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Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

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Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is an allegory for the McCarthy era in the 1950s. The McCarthy era is described as a period of fear about the potential rise of Communism, creating hysteria among the American society. Senator Joseph McCarthy holds the responsibility for stirring up the paranoia towards Communist activity in the United States, specifically making accusations for present communists within the United States government. The accused individuals were then followed up with unfair investigations that McCarthy directed. Within the investigations, people were to admit being a communist and be blacklisted, or not confess and be prosecuted. However, there truly was no explicit evidence as to why one is a communist, but for those under …show more content…

The two accountable figures for accusing others were Abigail from The Crucible and Senator Joseph McCarthy which share a direct correlation between each other. A source comparing the two events states, “It can also be observed that when the accusations began in both the cases of McCarthy and Abigail, they targeted those citizens of lower class first” (Similarities between the Crucible and McCarthyism, 2017). Both individuals started the allegations, using the common fear among the people to an advantage. Targeting the lower class allowed the buildup of credibility among the two, promoting the power of trust and respect within their hands. However, the power that was obtained resulted in personal gain. For example, a passage explaining the accusations reads, “During the Salem Witch Trials, Abby hates Elizabeth Proctor and the wife of the man that she loves, which then results in Abby accusing Elizabeth of practicing witchcraft and communicating with the devil. In McCarthyism, anger is shown when Joseph McCarthy accuses people of being communists” (Colena, 2012). The reasoning behind Abigail’s accusations was for the personal gain of having John Proctor to herself. To achieve the goal, Abigail falsely set up Elizabeth Proctor for Witchcraft, and blaming others who stood in the way. As for McCarthy, political status was important and by declaring government officials of being a …show more content…

Them that will not confess will hang” (Miller, 1953). The court proves to be unfair as those that do not which to confess to witchcraft will automatically be hung. Although one may confess to witchcraft, that individual will be shunned by the entire community. The result is a no-win situation, which ruined lives by crumbling reputations and killing off innocent people. As for McCarthyism, the trials proved to be unevidental, causing many unfortunate, innocent citizens to be scorned for confessing to Communism or remaining quiet leading to further prosecution. For example, in the hollywood scandal of McCarthyism a source states, “Later, this list of ten names swelled to a list of three hundred, and soon stars like Orson Wells and Charlie Chaplin were blacklisted—they were unable to get work and were essentially frozen out of any and all jobs in Hollywood” (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2011). Those accused from McCarthy became ineligible to work, affecting many lives. McCarthyism and the Salem Witch trials within The Crucible show how lives are instantly ruined upon a single

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In response to the second Red Scare, prompted by the accusations of Senator Joe McCarthy, Arthur Miller felt it necessary to express his political feelings through an author’s medium. Similarities are shown between McCarthyism and the Salem witch trials in the way Senator McCarthy gained power and control by inducing fear and hatred of communists in America, comparable to the fear and hatred of witches in the late 1600s. Miller shares that themes of paranoia and vengeance continue on even as society progresses, and presents The Crucible as an example to shed light on issues inherent with using accusations to gain power. With its ability to relate to a number of political situations in many countries, even as far as 50 years past its creation,

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588 Words | 3 Pages

I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”. Arthur Miller and John Proctor were both accused and neither turned in their colleagues or neighbors “Beguile me not! I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!” . Both Miller and Proctor were offered bribes for their innocence, they chose to pay their lives to go against the church even when innocent. The Salem witch trials and the accusation of communism were both out of pure fear and hysterical attributes.

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343 Words | 2 Pages

In the Crucible those who were accused of being guilty, put on trial, and who are expected to confess. Unsuccessful to that led to death. In McCarthy, the media were not disposed to stand up to Senator McCarthy for the fear of being accused of being a Communist. Fear is the main factor playing in both situations, terror of being accused or what people might say, or think.

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506 Words | 3 Pages

In The Crucible, the fear of witchcraft precedes the Salem witch trials; however, the accusers capitalize on this fear by alleging that neighbors committed acts of witchcraft in order to obtain their own wishes. An example of their manipulation of the public fears stems from Abigail's intentions behind accusing Elizabeth Proctor. In an attempt to remove Elizabeth from the scenario so she could live with John, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft with tampered evidence, demonstrating her misuse of the court system and the public’s fear. Thus, Murrow’s description of McCarthy’s actions relate to that of Miller’s The Crucible on a fundamental

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767 Words | 4 Pages

People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.

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807 Words | 4 Pages

McCarthy created the uproar of having a ‘witch hunt’ on communists in America. His influence on the people gave him credibility when he accused those innocent people. “He cited 81 cases that day. He skipped several numbers, and for some cases repeated the same flimsy information. He proved nothing, but the Senate called for a full investigation.”(ushistory.org).

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

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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The Crucible is Inspired by the McCarthy time the 1950’s, Arthur Miller’s play, mainly focused the Salem witch trials, carelessness that can result from desires, and pleasure for others. Arthur Miller bases the play on historical things of the Salem witch trials. He starts of the play with Revered Samuel Parris’ daughter, his niece Abigail, the slave Tituba, and some village girls dancing in the woods. Rather than suffer punishment for their actions, the girls accused other women and men of witchcraft. The girls say that they saw the other people practicing witchcraft.

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969 Words | 4 Pages

“If your name was placed on one of these blacklists, you could lose your job and your life and reputation could be ruined.” This quote shows how those accused of communism had their lives taken and ruined. In both the times of The Witch Trials and of McCarthyism, people could be falsely accused. There is a very obvious example in The Crucible when after confessing John Proctor says to Danforth, "Why must it be written? Why must I say it?"

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However, during the time of McCarthyism, people suddenly believed if a person went against the government thoughts, they were a communist. Similarly, this is like a time in The Crucible when a mass amount of women were arrested for witchcraft. After Mary Warren comes home from watching the witchcraft trials, John Proctors asks if it is true if only fourteen women arrested. Instead Mary Warren replies, “No, sir. There be thirty-nine now” (Miller, Act II).

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719 Words | 3 Pages

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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In the McCarthy era, according to “hunting the communist” video on youtube, people that were accused of being a communist and not admitting to it were blacklisted, sent to jail and labeled as a communist. False accusations was another thing that allegorically connects with both the crucible and the McCarthy era. In Arthur Miller’s “the crucible” on pages 74 to 76 it infers that Abigail accusing Mary Warren of being a witch. Abigail did this so she can be closer to john. In “what is McCarthyism?

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660 Words | 3 Pages

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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497 Words | 2 Pages

It was derived from the fear and hatred they had deep inside them. Mccarthy used this plot to get rid of his opponents and secure him a prime spot for a next term as a senator. McCarthy’s trials were no different to The Salem witch trials by raising suspitions he was able to destroy lives with a written list. Although people tried to contradict his allegations the majority’s fear of communists clouded the court’s judgement. They had no remorse for the aftermath of their doings.

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886 Words | 4 Pages

Both McCarthy and Abigail accuse innocent citizens of being apart of something evil. Accusing others of evil is a main part of the McCarthyism era and Abigail accusing others of in the book The Crucible. Accusing others is both immature and unthoughtful of others. McCarthy

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