The Crucible Research Paper

In the late 1940s – early 1950s, Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy made the grandiose pledge to uncover a communist plot to overthrow democracy in United States. No one was safe from persecutions, and the “witch hunts” for communism began. In response to the mass hysteria over this communist infiltration, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. In the play, the people of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 sought to destroy the devil’s influence by seeking and destroying witches. This began the Salem Witchcraft Trials. The events in 1692 parallel the witch hunts in 1950s. Miller echoes many of McCarthy’s ideas such as a war between two ideologies, a letter of names, and a society destroyed by enemies from within. One common idea that McCarthy and Miller have in common is an occurring dispute of a battle of religion. In McCarthy’s speech, he mentions that the world is at war, but “not the usual war between nations, but a war between two diametrically opposed ideologies.”(Speech) McCarthy’s battle of religion in the government is similar to the battle of religion in The Crucible. To explain, the Christian people of Salem are on a witch hunt because they feel as if they are doing God’s work. Many people are accused of being witches and this forms a “war” in Salem. For example, “I saw Sarah Good, Goody Osburn, Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(Miller

In McCarthy’s speech he mentions that he has “a list of names that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party.” (Speech) It seems as if the play had the same idea. For example, Danforth demanded John Proctor to sign his confession when he admitted he was guilty of witchcraft. This allowed the court to have a document of him confessing to what he has done. Both list of names clearly showed who has done wrong. Not only does it destroy a reputation it can destroy a