ipl-logo

The Salem Witch Trials And Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

1097 Words5 Pages

Imagine waking up to banging on the door and shouting from a large crowd. It’s still dark outside and everyone is holding pitch forks and torches, staring at the door and waiting for an appearance. All these people are at the door accusing innocent good people of witchcraft. In the 1690s, many people, mostly women, were accused of witchcraft and that turned into the Salem witch trials. History repeats itself because in the 1950s, just like the Salem witch trials, many people were accused of communism, a period known as the Red Scare. Arthur Miller portrayed the red scare through the crucible by using power, ignorance, and fear.

In either situation, there are cases of power. Back in these times it was usual that the men had the most if not …show more content…

In the crucible many of the girls let fear kind of control them and what they did and spoke. To go along with that, the red scare did almost the exact same thing but for all people who would have feared being accused of communism. From ipl.org again, “The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism have an uncanny relation to one another. In Salem people were afraid of not appearing Christian enough, meanwhile during the 50’s Americans feared of being accused of communist.” This just explains how much alike the Salem witch trials are to the red scare through fear. Having a fear as deep as this will cause panic and distress. From ipl.org again “A person who sympathized with Communists was persecuted, just as if someone tried to defend the accused witches of Salem.” This just shows that not only did the people guilty of communism or guilty of being witched felt fear but the people who tried to take their side. People who vouched for someone they may have liked to try and convinced authorities that they weren’t communist or witched only got themselves into trouble as well. Lastly, the website historyhit.com describes “The paranoia and fear of Communism McCarthy spread during the 1950s never quite disappeared in America, where Communism is still often viewed as the ultimate enemy.” This mentions that the worry or fear of communism never went away and might never. The terror that the communists still bring to America is a lot more than you'd expect for this to happen just under 100 years

Show More
Related

The Crucible Comparative Essay

635 Words | 3 Pages

Various components of The Crucible may be related to the Red Scare, more specifically McCarthyism. Senator McCarthy condemned communism and black-listed many famous actors and actresses as communists. When one was blacklisted under Senator McCarthy’s reign, they would never be hired again thus ruining their career and livelihood. This concept may be related to The Crucible as when people were accused as being witches during the Salem Witch Trials in Puritan New England, they would be shunned from the community and ultimately hanged. These women were hanged for being evil, thus connecting to the theme of human wickedness.

Read More

Comparing Power In The Crucible And Red Scare

572 Words | 3 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials and the 1950’s Red Scare are easily relatable considering that the two events killed several innocent lives, when that individual did nothing wrong. The community around has always been a place where secrets and grudges are held against someone. During the Salem Witch Trials, according to Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” and the Red Scare, it focused on how much power a character could have, and that one character also can lead to convincing the community to be with them or against their personal thoughts. Furthermore, the power that is lead to one's head could destroy the thoughts of other about yourself as an individual.

Read More

Examples Of Justice In The Crucible

1267 Words | 6 Pages

In today’s court system, you are innocent until proven guilty. However, this is not how it always was, and in the times of the Salem witch trials, many innocent people were accused of witchcraft and unjustly punished. This event repeated itself during the “Red Scare” that took place in America due to the cold war. During that time, people were not accused of witchcraft, but rather siding with the communists; an equally heinous crime for the time period. Whether proven guilty or not, the accused people lost their jobs and way of life.

Read More

Similarities Between The Crucible And The Red Scare

767 Words | 4 Pages

People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.

Read More

Similarities Between The Red Scare And The Crucible

1047 Words | 5 Pages

Amidst fear’s suffocating embrace, each moment feels like each heartbeat is a thunder that will last an eternity. It spreads to others until the entire community thinks irrationally, only yearning for someone to bring guidance and certainty. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” the depiction of the Salem witch trials offers a compelling parallel to the hysteria and paranoia fueled by the Communist Red Scare of the 1950s. During the Red Scare, fear of communism led government officials to seek out suspected communists, creating conflict among citizens. Resulting in infringement of fundamental rights granted by law and constitution.

Read More

Red Scare Vs The Crucible

749 Words | 3 Pages

Cameron Oldfield Mrs. Brincks English III 15 November, 2015 The Crucible and Red Scare Imagine being thrown in jail, blamed for something that you didn't do .The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a story about how certain propaganda and false accusations can ruin lives, just like in the case of the Red Scare. Although 1692 the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare were over 200 years apart, The similarities are striking. both trials used intimidation, fear, hatred, and false accusations to ruin innocent lives. Both trials resulted in terrible outcomes, with both ending with innocent people being put to death and shunned from society.

Read More

Comparing The Salem Witch Trials And The Red Scare

1195 Words | 5 Pages

Salem Witch Trials were a series of prosecutions and hearings of people being accused of witchcraft, at which it took place in 1692 and in 1693. Similar to that, was the Red Scare. The Red Scare, commonly known as McCarthyism, took place from 1959-1954 and was a campaign that endorsed the use of unfair allegations and or investigations. The horrible rumors and acts in both events really made people fear what was going on around them and pushed them to act on it, which lead to if you were with us or against us, which came with punishments and or hangings. Both the themes fear and with us or against us, play huge roles and are major factors in the upsurge of the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare.

Read More

Comparing The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

859 Words | 4 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690's were a hunt where many people were accused and executed for being charged guilty of witchcraft. Arthur Miller, the writer of The Crucible, created the play as an allegory to portray the events going on during the Red Scare. The Red Scare was when the fear of Communism spread rapidly throughout the U.S. because of accusations made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. He believed that many American citizens were part of a secret Communist Party. Most modern day witch-hunts are the same in the sense of how people are accused.

Read More

Essay Comparing The Crucible And Mccarthyism

906 Words | 4 Pages

When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

Read More

Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

949 Words | 4 Pages

The spread of mass hysteria is due to the irrational fears ingrained in the minds of the Puritans, which were formed primarily because of Tituba and Mary Warren’s lies. Tituba’s false confession led to the initial belief that Salem was indeed suffering at the hands of witchcraft, and Mary Warren’s sudden breaking off from the Devil and claim that John Proctor was forcing her to work with the Devil further proved that there were people in Salem betraying God. This may seem reasonable, but there was a lack of evidence and proper investigation that took place, which led people to jump to conclusions as a way of getting the matter under control. The Crucible can be connected to the McCarthyism of the 50s, where American Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many government workers (without proof) of being part of the Communist Party, which led them to be put on a blacklist. McCarthy’s accusations caught the attention of Americans since many were afraid of the government being overthrown by communists, and this only worsened the mass hysteria at

Read More

The Salem Witch Trials In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

1257 Words | 6 Pages

The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.

Read More

Research Paper On The Crucible

1045 Words | 5 Pages

the red scare relates to the Crucible when people panic about being convicted as a witch(communist). When Joseph Mcarthy makes people believe that the red scare is a major problem just like Abigale Williams did in the play. While evaluating this it helps prove that Aruther Miller related the play to his personal

Read More

The Crucible Red Scare

432 Words | 2 Pages

the crucible by Arthur miller is an allegory for the red scare in the McCarthy Era because of the trials, false accusation and the lack of evidence One of the ways that the crucible can allegorically connect to the McCarthy era is the trials. In the crucible if you confess that you are a witch then you had to give up name of alleged witches. According to “what is McCarthyism? And how did it happen?” By Ellen Schrecker and “Hunting the communist” the same thing happened in the McCarthy era trials, if you were accused of being a communist, then you had to give a list of

Read More

Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

886 Words | 4 Pages

Period4 The Crucible Essay Communism and Witchcraft have the same effect on humans, that effect is fear, when you hear fear you think of your worst nightmare or someone hiding in your closet, during the McCarthyism era and the salem witchcraft people had fear about whether their life is on the line or not. It all depended on one person in their community whether or not they choose to save their life. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because the girls feared Abigail just like everyone feared J.McCarthy, Elizabeth being accused is similar to McCarthy accusing the US Army, they are innocent just like Elizabeth.

Read More

DBQ Essay: The Cold War

469 Words | 2 Pages

The American people feared the spread of communism and nuclear war in the aftermath of the Second World War, while President Eisenhower addressed these fears by having strong domestic and foreign policies. The fear of communism carved a deep sense of mistrust in American people. They believed anything that was said and blindly followed people who were in political power without any basis of evidence. The fear of communism created a sense of “hysteria” (Document A) within the general public and even in people in government.

Read More

More about The Salem Witch Trials And Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Related Topics

Open Document