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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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The Salem Witch Craft was one of the main themes in the play “The Cruicible” by Author Miller. Injustice, inequity, and fear were experienced throughout colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693. The Salem Witch trials consisted of a series of hearings and prosecutions towards people accused of practising witchcraft. In order to survive; one would blame others for something they have not done. While the witchcraft was the biggest topic in the seventeenths century, McCarthyism was in the twentieths. 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, …show more content…

This can be exemplified by many of the characters throughout the play, such as Abigail, Proctor, and Danforth, as they eventually ruin one another in the process. The chaos begins after the young girls were caught in the forest, dancing under the moonlight. The ritual that the girls have done, which included; drinking the chicken’s blood and boiling frogs, was to get rid of the Proctors wife, Elizabeth. Shortly after the girls got caught by the Abbigail’s uncle, Parris, they blamed everything on the Tituba, Parris’ slave, and the devils influence on them. Abbigail, and the rest of the girls begin to accuse innocent people for “sending the Devil” on them. Anyone in the community who acted out of order would get suspected of practising the witch craft, and would get killed immediately. “I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down “(P.19), Abbigail says, which contributes to the hysteria upon the abnormal actions of the girls. If one would deny the courts accusations, they would get suspected of being a witch and get executed right away. However, if one would confess their reputation, they would get ruined, but would stay

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In the 1950s, Americans witnessed their own version of a ‘witch hunt’. During this time, fears of communism were at an all time high due to the ending of World War II. In turn this caused Joseph McCarthy to falsely accuse people of being a communist. The play, The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, correlates to the McCarthyism Red Scare of the 1950s. In the play, Abigail Williams used people’s fear to her advantage and began to falsely accuse townspeople of using witchcraft.

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“The term ‘"McCarthyism’" has passed into general usage as a synonym for the anticommunist political repression of the early Cold War”. (Schrecker 3) The Crucible shows the similarities between the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare. The Crucible displays a relationship between the Salem Witch Trials and the fear of McCarthyism in the 1950s. Like The Crucible, with people terrified of witchcraft, people during the Red Scare feared communism and feared the punishment that came with an accusation.

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There is a contagious sort of corruption rife amidst 17th century Salem, as depicted in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible. Salem, supposedly a pious, saintly township, is represented as everything but, as sanity and control is soon decimated at the hands of said corruption. “Judgement waits...all” once the villagers fall under varying forms of primitive lust - affecting their choices, actions, and moral senses - highly reminiscent of the lust for power that fuelled the McCarthy era. Keeping this context in mind, the rapid spread of lust amongst Salem, whilst not justified, is understandable, as The Crucible is Miller’s direct response to the trials and tribulations of the McCarthy era.

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During the late 1600’s, in Salem, Massachusetts, a very unusual and strange event took place. In the year of 1692 the Salem Witch Trails began. Arthur Miller wrote a play titled the Crucible to depict the events that occurred during the event. The consequences felt by the community were completing devastating. About 20 people were hung due to the alleged crimes that they were convicted of.

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A witch hunt is seen as an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and recounts one such witch hunt. During this time, witches and conspiring with the devil were frowned upon by the Puritan church, and were the cause of much fear and suspicion. The Salem Witch Trials were a product of this fear and uncertainty that eventually overwhelmed the village for more than a year. Miller wrote The Crucible during the time America was concerned about the rising power of Communism in the Soviet Union on the heels of World War II.

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Madailein McLenna Connors English 11 4B 13 January 2016 Tit For Tat Written in 1952, Arthur Miller wrote a play known as The Crucible as an analogy to the strike the senator was putting on all the communists soon after World War II. Arthur used the Salem Witch Trials in the 1690’s to show that the same tragedies and sentences that befell people during the McCarthyism trails. Arthur used the Salem Witch Trials as a metaphor to draw national attention towards the doings and executioners of the McCarthyism propaganda. The innocent people during the McCarthyism trials relate to the situation a character known as John Proctor undergoes in the play.

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The Salem witch trials, the peak in the recorder history of witchcraft or any supernatural discipline (in North America), are a tragic mark in the history of North America characterized for the ignorance and punny reasons for which a person could be judge for witchcraft. In “The Crucible” (play) an accurate representation of the live within the puritan society -eExcept for Daniel Day-Lewis - is shown, together with several supernatural aspects of the determined “Witchcraft”, in order to understand better the events and reasons behind “The Crucible” and the Salem Witch Trials, now we will submerge deep into the hidden lore and history of what the people of Salem 300 years ago thought was witchcraft. Witchcraft, said to be the practice and

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The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, tells the tale of the witch trials in Salem back in 1692. This story represents an allegorical tale of McCarthyism back in the 1950’s because of the way it correlates directly to the so-called witches accused in Salem to the so-called communists accused in the U.S. Back in the 1950’s, the citizens of the United States feared the growing and spreading of communism all over the country and the world. Much like the citizens of Salem feared that witchcraft took a stand among them. The accused communists dealt with much hate from everyone else who lived in the U.S. because the citizens feared them and their ties to communism.

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The speaker of “The Crucible” is Arthur Miller because he wrote it, the subject is the play, “The Crucible”, and the audience is the many people who read this play or saw it performed. Joseph McCarthy was a Senator that accused many authors and artists of communism. McCarthy would make an accusation, and go to trial against the particular author. Because there was no actual way to prove they had the views of a communist or not, many of their careers were ruined. Some of McCarthy’s victims lost their ability to travel and others even got arrested.

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There are things in this world that people don’t want to believe, but because they are scared people jump to conclusions to protect themselves. Many people in Salem are being accused of taking part in witchcraft, a false accusation. The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In Salem, Massachusetts there was a group of girls that were caught dancing and singing in a weird language. The girls were questioned in taking part in witchcraft.

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In the past there has been many extreme events that has contributed to the world we live in today. The play, The Crucible, is a dramatized version of the Salem witch trials,which is an allegory of McCarthyism. The play itself focuses on the extreme behavior that mainly resulted from dark aspirations. Over 200 people were accused of witchcraft during the time of the trials. Many cases turned out to be untrue.

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The Salem Witch Trials typically conjure up a variety of different images in one’s mind, none of which are pleasant. One may think of hanging a witch, magic spells, or evil spirits. However, the origin of these witch trials did not have to do with witchcraft at all, but rather they were caused by deeply seeded resentment amidst the people of Salem. A popular and insightful work of literature that portrays the cause of the Salem Witch trials is The Crucible. The author of this play, Arthur Miller, digs deep into the causes of these infamous court proceedings within a theocratic society.

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In the late 1600s, many unspeakable things happened in the Massachusetts Bay Colony due to some people’s ways. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, there is a wide range of characters with a variety of conflicting personalities. A crucible is a situation of severe trial leading to the creation of something new. The play tells a story of a town’s obsession with accusing innocent people of witchcraft through an unrealistic test. This play is important because of its historical content relating the Salem witch trials to the Red Scare.

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The Second Red Scare, which took place from the 1940s through 1950s, was instigated by Wisconsin senator Joseph Mccarthy when he claimed in a speech that 205 communists had infiltrated the State Department. Mccarthyism resulted from a group panic over fear of Communism, and the ulterior motives of influential conservative figures, who hoped to limit liberals’ influence. Hundreds of Hollywood artists were accused of harboring Communist sympathies. Among the people implicated was Arthur Miller, whose experiences and observations during Mccarthyism inspired him to write his famous 1953 play, The Crucible, which takes place in 1692 during the infamous Salem witch trials. The play follows farmer John Proctor as he attempts to mend his strained marriage

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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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