Occasion’s Effect The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are very similar even though they took place such a long time from each other. If someone was accused of witchcraft in 1692 they had to confess and lose all social standing or be executed, in the 1950’s if a person was accused of being a communist they would be fired and put on trial, if they would not confess they were blacklisted until they admitted to their “crime”. Arthur Miller used the Salem Witch trials to protest McCarthyism in a somewhat discreet way that proved to be a timeless comfort to the citizens experiencing oppression from their government (“Why I Wrote The Crucible”, 911).
McCarthyism and Salem Witch Trials Many things in history can relate in different aspects. Salem Witch trials and McCarthyism are examples of things in history that are kind of similar to each other. Looking at these two events, we can see that madness existed even way back then, It is evident that this evilness and hysteria ruined people’s lives because of the accusations that were being made towards witches and communists. The most common thing that I see from these two events is that they both were irrational fears that witchcraft and communism were going to invade society if nothing was done about it.
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.
Witches! The Absolutely True Tale of Disaster in Salem,¨ written by Rosalyn Schanzer, starts off with a group of Puritans from Europe who have come to settle in Salem, Massachusetts. This religion is very different from modern-day Christianity. People started being accused as witches in the 1640s. However, witch hunts aren 't as rare as people might think; there have been a few witch hunts since the 1690s.
Mccarthyism vs Salem Witch Trials “Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity.” (Joseph McCarthy). McCarthyism is the practice of claiming without sufficient evidence that another person has committed treason ("McCarthyism" lines 1-2 ). During the Salem witch trials, the term Mccarthyism could be used accurately due to the fact that hundreds of people were imprisoned and accused of witchcraft with little to no evidence.
Mass hysteria was present in both The Crucible and McCarthyism. Mass hysteria is when people went crazy because people were accused of being communists and or witches. Mass hysteria was however started by specific people in both scenarios. In Mccarthyism Joseph Mccarthy a United States Senator and in The Crucible Abigail Williams who was accused of having an affair with John Proctor her employer were the specific ones who accused people of being communists and witches. Even though the Salem witch trials happened in the late 1690s and McCarthyism in the 1950s they paralleled each other.
The word hysteria defines an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion among a group of people. “Paranoia breeds paranoia,...” a famous quote from Arthur Miller’s essay that alludes to the use of mass hysteria that struck fear to the bourgeois of two eras that stained the face of American history. By creating and exploiting public hysteria as a means to obtain power and manipulate people as seen through the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and the McCarthy Era which lasted a little under a decade. Both calamitous events shared common factors that contributed to their beginnings as well as helping them retain momentum.
The McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials accurately represent the saying, "Desperate times call for desperate measures. " In the 1950s, the McCarthy hearings tainted lives by falsely accusing those in the film industry of being associated with Communism. In the 17th century, the Salem witch trials charged innocent villagers of practicing witchcraft. Victims from the McCarthy hearings were isolated and ruined, while victims from the Salem trials were hanged and shunned.
You never knew whether individuals were coming clean or simply making up a lie since they didn't care for that individual, so they attempted to cause that individual harm, Amid the Salem Witch Trials many individuals were (accused of a wrongdoing) of conversing with the fiend. As indicated by Congressperson Joseph McCarthy began the frenzy/exceptionally compelling feeling that occurred after the second Red Startle and (accused of a wrongdoing) U.S. individuals (who legally live in a nation, state, and so on.) of being communists. These Announcements (that somebody has accomplished something awful) spoke to Midwestern Americans who found that hostile to socialism was to battle against liberals and internationalists. It assumed control over the
Far too often in history, a person’s negative or evil views have influenced others to commit terrible atrocities. In the 1930s, Adolph Hitler hated the Jews and blamed them for the declining economy, high unemployment rate, and other ills in the world. Because he was a master orator, he easily convinced the German citizens to agree with his views, including the belief that Jewish people should be punished, causing their mass execution during World War II. In recent years, leaders of various terrorist cells have used similar tactics of vengeance, brotherhood, and patriotism, recruiting impressionable young adults, promising eternal salvation as a reward for torture, murder, and even suicide. Closer to home, in massachusetts during
During both Salem and McCarthy eras, their moral codes were not exactly used the right way. Long term relationships would come to an end, friends would turn against each other, or others would simply point fingers without having actual evidence. Usually the persecutors would be easily persuaded one was either a witch or a communist member. The search of any suspicion of either being a witch or communist would eventually lead to “ a hunt not just for subversive people, but for ideas and even a suspect language.” (Miller 2).
The Salem Witch Trials in 1692, and the Fear of Communism in the 1950’s McCarthyism involves the practice of making accusations or subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. In the town of Salem, Massachusetts the majority of the ladies in salem could've gotten arrested for the threat of witchcraft but there’s no evidence placed on them that’s fully charged. “Giles: I will not give you no name, I mentioned my wife’s name once and I'll Burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute. Danforth:
(Salem Witch Trials) Woman who grew jealous or angry would accuse another woman of being a witch and form many lies just so that woman would either be killed or sent to prison. It was mostly done to get the opponent out of the way. During the 1940-1950 many people were very worried about communism. Joseph McCarthy had taken the people's concerns to his advantage and formed accusation that “ more than two hundred card carrying communists had infiltrated the United States government”,( McCarrthyism) he used this accusation to fuel a fire.
The Salem witches and McCarthyism are two of the most shameful moments in modern U.S. history. A great play writer named Arthur Miller decided to make a statement about McCarthyism and Salem Witch Trials; he did this through an impactful play called the Crucible. McCarthyism, named after Joseph McCarthy, was a time where actors, writer, and poets had accusations of being Communist. If you were accused of being Communist, you were called before the court. If denied these accusations you were blacklisted.
In the beginning of The Crucible, John Proctor is presented as a contradictory and an unfaithful man, whose sins from the past still haunt him. If so, why did the playwright Arthur Miller use Proctor as an advocate to convey a deeper idea about McCarthyism? John Proctor is skillfully employed as the play’s protagonist because he not only displays character development, but he also represents the play’s, and in a way, the Red Scare’s central struggle: confess and calumnize neighbours, or stand up for what they believe is right but confront death in doing so. John Proctor’s disposition, character development, and fate play an important role on the grounds on which Miller chose him to make a commentary on the Red Scare of the 1950s.
