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witch hunts i the crucible
reflection about McCarthyism
witch hunts i the crucible
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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. In 1994, two Rwandan tribes were fighting each other to the death. One was called the Tutsi tribe and the other was the Hutu tribe. These clans differed only slightly. The Tutsi were taller, had darker skin, and wider noses. The Hutu were shorter, had lighter skin, and thinner noses. This was the difference between them yet they fought for about 3 months until nearly half of the Tutsi were slaughtered. What a happy story. But anyways, what do these two things have to do with one another? They both dealed with witch hunts of sorts. The Crucible literally was about the witch hunts. In the Rwandan Genocide, Hutu were hunted down like the ?witches? were hunted during the Salem witch trials. Though both of these things talk about the same basic idea, there are many differences s...
Besides similarities between “The Crucible”, Salem witch Trials, and the McCarthy Era there are differences. The Crucible/ Salem witch trials had people being hung that were believed to be witches compared to people just being put in prison when they were accused of being a communist in the McCarthy era. Also, anyone was able to charge someone else in “The Crucible” where during the McCarthy Era Joseph McCarthy was the one charging people, and no one else had any say about who was charged.
The Crucible is a play that was written in 1952 by Arthur Miller. This play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, where witch trials were held in 1692. Miller is able to combine nonfiction and fiction in order to make this story dramatic and entertaining. A few decades after The Crucible play was published, a movie version was released. There are various differences between the book and the movie version. The movie added various scenes, elaborated on others, as well as omitted some scenes. The movie expressed Arthur Miller’s book in a very dramatic and exaggerated way. It made the reader have a better understanding of some points in the book and emphasized ideas more clearly, such as jealousy and hysteria.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, focuses on the Salem witch trials and the extreme behavior that follows the trials. Miller shows how the dark desires and hidden agendas provokes such extreme behavior. The Crucible was written in a time when the anti-communist movement was strongly protested. During the Salem witch trials, a person was guilty until he proved himself
The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, is based on the actual people of the Salem witchcrafts trials. Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the early 1950s in response to experiencing his own modern “witch trials” in the United State. During this time, the panic of Communism has arisen in the United Stated and Senator Joseph McCarthy convinced himself that the American government was slowly being taken over by communists. He began hunting them out, forcing them to confess, and getting them to name their associates, which is very similar to the events in Salem witch Trials. Although Miller researched on the historical records of the Salem witch trials, The Crucible displayed many historical inaccuracies regarding
The Crucible is paralleled directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s. The story of The Crucible takes place against the background of the Salem Witch, trials but the themes lie much deeper. The main themes expressed in The Crucible relate to the events that occurred at both the Salem Witch Trials and during the McCarthy era. At the Salem Witch Trials, one hundred fifty people were accused of practicing witchcraft and nineteen of those were convicted and executed. The evidence against these people was hardly substantial. At the McCarthy hearings, thousands of people were “blacklisted.” Anyone who tried to oppose the accusations was also viewed as a Communist. No one was convicted due to the more advanced legal system; still, that did not erase the fear that was instilled by the allegations.
In my opinion, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible takes two of the worst moments in American history, and uses them to demonstrate the pressure on people from society, to conform. Miller takes the Salem Witch trials and uses them to reflect on the McCarthyism period. By using religion as a sort of substitute for politics, Miller was able to see the similarities between the McCarthy era and the actions of the Puritans in Salem. Each event was just as cruel and merciless as the other, and even though the Salem Witch trials had occurred over 200 years before The Crucible was written, by using it to mirror the McCarthy era, the spirit of persecution was re-awoken. Just as McCarthy considered everything “Un-American” to be Communist, the Puritans in The Crucible thought everything un-explainable to be the work of the devil, and in both cases, the authorities demanded conformity.
The Crucible is a novel based on the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts, written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible demonstrates forbidden temptation between John Proctor and Abigail Williams, honor and dishonor in the town of Salem, ruthless revenge, and the strive for high social status. The narrative style of this play is standard 1950s everyday language. The Crucible is set in a theocratic society of Puritanism in 1692.
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.
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.
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.
Today, most people know witch hunts as something that happened in Salem, Massachusetts in 1693, but what most people do not know is that they are still happening today and causing major violence in communities around the world. The Crucible is a book that shares the events that happened during the time of the Salem witch trials; although centuries have passed by, qualities of modern witch hunts can be seen throughout this book. Which brings us to the question, how do modern day witch hunts compare to the witch hunt shown in The Crucible?
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.
A crucible is defined as a container made with metal or refectory material used for heating substances to a high temperature, but it can also be defined as a severe test or trial. So, how do witch hunts relate to both definitions? Back in 1641 England made witch craft a capital crime, so in 1692 when Abigail Williams claimed that she had seen women in her village working alongside the devil you can only imagine the hysteria and problems that came along with the false accusations and the beliefs of the puritan lifestyle. So this brings us to the point of how lifestyle and the social norms form witch hunts. It seems to be human nature to fear what we do not know and with fear comes hysteria which leads to mob mentality that causes mass amounts of people to put blame on those who they have known for a long time. This blame ruins the lives of many people, and people in modern society, even though many have learned about the Salem Witch Hunt, do not think that we have modern day witch hunts and that brings us to assumptions.
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, illustrates the dramatic and somewhat fictional side of the Salem witch trials. Although this took place in 1692, many of the elements of the situation are found in everyday high school drama. The cliques and relationships in the play relate this story to high school life today. Sexual relations, jealousy, betrayal, and friendships are key elements that shape the story.
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.