Similarities Between The Crucible And The Red Scare

Fear, it causes people to be blinded by the truth. People can’t tell right from wrong. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to show how no one could see what was right. During the 1950’s communism was spreading throughout Europe like a wildfire, then it slowly made its way over to the U.S. This was known as The Red Scare. 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.

Both trials were held with barely any proof against the person being accused and were solely based off of false accusations. The Hollywood Ten were ten directors and producers who were wrongly accused of being communists. They were forced to appear before the House of Un-American Activities Committee and they refused to answer any questions about their connections towards communism. Likewise, in The Crucible John Proctor, Elizabeth Tituba, Giles Corey, Martha Corey, Rebecca Nurse, Goody Osborne, and Goody Good were all falsely accused of being associated with witchcraft. Abigail Williams was the person behind most of these accusations and that led to even more people being accused. She accused Elizabeth of being a witch hoping she would be hanged in order to have John come back to her. She also set up Mary Warren using the doll she helped her make by sticking a needle through it. All of this started out with false accusations by Abigail, and people believed her because they were