Comparing Mccarthyism And Communism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible is a famous play produced by Arthur Miller in 1953, which is about a witch hunt that took place in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, but Arthur Miller talks more about McCarthyism and Communism in 1950s in this play by founding many parallels between the House Un-American Activities Committee”s crusade against supposed communist sympathizers and the seventeenth- century witch-hunt in Salem, Massachusetts. So in fact, although The Crucible is a play about the Salem Trail, it is more about McCarthyism. And because of its historical background, McCarthyism relates and effects The Crucible in many ways.

First of all, to make The Crucible have a stronger connection with McCarthyism, Arthur Miller fictionalizes the play, even though the play is based on a historical events that took place in

“ Miller was liberal in his fictionalization of those events. For example...; however, in real life Williams was probably about eleven at the time of the accusations and Proctor was over sixty,which makes is more unlikely that there was ever any such relationship....what I was doing was writing a fictional story about an important theme.”( The Crucible by Arthur Miller 1952 1) As everyone knows, the “important theme” that Arthur Miller was writing about was the “Red hunt” and McCarthyism. Although The Crucible is a fictional play, it is spirited by these special historical events. McCarthyism is term from Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Cold War, which destroys the Communist Party and threaten human rights. According to Stephanie Curiwick’s War and Red Scare 1940- 1960, “ World War II and them the Cold War dramatically affected the party’s fortunes.... Some of the Washington State leaders were imprisoned, other went underground.” (Stephanie Curwick 1) And by comparing the Salem Trail and the Red Scare, people are all asked to testify against others. “ Expelled from the Communist Party in 1947, Eugenne Dennett also became a key witness