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Mccarthy trials and salem witch trials
Salem witch trials and social psychology
Mccarthy trials and salem witch trials
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Throughout history, there was no greater pair than the McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials to see the full extent of the damage that can be caused through the usage of unsound accusations. The mob mentality of both groups of people ended with the loss of livelihoods and, in some cases, lives. In addition, both had specific similarities in their execution. Both involved a person, empowered by circumstance, with something to lose; innocent victims accused of preposterous things with little to no evidence; and followers that believed what they were doing was right.
The person empowered by the peculiar circumstances in Salem, during the trials, was the judge that passed judgment onto those accused of witchcraft. If the citizens of Salem discovered that the ‘witch hunt’ was a farce begun by young girls as a device for revenge, he would have been seen as weak to have been manipulated so easily by the likes of young girls. In the case of McCarthyism, however, the person who set the suspicion of communism also acted as the judge. What McCarthy had to lose was his social standing and the ...
The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were “bad” at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over “19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones”(Linder). “Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice”(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time. Joseph McCarthy was the U.S senator for the state of Wyoming from 1947-1957, the year that he died. McCarthy became the most visible face in public during the time of the cold war in America. “McCarthy pursued unnecessary investigations, imprisonments and unprovoked acts to those who were being accused of being a communist”(Glitterrich). The term McC...
In the 1950s, the Red Scare over Communist infiltration grasped America, turning friends against one another and prompting Communist accusations left and right. If accused, you could confess to Communism and accuse others, or face indictment yourself. This concept is quite similar to the Salem witch trials, in which accused witches were put in the same predicament. Written during the Red Scare, Arthur Miller produced a play called The Crucible, which uses the Salem witch trials as an allegory for the Communist hysteria. In this play, rumors of witchcraft stemmed from the boredom of a few teenage girls, and blossomed into an unprecedented hysteria. Accusations became widespread, and, since confession was the only way to avoid a hanging, confessions became widespread as well. When only a small group of stubborn resisters were left, the main character John Proctor had to make a difficult decision on whether he should confess or hang, and ends up hanging along with a few others to help save the integrity of their community. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that while some may view self-sacrifice as a pointless loss due to pride, the decision to sacrifice one’s life for the good of his community and the elimination of conformist attitudes is very noble. The enormity of this decision can instill a feeling of guilt and responsibility upon another, as occurs to the protagonist John Proctor, and can cause one’s views and actions to be altered.
similarity to the Salem witch trials. The McCarthy hearings are trials in which Senator Joe McCarthy accuses government employees of being Communists. He exaggerates and exploits the evidence and ruins many reputations just as the girls do in the Salem witch trials. The accused, in both cases, are used as scapegoats for society’s problems and the only way to escape direct punishment is to admit to guilt.
What do you fear in our twenty-first century society? Terrorism, inequality, losing your home, or injustice? Salem, Massachusetts during the seventeenth century feared injustices among the government. Individuals hid and lied to keep safe from being condemned as witches. This era of history is known as the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible explores the Salem Witch Trials while following the lives of several individuals. The fear and mistrust among the seventeenth century Salem society can be directly related to today’s twenty-first century society. Americans have lost hope and belief in their government creating individuals who are scared to stand up for what is right. Glancing into our twenty-first century world comparisons can be made among the Salem Witch Trial era. Today, compared to seventeenth century, realization of fear of governmental policies, erratic and chaotic life styles, and the condemnation of individuals standing up for what is right become evident and similar in both societies.
According to Miller, the political representatives in the United States were abusing their power. Senator McCarthy labeled and targeted many citizens of the United States as communists. After making “a list of two hundred and five people that were known as… being members of the Communist Party”, he went after them claiming they were unloyal to the US and that they were spies for the communist party. The abuse of power in the United States is demonstrated through the actions of the court in The Crucible. The court, consisting of Danforth, Parris, and Hawthorne, pursue the townspeople that are accused of being witches. They use their power to “try” people of their crimes, but real evidence that the person is a witch is never brought up. The way the people are claimed guilty or not was all up to the judgement of the court after hearing a testimony that may or may not be true. The comparison between the two is they both contain over powering leaders that make decisions based on unverified facts. Likewise, Herblock’s “It’s ok… we’re hunting communists” cartoon portrays how McCarthy took cha...
During the 1690’s in Salem, Massachusetts, one of the most disgraceful events in American history took place. 20 innocent people were sentenced to death on charges of witchcraft (Kortuem). At the time there was a witch scare sweeping across the North East of America in a time we know today as the Salem Witch Trials. The witch trials was one of the most shameful events in American history. In fact, it was compared to another event by a man named Arthur Miller. Arthur Miller was a playwright from New York who wrote many famous plays like Death of a Salesman, All my Sons, and of course The Crucible (Kortuem). In The Crucible, Miller was comparing the McCarthy Hearings at the time to the events hundreds of years earlier in the
The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.
Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, and The West Memphis Three, are all about people believing what others say out of fear of the unknown we know this because of historical examples, modern examples, and factors that contributed. McCarthyism, the Salem Witch trials and the west memphis three all had a fear of the unknown, and accused the people who were not like others because they were out of the ordinary. The West Memphis Three and the Salem Witch trials had more of a satanic panic, and were based in a very religious towns. McCarthyism was all over the US and was about fear of communism and spies. The salem witch trials occurred in the 1600's in the very religious town of salem. After a night of dancing in the woods a group of girls were bewitched,
The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are very similar in what they talk about during each period of time. The definition of McCarthyism is “a voracious campaign against alleged communists in the United States government. The first paragraph of McCarthyism states McCarthy spent five years trying in vain to expose communists. His words were so intimidating that only few people dared to speak against him. McCarthy insinuates disloyalty which is what convinced many Americans to believe that their government was packed with traitors and spies. When McCarthy won his election, he did so by criticizing his c
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 they are essentially breaking their relationship with God. Like everyone else in Salem, Danforth draws a clear line to separate the world into black and white. The concurrent running of the “Crucible” image also captures the quintessence of the courtroom as Abigial stirs up trouble among the people that have good reputation and loving natures in society. In a theocratic government, everything and everyone belongs to either God or the Devil.
"The McCarthy Era of the 1950's and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600's were major events in American history that destroyed the lives and careers of many innocent victims. These tragic events were similar in that they demonstrated how hard times lead to society's need to find a scapegoat. They also show the shame and regret that take place after the bloodbaths occur. The parallels between these two events, which took place almost 300 years apart, are remarkable."
During the 1950s, the United States was afraid of the communist party. This caused the U.S. to quickly judge anybody who was assumed to be a communist. A similar story was the struggle John Proctor had. John Proctor lived within a super proper society, with many of the people in it being superstitious with the Witch Trials going on. The Salem Witch Trials were filled with the lies of people being witches that would eventually destroy their reputations.
The McCarthy era is very similar to the Salem Witch trials. They are both similar, because they both dealt with hysteria. Hysteria is an uncontrollable fear or outburst of emotion. Both things had to do with people accusing each other of people being communist, and people being witches.
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 play “The Crucible” is an allegory for the McCarthyism hysteria that occurred in the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. Arthur Miller’s play “the crucible” and the McCarthyism era demonstrates how fear can begin conflict. The term McCarthyism has come to mean “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty”, which is the basis of the Salem witch trials presented in Arthur Miller’s play. The fear that the trials generate leads to the internal and external conflicts that some of the characters are faced with, in the play. The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society.