The Crucible was written as an allegory for the McCarthy era in 1953 by Arthur Miller; an American playwright. The McCarthy era was epitomized by the fear of Communism that Senator McCarthy whipped up. He fostered a witch hunt against anyone who disagreed with his views. Miller’s intention was that the play would be a parody of his own context (himself) with John Proctor quite evidently being a reflection of Miller. The witches in the play symbolized communism. A ‘Crucible’ can mean both; "a container for melting or purifying metals by heat" and "a severe test." Miller describes the village of Salem as ‘the container’ and its contents; the God-fearing residents of Salem along with their emotions. This ‘purification process’ is exactly what those accused (of witchcraft) suffer and the use of ‘heat’ is a reference to hell; where they will go if they are not to confess.
Conscience is the individual awareness of what is right and wrong and the theme of conscience in the play is strongly emphasised. In the Crucible the idea of conscience is based on that of Christianity. The conscience ...
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;
Allegories are stories that have more than one meaning. For example, The Lorax was about a boy who saves the world from destroying itself due to greed; the allegory for The Lorax is that in today's society people are greedy and don’t care about the environment. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy Era because they were both made of fake claims, fear, and false confessions. Fake Claims were a big part of the McCarthy communist era because if you accused
The Mccarthy era was a very drastic time during the 1950’s when ideas about communism disseminated throughout the United States, particularly the government. Author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, was very critical of this time and used characters, plot events, setting and literary terms and features to convey his message. Miller creates an allegory by using Witchcraft as a controversial topic similar to how communism was during the McCarthy era, characters such as Danforth, Hathorne and Hale to
Joseph McCarthy was the main source of spreading anti-Communist fear in the Cold War. The global scare was referred as the Red Scare. McCarthy became the U.S. Senator, unsubstantiated claims about communist Increasing with the United States Government. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller intended as an allegory for the Red Scare in the time of McCarthy Era, where hundreds of people were accused, which led to people going to a court; numerous trials, many suffered great losses and ruined their
Sussman English 2 October 26, 2014 McCarthyism and The Crucible 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
This written task will discuss the way in which the representatives of power are portrayed. In The Crucible members of the church and legal system as well as wealthy landowners would belong to this dominating social group. The way in which Miller depicts them has an effect on how the reader perceives them. In this written task, I will discuss three general topics regarding their depiction in the text. Firstly, I will explore how these representatives of power are portrayed. Miller depicts them in
The play The Crucible by Arthur Miller gets the point across that sex has a significant role of retaining power over people, officials, and decisions that towns make. Miller portrays that even in the Salem Witch trials, sex conquers and influences all. Sex even causes hysteria in people's minds, towns, and political officials. No matter the culture, time period, or circumstances, sex will always conquer the playing field. Sex is the number one thing to control one's thoughts and actions in certain
In Arthur Miller’s “Why I Wrote The Crucible,” he parallels the Salem Witch Trials and the Second Red Scare to criticize the prosecution of suspected Communists in the latter. During the Red Scare conservative politicians, most notably Senator Joseph McCarthy, claimed that Communists had infiltrated the United States government. They used the resulting hysteria as well as hearsay accusations to mar their opponents’ reputations. Likewise, in Miller’s The Crucible, spectral evidence – which is a claim
people that cause an escalation of emotion to arise. Miller uses these examples to adhere the similarities to form The Crucible. The conjoining parts to this play were conceived only for the idea of storytelling, but instead became something else as the dangers of mass hysteria evolved and became clear. The McCarthyism era was a time between 1940 and 1950s where senator Joe McCarthy became paranoid of spies and Communists hidden within his daily life. He used his power to speak out against the so-called
the creation of "The Crucible" in a lecture Monday afternoon. Miller's lecture, titled "History Around the Crucible" and delivered to a standing-room-only audience in the Science Center, focused on Congress's investigation of his personal life and his sense that he was living in "a perverse work of art." "In one sense," he said, "'The Crucible' was an attempt to make life real again." "The Crucible," a dramatization of the 1692 Salem witch trials, was written as an allegory for the "witch-hunt"
text, which allows enrichment of reading and understanding that can be gained from a text. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play which is a fitting example of this statement. This is due to the multiple references Miller has made to both the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and to the McCarthy era, the period in which the play was written. Although Miller states “this play is not history”, it serves as an allegory for both time periods and it was the appreciation I had for the historical and cultural context
The Crucible's Examination of McCarthyism Arthur Miller's play The Crucible has long been regarded as a seminal work offering profound insights into the McCarthy era—a period marked by fervent anti-communist hysteria and the relentless persecution of individuals suspected of harboring communist sympathies. Through an exhaustive examination of its characters, themes, and historical backdrop, this essay seeks to assert that The Crucible serves as a scathing critique of McCarthyism, laying bare the perils
Witch trials, Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible (1953) presents an allegory for the McCarthy era. The Salem Witch trials took place in Massachusetts (1692) and were based on a series of hearing and prosecutions of people that were accused of witchcraft. The play speaks to those who have lived under a repressing regime or a society where people questioned opinions, leading to executions and punishments. After the end of World War II, during the McCarthy era, the Americans embraced the same ideology
McCarthyism--a time of extreme anticommunism, lead by Senator Joseph McCarthy (McCarthyism). The United States pledged to contain the spread of communism globally, as well as locally, and did what it could to keep this promise. Americans began to fear that communism was leaking into the media, government, arts, schools, and other areas. This was called the "Red Scare" (Brinkley). One writer that used this era as a basis for his play, The Crucible, was Arthur Miller. He was able to capture the panic and mere
ever written: Inherit the Wind and The Crucible. These stories reflect the attitudes and personas of what was prevalent in the world at the time they were written. Inherit the Wind, written by Robert E. Lee and ___ Lawrence, has an array of characters that mirror the world during McCarthyism. The greatest similarity between Inherit the Wind and its historical context is evident in the character of Brady and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s personality. Joseph McCarthy exhibited a compelling style when orating