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Similarities between mccarthyism and the salem witch trials
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The Crucible and McCarthyism are similar because they both name names of people,they had no clear evidence and they didn’t testify. They are both connected because in both documents A&B they named names of people and they falsely accused people of doing things they really didn’t do. For example in Document A” I did wrong to withhold these names”
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).
The Salem witch in 1692 and McCarthyism was during the 1950's. it was primarily due to Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Miller wrote the play as a response to what he thought was a modern day witch hunt. Joseph McCarthy, the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities, wanted to weed out and expose communist sympathizers in the U.S. Even though Miller researched several historical records of the 1692 trials.
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.
McCarthyism played a major role in the creation of The Crucible and many parallels were made between the play and the Red Scare. The Red Scare was a period of heightened fear of the communists going back to the Cold War. The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are similar because they both were fueled by fear. The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because everyone thought they would be punished or killed. McCarthyism and the Salem witch hunts had the ability to ruin one’s life through a simple accusation.
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.
In times of fear and hysteria in the U.S. it is mass chaos and it only gets worse and worse. During the time of both the witch-hunt eras, whether for communist or actual witches, they prove to have many similarities between them. Both of these times were full of confusion and lying which lead to the temporary downfall of the authority at that time. Joseph McCarthy proved to be a factor in this time and add on to the chaos that was America. Arthur Miller wrote about these times in a book called The Crucible, based on the witch trial era.
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.
The 1600’s and 1950’s are two completely discrete generations, but they are more alike than people would think. The church is meant to heal, not to kill. The government is meant to provide for their people, not to turn them against one another. Both the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism were bizarre events that frightened people to the point of extreme panic. Arthur Miller believes that the witchcraft trials in 1692 and the effects of Communism in the 1950’s are greatly similar because they both contain the themes of hysteria, accusations, and penalties.
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.
McCarthyism was a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party. In these two events, many similarities
The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.
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:
Many times it has been said that if people learn from their mistakes they are doomed to repeat them. Such is the case throughout history. There are many different examples of this, but one example is the blatant similarities between the witch hunts in Salem Massachusetts and the era of McCarthyism. When looking at either one of these events separately it is hard to believe that they could have actually happened, not only once but, twice. If one takes the time to look at both events simultaneously they are able to make many comparisons and enable numerous similarities be seen.
The Salem Witch Trials can be compared to many historical events around the world. The Holocaust is one of the most compared events to the Salem Witch Trials. These events are brought together by the facts that both of them were tragic and people died horrifically. Neither of these events were handled in a way that was beneficial for their economies. The Holocaust is a modern day “Witch Hunt” that relates to the Salem Witch Trials due to instinctual prejudice and mass hysteria, but differs in religion and the scale of the executions.
