Miller saw this as being intolerant of differences in society and being questioned. In the play Danforth illustrates the main role of intolerance. He, being so high in the church/court, refuses to let his authority be questioned, causing many innocent lives to be taken even after he realizes that he has been wrong the entire time. Millers connection with intolerance in McCarthyism and the witch trails is incredibly clear and well focused. Danforth is intolerant of his authority being questioned, therefor he refuses to listen or reason when Proctor, Parris and Hale try to explain what Abigail has done.
Miller uses this mass-hysteria to comment on his own similar experience during the 1950s. Through The Crucible, Miller is able to draw a comparison between the hysteria of the Salem witch-trails and its modern parallel of the anti-communist witch-hunts which occurred due to the HUAC-House of un-American Committee, which were led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; who with the help
It makes perfect sense as to why Miller wrote The Crucible allegorically to these events, 1953 was a time in which American fear and madness concerning communism was frankly getting out of control, just as the experiences in Salem were in the 1690s. The Crucible is a historically fictitious adaption of the Salem Witch Trials which as previously stated, was an episode of unjust accusations of witchcraft/devil worship carried out by a group of female teens. In the play, the group of accusing teens is led by girl named Abigail Williams. In order to refocus the “heat” on another source in order to save herself from trouble, her and her peers wrongfully stage a phenomenon of witchcraft in Salem, producing mass panic in the community for months on end. It got so bad in fact, that at one point Abigail implied that even the official court judges could be guilty of wicked doings; “Let you beware, Mr. Danforth.
I think everyone of us has an obligation to make a choice which would be good for the whole, yet do not infringe upon the rights of a person. For example, in
The Burden of Human Freedom Human freedom is our ability to do what we want to do. Being able to make choices, with absolute indifference without any external effect on it. But is it a burden? In my paper, I disagree with the idea presented by the Cardinal, who suggests that human beings are not capable of handling the burden of free will. Free will is a big responsibility, and the cardinal's argument justifies the fact on why man should not be privileged with this.
Jessica Ramirez Mrs. Whalen Honors English III 27 September 2012 The Horror Beneath the Truth “In 1692 nineteen men and women and two dogs were convicted and hanged for witchcraft in a small village in eastern Massachusetts” (Miller, vii). This quote signifies the insanity behind events occurring during the seventeenth century in Salem, openly recognized as The Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, is a play written to express and acknowledge what happened during the Salem Witch Trials and the truth behind the citizens convicted of witchcraft. The Crucible was written to compare events of the Salem Witch Trials to the events occurring during the Cold War in which thoughts were summarized into one belief known as McCarthyism. McCarthyism beliefs were established by Senator McCarthy in which he stated that citizens found suspicious of being a communist or having any kind of association with the Communist Party deserved to be punished (Firy).
McCarthyism closely resembles the witch-hunting era of the 1600s portrayed by Arthur Miller through his piece of literature, The Crucible. Around the 1950s when McCarthyism seemed to be slowly emerging from the darkness to the minds of the people, a concept of a “blacklist” was also surfacing amongst the government parties themselves. A blacklist is basically a long list of names of people who are accused of being part of a communist party in America. Due to being blacklisted, people lost their jobs, economic values, and many other privileges that they previously had before being blacklisted. Similarly, The Crucible has shown its readers how
Throughout the years, witchcraft has been the common fear of mankind. In England, the legal definition of a witch was “a person who hath a conference with the devil to consult with him or to do some act”. In early modern Europe, women were thought to be witches due to their biblical association with the devil, the superstitions and misunderstanding of the people of Europe, and the negative perceptions of those who deviated from the social norm. As a result, these beliefs and superstitions led to the death of thousands of alleged witches. (Witch Hunts) Witches were thought to be consults of the devil who gave up their bodies and led others away from the church for the devil in exchange for otherworldly power.
The Salem witch trials were a series of court hearings conducted in the New England colonies, more specifically colonial Massachusetts, to prosecute individuals with what was once a capital felony, of witchcraft. The prosecutions and trials were characterized by mass hysteria, lapses in due process, governmental intrusion on individual liberties and unsupported and/or false accusations. This climate of irrational fear and demagogic attacks shares many similarities with the anti-communists activities spearheaded by McCarthy during the Second Red Scare. The similarities between the two have been noted by many authors, journalist and playwrights alike in contemporary interpretations of the fear of communism and in post war America and to criticize the tactics
You don’t understand? Ah, what a pity!) Besides, she strongly discouraged Stella to get along with this common man because of his primitiveness and rudeness. And she always used some offensive expressions like ‘vulgar’, ‘Polack’ and ‘animal’ to describe Stanley. Nevertheless, social hierarchy was not welcomed in the News Orleans anymore.