Compare And Contrast Mccacalare And Abigail Williams

Back in 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, the town was thrown into a state of turmoil. The town had their jimmies rustled by the simple, vacuous accusation of witchcraft. With the whole witchcraft craze of the seventeenth century, the town’s people began to accuse one another of witchcraft. Some accusations were legitimate, but most accusations were just made in pure vengeance for past disputes between one another. Jump three centuries later and the whole country was confronted with a similar issue. This event was called the Red Scare. With the Cold War in full steam, the American people were on edge and were paranoid enough to start accusing each other of being communists. Many people were convicted and found guilty of being supporters of communism. The government even went to drastic measures and put some of the convicted to death. These two events in history closely correspond with one another and serve to prove that history seemingly repeats itself. Arthur Miller utilizes a plethora of rhetorical devices to denounce the vacuous maelstrom that engulfed Salem during the Witch Trials and consumed the United States during the Red Scare. To begin with, information on the Salem Witch Trials is needed.

In each of these cases, both characters were antagonists and blatantly accused others of committing acts that were sought as wrong. Both of these people wanted to gain something from doing what they did. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams yearned to have John Proctor all to herself, so began her reign of terror in Salem. In The Red Scare, Joseph McCarthy accused people of communism to come off as a hero and gain fame for bringing the country’s enemies to justice. With his fame and attention he was getting, he hoped to gain a second term of being senator. Both characters, in the end, made themselves look like fools and were forgotten