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Joseph Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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Can the fear of people control the way certain things and events are looked at? In 1950 a nationwide historical campaign called McCarthyism took place. The campaign was against alleged communist in the U.S government and other institutions and accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence which was carried out by Joseph McCarthy. The primary targets were usually union activist, government employees, educators, and entertainment industry. Many people people lost their trust in others, causing a new outlook on life while relationships were destroyed. McCarthyism was caused by the fear of the people due to past events. In every rebellion or event there is a leader, the person/or people that everyone believes and looks up to. In this case Senator Joseph the most visible face in the face and leader of this traumatic event. He carried out investigations questioning those targeted to expose them to the U.S government.“I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as …show more content…

In McCarthyism people were accused in many ways. Most of the victims were in a specific career section. They were targeted if they were government employees, entertainment industry, educators, and union activist. If those accused were found guilty, disloyalty, or treason were either deported,imprisoned, and/or lost their job. In “The Crucible” many people were accused without any specific evidence of their doing. The only evidence needed to be gained to prove that someone is a witch is accusations, spectral evidence, and that the person can’t recite the lord's prayer. The main reason of the witch hunts were to prevent the work of the devil.If the person accused doesn’t confess to witchcraft they were put to death. If the person does confess they would sign a document writing down their confession which will be shown to the

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The times back then were terrible. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953 about The Salem Witch Trials of 1692.McCarthyism was the “witch hunt” for the communist in 1953.the parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism are naming names,lack of proof ,and reststance. The first reason they are parallel is because of naming names. Hollywood director Elia Kazan went in front of the HUAC twice. The first time he did not confess and names.

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Between 1950 and 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy investigated people suspected of being associated with communism. In the writing 'The Crucible,' Miller's purpose was to point out the similarities between the Salem witch hunts and

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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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Fear, it causes people to be blinded by the truth. People can’t tell right from wrong. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show how no one could see what was right. During the 1950’s communism was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire, then it slowly made its way over to the U.S. This was known as The Red Scare.

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The specter of the witch could pinch, bite, or choke its victims, or otherwise harass them while the witch remained in a remote location.” (Nathan Dorn) Accused were tried in court where the use of spectral evidence, based on dreams or visions, was common. If they did not admit guilt and give names of others who practiced, they would be killed for their crimes. If a person did admit guilt to surviving, they would be outcast from the community, including their friends and family.

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663 Words | 3 Pages

A witch-hunt typically results from mass hysteria and targets a group of people for a crime they may or may not be guilty of. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, men and women living in Salem who spoke about spells and curses, acted aggressively, or went against social norms were commonly accused of witchcraft and sometimes executed for their “crimes”. A witch-hunt of the modern era was the search for Communists living in the United States from 1947 to 1957 (“Second Red Scare”). Throughout World War II, the United States and Soviet Union aided one another to bring down the powerhouses of Germany and Japan. After the war was won for the Allies, the US and USSR each tried to spread their respected political beliefs, Democracy and Communism, to the rest of the world.

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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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771 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written in response to the abuses of power under McCarthyism, a period in the 1950s when the United States government conducted a witch hunt for supposed communists. The play draws parallels between the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Massachusetts and the Red Scare and its investigations in the 1950s. McCarthyism led to the false accusations of thousands of people, and those accused lost their jobs. Similarly, the Salem witch trials had false accusations that led to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds. We can see another parallel in more modern situations where people use their power to prosecute others.

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Albert Einstein once said,“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” This quote shows the importance of human nature because most of the topics I researched all started by someone noticing something out of the ordinary and making it something it is not. Humans do not like change so when something happens that they are not use to, they do not know how to react. Some view it as stupidity, but to the person it is their only way to react.

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During the Salem Witch trials, people could only be proven guilty through testimony of the witch's “victims” or through a confession from the Witch herself. This is because witchcraft is not assumed to be an “ordinary crime” and it is an “invisible crime" which means that there are no witnesses (Doc D). This led to a lot of innocent deaths because people would just lie to save themselves and also if they did not admit to participating in witchcraft they could also be killed so a lot of innocents died because they did not admit they were witches. In the play Abigail Williams and the girls accused half of the town for witchcraft without having any concrete evidence for it other than they saw them “with the devil”. During McCarthyism, people were also punished because if they were accused of being communists they were blacklisted and outcasted even though they said they did not do anything and were not associated with communism.

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The hunt for communists affected his writing of The Crucible. Arthur Miller had written The Crucible as a reaction to the tense political climate. In the Article, “McCarthyism and The Crucible: What to Know,” by Samantha Lindsay its states, “Arthur Miller had a distaste for McCarthy’s investigations in the early 1950s, and he claims to have written The Crucible in 1953 largely as a reaction to this tense political climate.” Miller had a hatred for McCarthy’s investigations. Because of the power McCarthy had it would give the communist fear.

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Fear, Isolation, and Lack of Courage Repeat Themselves in History It is often seen that history repeats itself. Although the events may seem different, the players new, many mistakes are often repeated throughout time. Fear appears in many historical events. It is usually earned by not knowing or understanding what is happening.

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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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A quote from this text that supports my claim is “The trials were swift. Anyone who suspected that some untoward event or development was the work of a witch could bring the charge to a local magistrate. The magistrate would have the alleged evil-doer arrested and brought in for public interrogation where the suspect was urged to confess. Whatever his or her response, if the charge of witchcraft was deemed to be credible, the accused was turned over to a superior court and brought before a grand jury.” (1).

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In both events, there was only one way to get out of being charged. In the Crucible, the accused would hang unless they confessed to witchcraft or gave a name of someone else who was a witch. During the McCarthy era, people put on trial for being a Communist were either expected to give names of other Communists, or they would be subject to

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