McCarthyism vs. The Crucible The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem witch trials in 1692, when ordinary people were being accused of prodigious behavior. Miller wrote The Crucible in the early 1950s, during the period of a governmental “witch hunt” known as McCarthyism, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. In this period, those who were accused of being a communist were either blacklisted or lost their jobs; either way, their reputations were ruined. With the hopes of altering social attitudes against people who were being accused of communism, Miller wrote The Crucible as a way to dissipate the hypocrisy in society. In Miller’s “Why I Wrote The Crucible”, it is explained why he used the Salem witch trials to compare …show more content…
He expressed his condemnation through his playwright The Crucible, which is told in a histrionic style that convinces the reader that how all the chaos going on in the town is created because of blasphemy. “The Red hunt, led by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and by McCarthy, was becoming the dominating fixation of the American psyche. It reached Hollywood when the studios, after first resisting, agreed to submit artists' names to the House Committee for "clearing" before employing them. This unleashed a veritable holy terror among actors, directors, and others, from Party members to those who had had the merest brush with a front organization” (Miller, “Why”). Miller makes it clear that from his perspective he has seen how McCarthyism has affected people in their everyday lives, and had even spread throughout the world of celebrities and the famous Hollywood. In The Crucible, Elizabeth denounces, “I cannot think the Devil may own a woman's soul, Mr. Hale, when she keeps an upright way, as I have. I am a good woman, I know it; and if you believe I may do good work in the world, and yet be secretly bound to Satan, then I must tell you, sir, I do not believe it” (Miller, The Crucible 70). During the witch trials, if someone was accused, people were automatically checked upon, which relates comparably to life amid
In 1953, a book/play called The Crucible was published. It was written by Arthur Miller as an allegory of the McCarthyism era. It talks of the causes and effects of the Salem witch trials in the late 1600's. The story is told in a way that made the people of the 50's realize how crazy they were actually acting.
A very famous man once said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933). This is certainly true when it comes to Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Arthur Miller lived through the Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism. After living through this era and being one of the accused communists Miller wrote the book titled The Crucible in 1952. This book told the story of the Salem witch trials with some modifications to make it more relevant to the current situation. The book ultimately became an allegory devoted solely to McCarthyism. In The Crucible it uses situations such as the actual trials; direct comparisons of the characters in the book to those that participated in the McCarthy trials and, the atmosphere of the two events were almost identical.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller The Crucible is a fictional retelling of events in American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century, yet is as much a product of the time in which Arthur Miller wrote it, the early 1950s, as it is description of Puritan society. At that particular time in the 1950s, when Arthur Miller wrote the play the American Senator McCarthy who chaired the ‘House Un-American Activities Committee’ was very conscious of communism and feared its influence in America. It stopped authors’ writings being published in fear of them being socialist sympathisers. Miller was fascinated by the Salem Witch Trials and that human beings were capable of such madness. In the 1950s the audience would have seen the play as a parallel between the McCarthy trials and the Salem Trials.
Miller’s play, The Crucible, is a fictional representation of the Salem Witch Trials, which occurred from 1692-1693 in colonial Massachusetts. He wrote the play to humanize the people involved, and to try and interpret their possible motivations to do all that they did. One particular character Miller focuses on is Reverend John Hale. Hale first appears in Act One, when the citizens of Salem summon him for his expertise on witchcraft. His presence sparks the witch hunts within Salem. Hale goes from being the main accuser and the investigator to later condemning the witch trials and the court’s rulings. Miller displays this change of view through the use of commentary, dialogue, and stage directions.
Explore Miller’s dramatic presentation and development of the theme of power and authority. Even though The Crucible is not historically correct, nor is it a perfect allegory for anti-Communism, or as a faithful account of the Salem trials, it still stands out as a powerful and timeless depiction of how intolerance, hysteria, power and authority is able to tear a community apart. The most important of these is the nature of power, authority and its costly, and overwhelming results. “But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or against it,” says Danforth conceitedly. With this antithesis, Miller sums up the attitude of the authorities towards the witch trials that if one goes against the judgement of the court
Miller exacerbates tension throughout Act II of ‘The Crucible,’ which was written to incriminate the corrupt trials taking place in the McCarthy Era in America during the 1950s. In the Salem witchcraft trials accusations were made without evidence and this led to the death of those with unfortunate fate in 1692 as a result of the mass hysteria in the Salem community and Miller’s play ‘The Crucible’ is an allegory of these trials. Salem, Massachusetts, was a strict puritanical society and during the witch hunts in Salem, nineteen people were hanged under accusations of being witches, one was pressed to death and thirteen died in prison. The title of the play also links into the key themes of betrayal and trust central to the story. The definitions of a crucible display this; a crucible is a heat-resistant container in which materials can be heated to very high temperatures, the high temperatures could metaphorically refer to John and Elizabeth’s heated and anxiety-ridden relationship, ‘Proctor reacts angrily to Elizabeth when she turns from him, after he has told her about his meeting with Abigail,’ there is a lack of trust between the couple and this angers John. Other definitions for a ‘crucible’ include, a crucible, a vessel in which, at high temperatures the impure metal is separated from the pure metal and lastly, a severe test, as of patience or belief; a trial. The impure metal separating from the pure metal could link to John Proctor’s adultery, he cheated on his wife Elizabeth with his maid, suggesting that he is no longer pure as he has sinned and betrayed her trust. This could also be related to other themes, Miller could be saying that it is when people are put under extreme pressure that they reveal their true characte...
Arthur Miller’s motivation for writing the The Crucible was that he became interested in the witch trials because he found himself in it. In Miller's essay, “Why I Wrote The Crucible: An author's’ answer to politics”, he explains how he had become fascinated with the environment of paranoia and how it affected society as a whole. “When I came across the story of the Salem witch trials, I finally came up with a way to express those themes on stage.” In his essay he states “I was also drawn into writing The Crucible by chance it gave me to use new language”. To me I thought that The crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism as he connects McCarthyism to The Crucible. At the beginning of the essay, he said explained that the U.S Department’s fear
“Well, all the plays that I was trying to write were plays that would grab an audience by the throat and not release them, rather than presenting an emotion which you could observe and walk away from.” by Arthur Miller. All great works provide a way to reach in and grab the audience through the reoccurring themes like, greed, jealousy, reputation and hypocrisy. Arthur Miller had one of those great works and it was called “The Crucible”. The play was based off of the witch trials that happened in Salem in the year of 1962. Some of the characters were actual characters involved in the witch trials. Arthur Miller wrote this play during the time of the “Red Scare”. Miller wrote The Crucible because he wanted to turn the The Salem Witch Trials into
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that was first performed in 1953 in the United States of America in the midst of the persecution of alleged communists during the era of McCarthyism. Although the play explicitly addresses the Salem which hunt, many find that the play is an analogy to McCarthyism due to the striking similarities in which the people behaved. Miller highlight the different groups of characters in order to reveal overlying ideas of the play such as: Self preservation, power, and hypocrisy.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a story that relates to the U.S. in the 1950’s during the war against communism. During the 1950’ communism was a real problem. Just like in the the crucible when they were hanging people who were accused for being a witch, many people were accused of being communist. One of the many people who was accused was Langston Hughes. People who were accused where well known people like in the crucible when well known people of the village was accused of witchcraft. Many people were wrongfully accused because other people wanted what they had. Like how in the crucible Abigail accused Elizabeth because she wanted to marry John, like many people during the red scare. This is one of the stories that relate to us today there is many more.
In The Crucible, the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials caused paranoia amongst the people of Salem. Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a symbol and allegory of the fear surrounding the spread of communism during the 1950s in America. The community’s sense of justice was blinded by the mass hysteria and for some, a desire for vengeance and personal gain. The Putnams
The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller. Initially, it was known as The Chronicles of Sarah Good. The Crucible was set in the Puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts. It talks of McCarthyism that happened in the late 1600’s whereby the general public and people like Arthur Miller were tried and persecuted. The Crucible exemplifies persecutions during the Salem Witch Trials. The people were convicted and hung without any tangible proof of committing any crime. Persecutions were the order of the day. When a finger was pointed at any individual as a witch, the Deputy Governor Danforth never looked for evidence against them or evidence that incriminated them; he ordered them to be hanged. This can be seen through his words “Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for those, weeps for corruption!” (1273), the people were persecuted aimlessly. The four main characters in the play, John Proctor, Abigail Adams, Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris, are caught in the middle of the witchcraft panic in the religious Salem, Massachusetts in late 1690’s. Persecution is the most important theme in the Crucible, the leaders and citizens of Salem attacks and persecutes one of their own without any tangible evidence against them.
Events have played out in history that made people realize the inhumane acts of people and the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era were two of them. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were almost 260 years before the McCarthy “witch hunts” in the 1950s yet there are similarities between them. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is about the Salem witch trials and is an allegory to the practicing of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare in the United States, which Miller was a victim of. Although there may be differences between “The Crucible” and McCarthyism, ultimately the anger, lack of evidence, and the people were alike in both events.
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.
It is common knowledge that Author Miller wrote The Crucible as a reaction to a tragic time in our countries history. The McCarthy hearings, as they came to be known, which dominated our country from 1950 to 1954, where hearings in which many, suspected of being related to communism, where interviewed and forced to give up names of others, or they where imprisoned, and their names were black listed. There are several parallels between the McCarthy Era, and the time of the Salem which trials. One similarity one will see is what I call the scare factor. Another parallel between the two groups is the "everybody is doing it" mentality. One also sees a parallel in the lives that were ruined in both eras because of the accusations and punishments.