Mirror Effect In The Crucible

Throughout history many nations in many places would hunt for invisible enemies, threats so great that even the government itself couldn’t see them behind the shadows. Two of these hunts were in the United States, one being the Salem Witch Trials back when the US was just a meer colony, and then the Red Scare, where everyone was afraid of communists entering our ranks. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” he wrote about such fears and event of the Red Scare, but through the lenses of the Salem Witch Trials. But later, in a almost strange twist of fate, began to mirror the actions one of the characters, this being an example of the mirror between fiction and reality. Arthur Miller’s actions during the Red Scare mirrors the actions of John Proctor

Specifically, Arthur Miller wrote on his experiences with the Red Scare and how he connected his feelings to his play. He wrote “McCarthy’s power to stir fears of creeping communism was not entirely based illusion of course; the paranoid, real or pretend, always secretes its pearl around a grain of fact.” Fear was being treated like a seed, once planted it grows and spreads, but if not controlled will ultimately be lost to its growing vines, the truth that so many seeked no longer being a viable thing. This concept can be seen once again when Reverend Hale approaches the Proctor family during the height of the Salem Witch Hunts. “I never knew until tonight that the world has gone daft with this nonsense.” Proctor acknowledged that this event was getting extremely out hand, much like the events of the Red

John Proctor approached the court about evidence that could bring down the entire hunt in one fell swoop. When the court and John walked into a home Danforth approached him with this: “your wife sends me a claim in which she is pregnant… We will let her live another year.” John proctor rejects this bribe, instead continuing on with his efforts to stop the hunt. Arthur Milller was bribed himself, where the House Committee on Un-American Activities actually said they would drop the charges if they were allowed to take a picture with his wife, which at the time was Marilyn Monroe. He proceeded to deny these bribes and just like John Proctor landed in some hot water because of it. These moments demonstrate how reality can mirror fiction and vice versa, even if it didn’t exactly mean to happen. Things such as the bribery and calling out of the people cultivating the fear are things that were common with Arthur Miller and John Proctor, the character in the play being one of his creations as well. All of this culminates into the fact, as previously stated, reality and fiction go hand in hand on how they react to one