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The Crucible: The Red Scare Or The Mccarthyism Era

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The Crucible Essay

In America during 1953, the fear of Communism was at its peak. Many people falsely accused and prosecuted during this time, being labeled as communists, losing their jobs, and harassed because of rumors and fear mongering. This stretch of time was labeled the “Red Scare” or the McCarthyism Era because of the witch hunts being spearheaded by Joseph McCarthy. Many people saw this as wrong and one of those people was an author by the name of Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller created an allegory to signify the era of McCarthyism in 1953 when he wrote The Crucible, arguing that power is often used for the wrong reasons, false accusations, and the use of fear tactics.
History has often shown that power in the hands of the wrong people can be dangerous and often lead to nothing good. This is proven true in the Crucible through the girls and the church. The girls in the book were given much influence because the villagers thought that they could accurately convict those who were accursed with the devil and that is exactly what Arthur Miller saw in real life with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Americans thought that he was able to convict communists when in reality it was nothing more than guessing off of rumors. For example, …show more content…

In the crucible, many men and women were falsely accused of doing witchcraft. For example, on page 35 danforth states“There lurks somewhere in her heart, a desire to undermine the court.” speaking of Mary Warren who used her power to convince Danforth that there are no spirits nor witches in order to save her own neck. Another example is on page 202 Abigail says, “She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold, sniveling woman, and you bend to her!” speaking of john proctor’s wife, Elizabeth. The false accusations that occurred in the crucible was what caused the witch trials to be such a huge deal, much like the McCarthyism

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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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Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

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