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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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The term McCarthyism was adopted in the 1950s by one Joseph McCarthy, a Republican senator who used his power to ensure that communism was not spread throughout the United States. This time period is known as the “Red Scare”, in which McCarthy accused 205 officials from the U.S. Department of State of being communists or communist sympathizers. Not only were US officials targeted, but many of those involved in the entertainment business got blacklisted when they would refuse to answer questions about their involvement with the Communist Party at the time. Consequently, this caused the public to avalanche into a state of mass hysteria and paranoia because no one wanted to be accused of such a crime knowing that this could cause major repercussions. …show more content…

One must understand that during this time, those accused were asked to falsely accuse others to save themselves. Specifically in The Crucible, when Abigail starts to fear that she will get accused of witchcraft she begins to blame Tituba for her actions the night of the “incident” (Miller, 1). The issue here is that Abigail, like many others in the Red Scare, blamed others without any evidence, but no one cared for a fair trial because the goal was to erase witchcraft or in McCarthy’s case …show more content…

They do this because it is easier to judge by an outward appearance than actually having evidence. Tituba, for example, is an easy target because she is in a vulnerable position by being an African-American slave. For Emily, it was that she was someone stuck in her old ways and was never seen as a community member. This only fuels the townspeople's fascination with Emily’s life and the mystery surrounding her. This mass hysteria of wanting to know more about Emily, only drove Emily to isolate herself even more. Their paranoia is only then disproven when they find out the truth. They realize that their actions were harmful and never did anyone good. We saw that during the Red Scare, people were only fed false “evidence” by McCarthy that convinced the people of the US to continue acting hysterical and fearful of communism overrunning the

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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

720 Words | 3 Pages

In the rising action of The Crucible, Abigail accuses a well-known, Christian women, Elizabeth Proctor. Though she was quite, she was respected by the town. Similarly, McCarthy and his cronies accused many actors and writers of the time. Just as Elizabeth was sent to jail, those accused were black-listed and unable to work, ultimately creating enough doubt of the claims and leading to the downfall of their accusers. More importantly, the endings of both stories are paralleled.

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Comparing The Crucible And Mccarthyism

980 Words | 4 Pages

During the 1950’s McCarthyism was a widespread problem reflected in the Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, in hope to warn and prevent mass hysteria developing in the United States. The population of the United States became excessively paranoid at the thought of communists in their country. Paranoia among the citizens did nothing but worsen the current situation of the country at the time, since everyone was accusing everyone else of being a communist. Similar amounts of paranoia during the Salem witch hunts caused

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Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

1167 Words | 5 Pages

The McCarthy Era took place during the Red Scare centuries later, where Americans made false accusations against people, mostly government officials, in fear of the evils of Communism overtaking American society. There are several

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The Parallels Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

1088 Words | 5 Pages

What are the parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism? The book, The Crucible, made by Arthur Miller and The word McCarthyism are similar to each other. McCarthyism is about the accusation of many people of being a communist by Joseph McCarthy and The Crucible talks about how innocent people were accused of being witches because of some misunderstanding. Both are separate things but are very similar to each other in many ways. The questioning or blacklisting of many people in McCarthyism and the Crucible are similar to each other.

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Mass Hysteria In The Crucible And Mccarthyism

532 Words | 3 Pages

McCarthyism and The Crucible caused a feeling of hysteria and paranoia in all the people that were accused and others that were not accused. Abigail Williams and McCarthy had no evidence on the people accused except rumors that were

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Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

1087 Words | 5 Pages

McCarthyism is the term that came to be in 1950 when Joseph Mcarthy accused 205 people that were in the State department of being Communist. McCarthyism is falsely accusing someone of treason without proof or much reason. At the height of anti- communism Aruthur Miller wrote a play called “The Crucible”. The play was set in 1692 based on the Salem witch trials. Salem witch trials in his play was a time where everyone was falsely accusing someone else of being a witch just like McCarthyism is falsely accusing someone of treason.

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Senator Joseph Mccarthyism In The Crucible

749 Words | 3 Pages

Communists have political views and witches have spells but, they are both similar in eccentric ways. In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams sends the whole town on a witch hunt so she can get what she wants. Abigail never got what she intended to and got several people arrested and even killed. In the movie Good Night and Good Luck Senator Joseph McCarthy did something similar. He sent people on a “witch hunt” for communists and had numerous people arrested because they were thought to be communist but actually were not.

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Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

1035 Words | 5 Pages

In the play, The Crucible, Salem, Massachusetts, along with the United States during McCarthyism, is engulfed with paranoia. Although both situations include different causes, their effects are strikingly similar. For instance, throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is being shown repeatedly accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Her actions begin sending the small town into a panic as they throw people into jail and hang them in an effort to try and cleanse the town from any aspect of evil. Similarly, throughout 1950-1954, Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people within the United States Government of being a member of the Communist party.

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Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

1079 Words | 5 Pages

McCarthyism was a period in America where there was an intense suspicion of Communists in the Government Department. McCarthyism was named after U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, a Republican of Wisconsin. McCarthyism took place during the Red Scare in the 1920s. The Crucible and McCarthyism are parallels because both of them lacked evidence, people were blaming each other, and some people were resisting

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Senator Joseph Mccarthyism And The Red Scare

705 Words | 3 Pages

People didn’t know who to trust and by accusing other people of being communists, it would give him a form of protection if they ever accused him of being a communist spy. But the Red Scare, as it came to be known, was not only promoted by Sen. McCarthy, but involved the FBI: “When the Supreme Court started to make anti-Communist prosecutions more difficult, the bureau (FBI) embarked on COINTELPRO, a secret program of political sabotage, unauthorized surveillance, and disinformation designed to cripple the Communist party and, later, other radical groups as well” (Schrecker 24). McCarthyism created an environment where it was acceptable to break the law to get convictions even if the convictions were false. The FBI were quick to accuse people of being communists to divert attention from the laws the FBI broke, and it wasn’t until the 1970s where it became widely known. Even though people believed McCarthy’s accusations “McCarthy had no evidence that any of the people he referred to were communists; and, in fact, he tended to qualify his initial charges and fling new ones” (Schrecker

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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

849 Words | 4 Pages

McCarthyism was the fear of communism which spread across America in the 1950s. The hysteria of the American citizens was due to the threat that communism would spread across the globe. The government has accused many people of communism,

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The Salem Witch Trials And Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

1097 Words | 5 Pages

Having a fear as deep as this will cause panic and distress. From ipl.org again “A person who sympathized with Communists was persecuted, just as if someone tried to defend the accused witches of Salem.” This just shows that not only did the people guilty of communism or guilty of being witched felt fear but the people who tried to take their side. People who vouched for someone they may have liked to try and convinced authorities that they weren’t communist or witched only got themselves into trouble as well. Lastly, the website historyhit.com describes “The paranoia and fear of Communism McCarthy spread during the 1950s never quite disappeared in America, where Communism is still often viewed as the ultimate enemy.”

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Distaste For Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

1464 Words | 6 Pages

Stories are more based on the author's life than how much you think it is based on. Arthur Miller made “The Crucible” based on some events in his life that affect him. “The Crucible” is mostly based on the Salem witch trails but Arthur Miller added things from his personal life into his play. He added his affair with Marilyn Monroe into the book using the character Abigail Williams and John Proctor. Arthur had added personal experience getting arrested for not giving names of communists to Congress.

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Criticism And Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

719 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.

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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

886 Words | 4 Pages

Period4 The Crucible Essay Communism and Witchcraft have the same effect on humans, that effect is fear, when you hear fear you think of your worst nightmare or someone hiding in your closet, during the McCarthyism era and the salem witchcraft people had fear about whether their life is on the line or not. It all depended on one person in their community whether or not they choose to save their life. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because the girls feared Abigail just like everyone feared J.McCarthy, Elizabeth being accused is similar to McCarthy accusing the US Army, they are innocent just like Elizabeth.

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