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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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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. Arthur Miller fell victim to what many labelled McCarthyism. Miller wrote “The Crucible”, with the intention of showing how unethical these accusations were. The expectation that Miller had for his …show more content…

When someone is condemned for a crime, the church played a huge roll in their conviction. There was no such thing as separation of church and state at this time in society. If you were not considered a good Christian then you were more than likely good to receive the maximum penalty for the crime committed. There are also times that if a person is not a devout Christian, they will be condemned for this in a court of law because in this time period if you did not come to church and worship God in an acceptable way then people thought you were trouble and that you needed to be stopped. Witchcraft was placed in the same category of Devil worship. At this time Devil worship could range anywhere from a person who missed a couple sundays of church to someone who shouted out that they were once with the Devil. In this society, Miller made it seem that if you were not right with God then you were not safe in the court of law. The society in the Crucible had church leaders that had more power than they should have had in the court and judges who were very religious. Because of the overwhelming presence of religion in every aspect of every day, people were almost forced to be devout

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692 Words | 3 Pages

Even with the play’s puritan disguise Miller was still sent on trial for suspicion of communism. If “The Crucible” had been written at another time it probably would not have gained much interest and there would not have been something to bring people to the realization that McCarthy’s accusations and methods were really somewhat uncalled for. Both the Salem Trials and McCarthyism were cause by the spread of something that created fear and paranoia and allowed chaos and revenge to take

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807 Words | 4 Pages

In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Miller uses the different characters which were semi factual to create the scenario and mood for the play. In fact, Miller creates the mood for the book with his title. A crucible is a container in which one puts objects such as metals and are put to extremely high temperatures. This gives the idea to the reader that this play will be one of high tension and drama. By creating this scenario, Miller gives the readers of the era a story to relate to during such times of tension and drama, and compares the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism directly through the

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577 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote the play because he was inspired by McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the hunt for communists that was taken too far. In The Crucible he presented a universal message. He was comparing how communists did exist and witches did not, but yet they were both taken as serious.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

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People will do anything to stay alive. The things people will do to survive exist at their clearest during the 1950s with McCarthyism on the rise. McCarthyism, otherwise known as the Red Scare, began when senator Joseph McCarthy accused anyone who was a left-wing “loyalist” risk of being a communist. The threat of losing everything in life; if the case escalated that included taking a llast breath. Arthur Miller sums this up beautifully in a quote describing his experience during McCarthyism, “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties: the old friend of a blacklisted person crossing the street to avoid being seen talking to him; the overnight conversions of former

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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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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, as a response to McCarthyism, which is, in general, accusing people of crimes with little to no proof. It ran rampant through the United States during the Second Red Scare through the early 1950s (exactly when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible). In The Crucible, Miller juxtaposes the leaders, who rationally think for themselves, and the followers, who believe what everybody else believes, through irony, imagery, and denotation. The Crucible is riddled with irony, and Arthur Miller utilizes situational and dramatic irony to show the difference between followers and leaders.

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Buddy Al-Aydi Ms.Healy English 9 CP 14th October 20141 The Crucible Essay The Crucible was a novel written by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s. It was written in a format of the play, portraying an allegory of the Salem Witch-Hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book is well known for its inexplicable plot. This plot is advanced by multiple characters in the book in order to ensure that the reader stays interested with the material that is being read.

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Reasons Behind The Crucible Arthur Miller’s main purpose in writing The Crucible was to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials and to warn against government propaganda. At the time that The Crucible was published, America had a huge fear of communism. Anyone accused of having ties with the communist party was shunned. It much resembled the Salem Witch Trials in how the government, or leader of the time, used fear against the people to gain power. For example, Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Reverend Parris in how they both lead the people into the belief that there were intruders in their mists that had plans to sabotage the community.

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Miller states in an article that “The Crucible was an act of desperation.” Miller had been trying to branch out in desperation. The Crucible was trying to be related to the U.S. State Department’s fear of China after the communist had taken over the country to the black magic being in The

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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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Although, many people that were condemned weren’t actually apart of the Communist Party, (under McCarthyism around 1950-1954) they got blacklisted or lost their jobs. This social injustice is also portrayed in The Crucible as its characters face the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as his own reaction to the injustice of McCarthyism. Miller’s purpose was to show how people accused each other with false denunciations because of their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another under McCarthyism.

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Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is one of these social commentaries. Many critics and even Miller himself has stated his play was an allegory for the McCarthy’s red hunt. He feared the red scare, and such writing a play directly on the subject would’ve been dangerous. Miller wrote an article on why he wrote The Crucible, and he references the thought process in which people were undergoing.

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762 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible is a story by Arthur Miller this story was released during the Mccarthyism era and is written to relate what is going on during Mccarthyism time and compared to what had happened during the time of the Salem witch trials. The setting or the crucible will impact the characters, the plot and the tone of the story. The setting of The Crucible affected the characters because during this period of time Salem Massachusetts was a Puritan colony. The Puritans were very strict people, for example on page 1154 of Arthur Miller's The Crucible Paris the town's Minister threatens to beat his slave Tituba “ You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death Tituba” that statement says that the fact that Parris is going to whip Tituba to death if she doesn't do what he says and confess that he is willing to kill anyone who does not follow the rules. Another

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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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