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,
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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