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Salem witch trials encyclopedia britannica
Summary of the salem witch trials
Summary of the salem witch trials
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“The term ‘"McCarthyism’" has passed into general usage as a synonym for the anticommunist political repression of the early Cold War”. (Schrecker 3) The Crucible shows the similarities between the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare. The Crucible displays a relationship between the Salem Witch Trials and the fear of McCarthyism in the 1950s. Like The Crucible, with people terrified of witchcraft, people during the Red Scare feared communism and feared the punishment that came with an accusation.
In fact, “The Salem Witchcraft Trials have taken on an iconic role in American history, and an unjust search for scapegoats is now commonly referred to as a “witch hunt”” (Billings). Now, during the McCarthy Era, an author called Arthur Miller wrote The crucible, a story “about witchcraft at Salem in 1692, and it was inspired by the social and political climate in the United States in the 1950’s” (Bloom 66) The 1962 Salem characters in Miller’s play represented the Americans that were accused of being communist or sympathizing with communists (Trevino).
Movies in today's culture, especially horror movies, has the hidden message of McCarthyism. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller from 1953, and the movie, The Witch, which was made 2016, both have similar connections to each other. In the article, “Why I Wrote the Crucible”, Miller makes many valid points and references to Red Scare era. Miller The Crucible was inspired by Red Scare and McCarthyism, but it was included the Salem Witch Trials as a main component due to similarities. The Witch is a remake of the Salem Witch Trials in a different point of view.
In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, he is able to compare the events of the Salem Witch Hunt to the McCarthy period. Miller is able to compare these two because of the very similar events and how they were carried out. Many things are comparable and are very similar, in very different time lines. During the McCarthy period, congressman Joseph McCarthy would use the current events to his advantage.
The Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller and he discusses dreadful events of the witch trials that took place in Salem in 1692. Arthur Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials to represent the McCarthy Era and to show connections and parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism. The Salem witch trials were many different hearings and prosecutions of people being accused by a group of girls of witchcraft which caused distress in the community. McCarthyism was also popular at this time. “McCarthyism represented a prolonged effort (1948–54) to expose and root out domestic communism.”
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.
Also, since The Crucible was written to be parallel to McCarthyism, the same idea is shown. The same situation can be seen in The Crucible as Arthur Miller was influenced by the events that occurred during McCarthyism. In the Crucible, anyone whose name that had been mentioned underwent an investigation and was asked to prove that they were not partaking in witchcraft. Because this task was impossible, the court made rash decisions such as sending people to jail or sentencing them to be hanged. This scenario is seen in the crucible when Rebecca Nurse is accused.
In history there have been many major events that have shaped the times we live in. Two of the major events of our time are the "witchunts" of the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a drama and fictional story of the Salem Witch Trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692-1693. Miller wrote the play as a parable for McCarthyism, when the United States government ostracized people for being communists.
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.
Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about what happened during the Salem Witch Trials. It gives insight about what people had to deal with in this situation and how they handled it. The trials were basically a big test which helped figuring out whether or not people were guilty of witchcraft. This is an example of what a crucible is. In our world today we still have crucibles and even though they are different than back then, they all relate to each other because of what influence they have on people.
Miller’s purpose of The Crucible was to represent and mirror the social injustice under McCarthyism as people falsely accused each other because their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another. Although, around 1950-1954 the “innocent until proven guilty” clause existed, most trials and accusations were led by “guilty until proven innocent.” Despite Miller’s efforts to criticise people’s actions as
The Crucible is a story by Arthur Miller this story was released during the Mccarthyism era and is written to relate what is going on during Mccarthyism time and compared to what had happened during the time of the Salem witch trials. The setting or the crucible will impact the characters, the plot and the tone of the story. The setting of The Crucible affected the characters because during this period of time Salem Massachusetts was a Puritan colony. The Puritans were very strict people, for example on page 1154 of Arthur Miller's The Crucible Paris the town's Minister threatens to beat his slave Tituba “ You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death Tituba” that statement says that the fact that Parris is going to whip Tituba to death if she doesn't do what he says and confess that he is willing to kill anyone who does not follow the rules. Another
Published in 1952, during a period of cold war tensions, which culminated in the ideological witch trials of the mcarthy era in America; The crucible by Arthure miller is set in 1692 during the witch trials in salem massachusetts. The author has used allegory to position the reader to draw parrelels betweeen the to time periods and critisize the persecution that occured in both eras. One of the main themes that Miller has used to portray this viewpoint is the representation of personal integrity. Integrity is the quality of having strong moral pronciples. This is acheived through strongly contrasted characterisation of characters such as Abigail williams and and Rebecca Nurse, aswell as the inclusion of textual features such as irony, symbolism
In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.
