During the time that Arthur Miller created the Crucible, America was dealing with a very similar problem compared to the Salem witch trails. This problem was called McCarthyism, it was believed that a few hundred communists had entered the country, and they posed a threat to American safety. The accusations of communists in the country caused mass paranoia among the entire United States. Arthur Miller was one of them accused of being a communist and was trialed for it, which most likely lead to the creation of his play the Crucible. After the end of both events - the Salem witch hunt and McCarthyism - the effects afterward left devastating results and lingered for many more years to come.
Miller's play is not only a portrait of the Salem Witch Trials but a criticism of contemporary America where people's political opinions were also put on trial? Consider this view in light of the critical anthology. The Crucible is a play which revolves around the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, yet was written in 1953. When viewed, through a Marxist lens, it is evident this play is a condemnation of McCarthy through the process of allusion.
In the 1940s, America was hysterical over communism with McCarthyism everywhere. Author, Arthur Miller felt that the situation had many similarities to the Salem Witch Trials. In both the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism- fear, hysteria, and danger were common. Miller used his play, The Crucible, as an allegory for McCarthyism to tell one story with an even deeper meaning. Miller stated, “Paranoia breeds paranoia, but below paranoia there lies a bristling, unwelcome truth, so repugnant as to produce fantasies of persecution to conceal its existence.”
Often times, it is seen that certain themes in literature throughout the years is influenced by the society and current events of the era that would make the author inspired to write about such events. In the 1950’s during McCarthyism, also known as “The Second Red Scare,” hundreds of Americans, especially those that practiced the arts such as acting, singing and writing would be in danger of being accused without any evidence to be able to restrict any political complaints or any way of speaking out towards the government. These times were hard for authors such as Arthur Miller, in which they would have to face the risk of creating mediocre literature in exchange for peace or face the consequences of being blacklisted and being banned from
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.
When Miller wrote The Crucible it was during the time of McCarthyism which occurred in the 1950 's. McCarthyism appeared because of Joseph McCarthy, he believed that there were communist people who had prominent roles in the US and felt they should be investigated and removed. While McCarthy was investigating the safeguards from the Constitution were forgotten about. When he introduced the idea of communism in Americas high ranking people, President Truman began doing background checks on everyone who was in service for the government. After Alger Hiss, a high-ranking State Department official, being classified as a communist, McCarthy began to feed/capitalized of the fear of the people and stated there were communist spies and he was there
When the Salem Witch Trials are remembered at face value, the sinister events that took place within the puritan community seem so surreal, so deranged, that it becomes easy to ignore the very real and dangerous implications they make of human nature and capability. It is easy to think that such heinous things could never occur in modern society. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, takes that assumption and uses it to expose the absurd injustice of modern events by creating a play that employed the infamous Salem Witch Trials as an allegory of his own experiences with the Red Scare and McCarthyism during the Cold War. McCarthy, the main anti-communist leader during the Red Scare, was known as a man who unapologetically made accusations against people to undercut their credibility and bolster his own influence.
Miller wrote The Crucible as a way to show that letting fear control decisions is a bad
In the play “The Crucible”, Arthur Miller uses his writing as a way to inform readers of the dangers of conforming. He writes about the years of the Salem witch trials, while adding realistic fiction drama in
Arthur Miller was a playwright and a political activist speaking up addressing societal issues. One of his most well-known works being The Crucible, addressed McCarthyism and its absurd purpose. Miller, creator of The Crucible was blacklisted, and accused of being a communist along with many other entertainers (“Arthur Miller”). Through all this ignorance and delusional fear, Arthur Miller was inspired to explore the similarities and parallels of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism.
Throughout history, there have been major events that have taken place and have shaped the days we live in. Two of these events are the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. Arthur Miller addresses the Salem Witch Trials in his book "The Crucible", but many can argue that, due to what was happening during the time he wrote the book, he wrote it to refer to McCarthyism as well. Some might say that he was "blind to the world" when he wrote the book, but it is more commonly thought that he wrote it for McCarthyism, rather than for human motivation. There is much proof for this, in Miller's autobiography "Timebends", as well as "The Crucible: Act One".
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, as a response to McCarthyism, which is, in general, accusing people of crimes with little to no proof. It ran rampant through the United States during the Second Red Scare through the early 1950s (exactly when Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible). In The Crucible, Miller juxtaposes the leaders, who rationally think for themselves, and the followers, who believe what everybody else believes, through irony, imagery, and denotation. The Crucible is riddled with irony, and Arthur Miller utilizes situational and dramatic irony to show the difference between followers and leaders.
Soon after the release of his play critics began to notice the allegorical nature of the play. It was released in a time when the paranoia and hysteria was very relevant. It was dealt with by people regularly. Miller comments though that the reality of the situation was that The Red Scare was almost a more serious event in his mind. “Inevitably, it was no sooner known that my new play was about Salem than I had to confront the charge that such an analogy was specious -- that there never were any witches but there certainly are Communists.(Miller, Why I wrote The Crucible)” Miller was guilty of egocentrism.
A society falters when the internal connections, the ones of the people, falter. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the society of late 1600s Salem is a faltering one. The society was not stable from the beginning on account of the Royal Charter no longer being in place. The already weak foundation allowed for the unjust incarceration of countless citizens due to unpreparedness in the face of hysteria.
In saving a savage nation: The acquisition of native lands for private benefit and a call for restoration, Sandra Joy Taylor describes the impact that European settling has had the ecosystem of the Americas. THEME: Post European settlement the Native American’s culture, lifestyle and way of life was decimated, not only did that occur but the ecological and biological effects of the European take-over were also negative. This is because of the careless exploration of the Europeans that explored after Columbus found the Americas. The first European settlers had a mistaken first impression of the Native Americans, they saw them as savages and not people with a directed way of life.
