Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthy

The Crucible was the allegory to the McCarthy trials. Within The Crucible, the storyline and the characters personified the political intentions of the McCarthy trials. An allegory is a story or poem that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically political or moral. The Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller bringing to life the Salem witch trials. During this play, many young girls worshipped the devil and tried to cover it up by accusing others. With Salem being a Puritan society, hearing about the devil was either immediate death or some would plead to reconnect with God. The McCarthy trials were run by Joseph McCarthy, and he completed several investigations in 1950 to expose supposed communist infiltration within the

The first similarity between The Crucible and the McCarthy Trials is that they both include fear. Citizens who resided in each of these affected areas grew afraid of the authorities due to the consequences one would face if they were accused of the problem of the time period. During the McCarthy trials both the citizens and the Government were afraid of being accused of Communism: “Advances made by the Soviet Union following World War II, coupled with the victory in 1949 of the Chinese Communist Party in establishing the People’s Republic of China and the apparent inability of the United States to prevent the spread of Communism.” (Achter) This shows that fear was present during the McCarthy trials due to the number of accusations of being a communist. Once the U.S. government started the false accusations many continued to panic wanting to avoid being accused of being a Communist with barely any evidence. With no evidence, the Government was arresting with a testimony from someone and no physical proof, which enlargened the widespread fear. McCarthyism was brought upon by Joeseph McCarthy and

Each authoritative body during the real thing, the McCarthy trials, and the interpreted version of the political standpoint, The Crucible, used Witch hunts to find every last culprit of either witchcraft or communism. Every last one of them had to be found in order to save the government from being overthrown or the small town of Salem to be cursed by the devil: “Investigators were launched into the activities of various people suspected of being affiliated with the communist Party. These people included government officials, Hollywood actors, and writers, leftists, members of the armed services, and others.” (McCarthyism) This shows that the U.S. government used the metaphorical term, “Witch Hunts” to search for those who were a part of the testimonies and plans to overthrow the government. With barely, any evidence majority of people were arrested even with testimony without evidence. In comparison to the McCarthy trials during the play The Crucible, literal witch hunts took place in the Puritan society to stray far away from the devil's presence, but also to find those who truly brought out the devil to curse someone: “Crazy talk! I gave examine Tituba, Sarah Good myself, and many other have confessed to working with the devil. They have said it’s true!”(Hale page 38) This shows that there was a strict witch hunt for every last witch. Many confessed to worshipping the