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Salem witch trials encyclopedia britannica
Summary of the salem witch trials
Summary of the salem witch trials
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There are many examples from the story The Crucible that show how the characters emotions prevented them from making a good choice. One example would be when John Proctor and Abigail had an affair. John Proctor is married to Elizabeth Proctor and when John was talking to Abigail in the story, Abigail gave away that John had an affair with her. John knew it was true but kept denying it because he knew it was wrong and didnt want anyone to know about it. Abigail was a servent for Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth one day fired her.
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.”
In fact, “The Salem Witchcraft Trials have taken on an iconic role in American history, and an unjust search for scapegoats is now commonly referred to as a “witch hunt”” (Billings). Now, during the McCarthy Era, an author called Arthur Miller wrote The crucible, a story “about witchcraft at Salem in 1692, and it was inspired by the social and political climate in the United States in the 1950’s” (Bloom 66) The 1962 Salem characters in Miller’s play represented the Americans that were accused of being communist or sympathizing with communists (Trevino).
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.
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.
In Arthur Miller’s time, when the Red Scare was happening; they were accusing people of being a communist. If someone was being accused and spoke another person’s name they would automatically be accused. During this time it did not matter who the person was, even upcoming actors were accused and their careers ended. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in response to what happened during the Red Scare. In relation to the Salem Witch trials, the court was doing the same things to the Puritans because they had the power to.
There are many points in our lives in which we may be forced to make decisions that may prove to define us as a person. In some cases, these choices can impact those around us as well as ourselves, though not always for their benefit. When ones moral integrity is brought into question by others in exchange for their life, they must then make a decision upon whether they value their personal and social honour or their own life more, which may cause them to succumb to hasty decision making, which could lead to their demise, or the possible harming of others. This reality of life is evident in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and comes to light in a multitude of situations, and in both aspects of the hypothetical decision; with characters choosing
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
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it-- always.” This quote by Mahatma Gandhi reveals the theme of this amazing story, love prevails. Throughout this book, The Crucible, relationships are put into question, characters are questioned on their honesty, and the community as a whole is shown everyone's real morals.
Throughout history many nations in many places would hunt for invisible enemies, threats so great that even the government itself couldn’t see them behind the shadows. Two of these hunts were in the United States, one being the Salem Witch Trials back when the US was just a meer colony, and then the Red Scare, where everyone was afraid of communists entering our ranks. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” he wrote about such fears and event of the Red Scare, but through the lenses of the Salem Witch Trials. But later, in a almost strange twist of fate, began to mirror the actions one of the characters, this being an example of the mirror between fiction and reality. Arthur Miller’s actions during the Red Scare mirrors the actions of John Proctor
One Choice Can Change Lives Who knew one seemingly innocent lie could cause 19 deaths and pit an entire town against itself? That’s exactly what happens in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Authors often use similar plot devices, and their favorite one is having their characters face a test. In a small town called Salem in early America, something terrible is happening.
Crucible Final Essay Based on what I read in the Crucible and what we know about him, if Arthur Miller were alive today, I believe he would not advocate limiting the entrance of Muslims into our nation. Arthur Miller is the type of person that disagrees with judging one particular person by their race, religion, and what others say about their “kind”. Therefore, we can’t be afraid of everyone that belongs to a certain religion like Muslim just because of the acts of the radical Muslims. This would be like, in the Crucible, if everyone in the towns surrounding Salem thought that all of the people of Salem had to be witches because of a few that were accused.
The crucible is a historical fiction text that is well known throughout the world and is a staple in English literature. In 1952 Arthur Miller, a popular writer in the 50s, set the stage for a dramatic act of the Salem Witch trials. Miller wrote this play not only to shed light on the tragedy that is the Salem witch trials, but also a subject that hit closer to home for him; the red scare. He wrote the essay “Why I Wrote the Crucible to educate his readers and viewers on the true purpose of the story.” Miller explains in his writing through logical historical examples, comparisons to the Red Scare and McCarthyism to the Salem Witch trials through strong illustrations of personal experiences.
The Crucible is a play with themes largely applicable to major current events of today. The matters that we face as a society that are featured in this book are: discrimination in the court system, what is a lie, and the freedom to criticize our government. Discrimination in America’s legal system was rampant in the early 1690s and, I would argue, is still as rampant, but much more subtle. In the Salem witch trials, there were three accused witches originally. All three of these accused witches were social outcasts, although they were targeted for very separate reasons.
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.
