiction of the events that took place during the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts in the late 17th century. At the same time, it can be seen as a story from the McCarthy era, which was a time of political repression and anti-communist hysteria in the United States in the 1950s, it was also known as the Red Scare. The Red Scare was a period of time where people were scared of Communism since after WWl, the Russian leaders were overthrown and they encouraged other countries to rise up and do so as well. The parallels between the events in The Crucible and the McCarthy era are numerous and striking, and they reveal the dangers of fear, mistrust, and false accusation.

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363 Words | 2 Pages

A “witch-hunt” happened in America’s history twice. The first time was in the 17th century; the Salem Witch Trials. The second was 200 years later during the 1950s when senator Joseph McCarthy attempted to root out communism from American society. An allegory is a story that can be interpreted on both a literal and a symbolic level. Arthur Miller wrote the play ‘The Crucible’ when he was accused of being a member of the communist party.

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421 Words | 2 Pages

Arthur Miller was a Victim during the “ Red Scared “ a time when many people were in fear of McCarthyism and Communism spreading in the United States. Allegory is when a poem, story, or a picture has a hidden meaning, the meaning can be a moral or political one. At the time many of Miller's co workers were being accused of communism in the United States. Miller did what he does best and wrote a play named “ The Crucible “. This play was an allegory for McCarthyism comparing it to the Salem witch trials.

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1085 Words | 5 Pages

The Crucible, is a play written by Arthur Miller and it was first produced on Broadway in January of 1953. This play came out during the same time period of Joseph McCarthy and the hysteria of the Red Scare. The Crucible is mainly about the Salem Witch Trials and the hysteria of the people that were being hanged just because they were accused of being guilty of witchcraft. The Red Scare which is also known as McCarthyism was solely based on the claims of Senator Joseph McCarthy and how he believed that over 200 communists were working in the State Departments. McCarthyism is the political practice of making public accusations of betrayal without having any evidence to back it up.

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625 Words | 3 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 were considered a dark period of time for the Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts. Accusations flew, and many were hung for false accusations of witchcraft. During the 1950s, a similar situation arose across the United States with the “threat” of communism. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible during that time as an allegory to draw parallels to the horrific events of the past. Times of trouble, like these two examples, have different effects on people.

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1155 Words | 5 Pages

In The Crucible (1953), Arthur Miller shows how the power of fear can work in a society and how powerful it can be. The crucible is a play based on the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts. During this rough age 19 people were imprisoned and hanged for accusations of being “witches”. These people were killed out of fear and out of selfishness. The girls responsible for the witch hunt fear punishment for their sinful actions in the woods.

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998 Words | 4 Pages

Ryan Whitlock Mrs. Chelsea Russell-ice AP English Literature 26 March 2024 The Crucible: A Stark Warning of the Dangers of Blind Conformity and Human Selfishness The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953, serves as a testament to the harmful nature of human selfishness and fearful congruity. The play is set in protestant Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 during the perilous Salem Witch Trials in which more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 19 were executed by hanging. Mass hysteria and sorrow were caused by the accusations of people by others to save themselves and many were forced to oblige or meet their demise through hanging. Through the setting of the Salem Witch Trials, The Crucible displays an eerie allegory to the

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492 Words | 2 Pages

The Crucible, published in 1953 by Arthur Miller is a very popular book written about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. While most people use the book to study the Witch Trials, with closer examination it is easy to conclude that it is a direct allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era of 1950s America. An allegory is an extended metaphor in which the characters or objects in the story represent an outside meaning. The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era drastically by its plot, characters, and the flow and outcome of the court trials. To begin with, The Crucible is an allegory because the plot of the book closely resembles the events that occurred during the Red Scare.

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