Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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. Evidently, the two major flaws in American society during

In The Crucible all the characters were hung up on their paranoia of the Devil based off their religious standpoints. As researched, the Puritan society was a very religious one, very fearful of the Devil, and the people of The Crucible were convinced the Devil was causing mischief in Salem. “Abigail: Uncle, a rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself.” (pg. 9, The Crucible). This quote from the text proves that the people's paranoia and threat of the Devil in their society was enough to make people fear for the lives and reputations of themselves and their family. “Proctor: There be fourteen women arrested? Mary: No sir there be thirty-nine.” (pg. 53, The Crucible) This excerpt proves that in the story, the people were so suspicious and paranoid of the Devil that they would arrest thirty-nine people of being witches because they were scared of the threat spreading through the society. This is a major flaw in the Puritan society, because without trust in each other they would never be able to find the true cause of all this mischief, which in this case the mastermind was Abigail, and the peer pressure caused by paranoia was too much for people and they were forced to accuse and some were forced to plead guilty. For this reason, the society would be crippled by lack of trust and the death of many innocent

In order to convict someone of being a Communist back in the 1950’s all that was needed was an accuser to speak out against that person and claim they saw them at a Communist meeting and then the prosecution would only intensify and then, even without solid evidence, that person would be jailed, added to the blacklist, or deported. Also, there was not any real evidence that the Communists were doing anything bad to the society in America. As exhibited after mail bombs were sent to executives, people instantly blamed Communists without any sufficient evidence implicating them. A key accuser during the Red Scare was Joseph McCarthy, “The climax of the McCarthy era was a series of televised hearings in 1954 about the supposed communist infiltration in the U.S. Army. The accusations against the army were made by McCarthy after military officials rejected Cohn's request that the army grant special privileges to G. David Schine, a member of McCarthy's staff who was drafted in November 1953. After the army made public Cohn's attempts to pressure the military on March 11, 1954, McCarthy retaliated by accusing the army of attempting to prevent Schine from exposing communists in the military.” (McCarthy Hearings) This proves that one of the most popular politicians during the 1950’s was ready to make an accusation against the U.S. Army