Zebediah Tibbles Ms. Sell English 11 16 May 2024 McCarthyism and The Salem Witch Trials Imagine living in a time where you could be accused of witchcraft and hanged for dancing in a forest. The Crucible is a dramatized story of the Salem witch trials, set in the 1600’s. The author of the story, Arthur Miller, based this story off a problem of his time, which was McCarthyism. The Crucible is a story that effectively represents the 1600’s vocabulary and how nave people were to things they feared (especially witchcraft). The historical context of Arthur Miller’s time effectively influenced The Crucible. An example of this may be when Parris first witnessed the girls dancing in the forest. Parris says to Abigail “Now then, in the midst of such disruption, my own household is discovered to be the very center of some …show more content…
This shows how judgmental and quick to react people are to things as small as dancing in a forest. Another example could be whenever Mrs. Putnam claimed Ruth was dying when she wasn’t even sick to begin with. Mrs Putnam explained to Parris “I’d not call it sick; the Devil’s touch is heavier than sick. It’s death, y’know, its death drivin’ into them, forked and hoofed” (Miller 570). This example shows that people are making things up, entertaining their creative minds as well as others because they are afraid of witchcraft and do not want to be accused of it themselves. The way that Parris and Mrs. Putnam are so quick to accuse the girls of witchcraft is based off, so little evidence shows that they are very nave when it comes to the idea of witchcraft. The dialect that the characters use is also effectively influenced by the period the story is set. A clear example of this is in Act 1, whenever John Proctor is talking to Mary Warren about him forbidding her from leaving the house. John said “Be you Foolish, Mary Warren? Are you a deaf person? I forbid you leave the house, did I not? Why should I pay