The Persecution Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

When many hear the name Arthur Miller they may think of a famous playwright, but some may instead think of the word Communism. Communism is a political and economic system in which the major productive resources in a society are owned by the public or state. The United States reacted terribly to the ideology of Communism due to McCarthyism. McCarthyism was a campaign that accused many of being associated with the communist party. Many people lived a challenging life during this time period. Judgement, accusation, and fear and favoring are all characteristics of human nature that are seen in The Crucible and Arthur Miller.

First, judgement played a major role during this time and it still does today. Arthur Miller faced judgement throughout

Many people were accused of being a communist. These accusations are associated with the term McCarthyism. McCarthyism was carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy and this campaign took off right after he gave a famous speech about communism. According to an online source, “McCarthy's charges were never documented, but his speech set off a nationwide search for communists and communist sympathizers within the government and in positions of influence throughout American society” (Hastedt). This displays that Senator McCarthy was targeting those with government positions, so he could possibly hold a higher position in the government. McCarthy and many others also accused famous people. Arthur Miller was accused of being a communist because it is said that he attended five or six meetings with communist party writers. Though when the House of Un-American Activities Committee put Miller on trial, they could not prove anything of him being associated with the communist party. In The Crucible, the equivalence of McCarthyism was the witch trials. Giles Corey says, “I have it from an honest man who heard Putnam say it! The day his daughter cried out on Jacobs, he said she’d given him a fair gift of land” (Miller 96) to Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne. It exhibits that Mr. Putnam made his daughter, Ruth, accuse Mr. Jacobs of witchcraft in order for him to receive all of Mr. Jacobs’ land. Putnam was lying about Mr. Jacobs

Many either feared the communists or favored the communists by being one. Arthur Miller was pro-communist meaning he favored the communists. He also hated those who feared the communists. According to Matthew Glass, “Many American intellectuals developed favorable views of Soviet efforts to construct a classless society during the years of the Great Depression, and official anticommunism declined as a result of the American alliance with the Soviet Union during World War II.” It explains that most of the highly educated people favored the communist ideology which explains why Arthur Miller was most likely a communist. Glass also claims, “Fear of communist subversion and infiltration fostered by the opportunistic Catholic senator Joseph R. McCarthy spread across the society.” It explains that many people feared that the communists would take over the U.S. and that the cause of this was the fault of Senator McCarthy. McCarthy made everyone feared the communists. In The Crucible, many of the townspeople feared those who have used witchcraft. They also favored the girls that confessed about those accused of witchcraft. An example in The Crucible is when Parris says, “Excellency, I think they be aboard a ship (Miller 126)” to Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne. This quote demonstrates that Abigail Williams and Mercy Lewis ran out of town because they feared that if they did not leave town that they would