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The crucible as an allegory of
The crucible as an allegory of
Similarities between the crucible and salem witch trials
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Franklin D. Roosevelt once stated “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” this is extremely apparent in the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller that depicts the events that took place during the salem witch trials. These events in American history had countless similarities that led to the persecution of many innocent individuals. Arthur Miller effectively demonstrates this concept in his play The Crucible by drawing parallels between the witch trials of the 1690’s and the “The Great Fear” of the 1950’s. The Salem Witch Trials and the “The Great Fear” were both the product of fear, hysteria, and false accusations.
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.
In response to the second Red Scare, prompted by the accusations of Senator Joe McCarthy, Arthur Miller felt it necessary to express his political feelings through an author’s medium. Similarities are shown between McCarthyism and the Salem witch trials in the way Senator McCarthy gained power and control by inducing fear and hatred of communists in America, comparable to the fear and hatred of witches in the late 1600s. Miller shares that themes of paranoia and vengeance continue on even as society progresses, and presents The Crucible as an example to shed light on issues inherent with using accusations to gain power. With its ability to relate to a number of political situations in many countries, even as far as 50 years past its creation,
For the Red Scare, people went insane and began specifically accusing hundreds of individuals
In the 1950s, Americans witnessed their own version of a ‘witch hunt’. During this time, fears of communism were at an all time high due to the ending of World War II. In turn this caused Joseph McCarthy to falsely accuse people of being a communist. The play, The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, correlates to the McCarthyism Red Scare of the 1950s. In the play, Abigail Williams used people’s fear to her advantage and began to falsely accuse townspeople of using witchcraft.
The play “The Crucible” is about the Salem witch trials which happened around in the early 1600’s, basically people are falsely being accused and killed because lawyers and people think that they had something to do with the devil. The red scare happened in 1919, it’s a “hysteria over the perceived threat posed by communists in the United states became known as red scare,” (History.com Staff). Then, McCarthyism started, it’s basically “accusations heightens the political tension of the times,” (Arthur Miller). The United States are basically infiltrating people because they think that they had something to do with communism, many writers and actors are a
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.
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.
The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare for many reasons, but one is that they are both run by lies spread by people to put themselves out of harm's way. The Crucible was written and used to express what was going on during this period with the Red Scare. “They were hounded by law enforcement… and fired them from their jobs” because of what they believed in their rule of terrorism, in The Crucible where people were hung because of their beliefs. Another example of The Crucible being an allegory to the Red Scare is how in The Crucible, Abigail Williams was over exaggerating her statement that she could see and talk to the devil. Just like how “McCarthy and Hoover… exaggerating that possibility” in the Red Scare.
In this classroom you can see a teacher getting her roomed searched by state and local “anti-subversive” and they are seen searching the room, looking in trash cans, looking at the classrooms maps of russia and even looking at the picture of the us presents. During the red scare people were so afraid of communism, they would give away their rights as humans to let the government to find the communists and in “you read books, eh” is a prime example of the propaganda and hysteria that went on during the red scare just in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller when all the girls start to act bewitched and start to lie about how whos doing it to try to gain power in the eye of society in Salem and in many ways they did. During the red Scare people were being
During the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the Red Scare, innocent people were being falsely accused. As in the crucible and the Red Scare, people were being accused of witches/communist with little or no evidence at all. McCarthy had targeted certain people and groups claiming that they are part of the communist party. Miller had used this example in the crucible telling that the innocent and respected people in the community were claimed to be witches by another person. Abby had claimed that Mrs. Proctor had stabbed her in the stomach with a poppet, which was made by Mary Warren.
Many have said that history repeats itself. This has never been more evident then with the tragic events that happened with the Red Scare and the events in The Crucible. Both deal with mass hysteria and how accusers are given power and use that power for evil. In both the accusers look down upon the rest of the society and just accuse away with your accusing finger. What we learn from both of these horrible events is that we should never look down upon others or accuse someone of committing an "immoral crime" without seeing or never or hearing what really happened.
Mass hysteria was present in both The Crucible and McCarthyism. Mass hysteria is when people went crazy because people were accused of being communists and or witches. Mass hysteria was however started by specific people in both scenarios. In Mccarthyism Joseph Mccarthy a United States Senator and in The Crucible Abigail Williams who was accused of having an affair with John Proctor her employer were the specific ones who accused people of being communists and witches. Even though the Salem witch trials happened in the late 1690s and McCarthyism in the 1950s they paralleled each other.
In the case of the Salem Witch Trials, the fear largely came from religious beliefs and superstitions about witches and demonic possession. The community was overcome by a sense of terror, panic, and chaos. This led to widespread accusations of witchcraft withing a large portion of the community and the eventual trials and executions of many people. Similarly, during the Red Scare, the fear largely came from the political beliefs and concerns about the threat of communism and Soviet Russian ideas. The American public was taken over by a sense of anxiety and paranoia, leading to widespread accusations of communist ties and the eventual accusations and persecution of many
The Red Scare and The Crucible Backstabbing is the most painful thing you could emotionally feel. It was a common occurrence when it was displayed in The Crucible and during the Red Scare. People would walk around on a daily basis with a knife to their throats and were watched every day on what they would say. One slip up and their lives and careers could and would have been ruined.
