Arthur Miller wrote “The Crucible”, during the age of McCarthyism; because he felt like during that time they were going through the same motions as the Salem Witch Trials. Senator Joseph McCarthy coined the name McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the post-medieval witch-hunt. “The Crucible” can be compared with McCarthyism because of the fact that each was accusing others of crimes, witchcraft and communism, both of which are very hard to prove. Abigail Williams (Miller) and Joseph McCarthy can also be compared, due to the fact that they too would accuse people of crimes; based on what they heard or thought that they had heard.
Abigail Williams is a perfect example of a liar in Salem. The crucible displays how people accused others of witch craft just because they didn’t like them and not based on whether they were witch or not. We can witness this action by Abigail repeatedly. However, she does not only lie when accusing people but she lies to protect her own name, and she does so, so convincingly. ‘’She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer!’’ this is a quotation from Act 1 just after Reverend Hale’s arrival.
In the Salem Witch Trials, Sarah Good, Sarah Osbourne and Tituba were the first three women to be accused of witchcraft for allegedly afflicting Betty Paris and Abigail Williams, two young girls, with a demonic disease. They had been accused of witchcraft out of rumors about their “outcast” natures and eccentricities by other girls and were sent to jail despite any tangible evidence of their alleged connection with witchcraft. A spread of accusations arose within Salem following their arrest, most of which had their basis in rumor rather than on concrete evidence. During the period of McCarthyism, Senator Joseph McCarthy accused two hundred and five people of being “card carrying” communists in a speech in Wheeling, Virginia. He accused government employees,
By comparing the periods of the Salem Witch trials in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the era of McCarthyism in the film Good Night and Good Luck, I can say that these two periods were essentially the same, only the name of the threat was different. Also I can draw some parallels between the relationship between the Estonians and the Russians during nowadays. First similarity is the spreading of paranoia and terror among the society. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, people were afraid, that their fellow members of the society were witches. Terror and panic rose in the Salem community as the paranoia and terror about the communists did in the era of McCarthyism during the late 1940s to the late 1950s.
Moreover, when Reverend Parris confronts Abigail about being fired by Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail denies any wrongdoings. She accuses Elizabeth as “a lying, cold, sniveling women” who spreads rumor about to degrade her social status. Abigail’s motivation in the witchcraft is thus revealed, which is jealousy towards Elizabeth. As Abigail successfully frames other people for being responsible about the witchcraft, she further imposes her domination over the other girls. Her domination is demonstrated physically and verbally.
Because of the fear of witches, people tried to protect themselves by sending anyone slightly untrustworthy to jail or to Gallows Hill. Centuries later Senator Joseph McCarthy, like Abigail Williams spread fear. Unlike Abigail, McCarthy spread fear about communism during the Second Red Scare. McCarthy started by creating
Miller used the play to represent injustices that were going on at the time such as accusations that had no substantial evidence, an unfair assumption that the accused was guilty until proven innocent, and the tendency of Senator McCarthy to retaliate against any criticism against him an accusation of being a communist sympathizer. Thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or sympathizers of them during the McCarthy era. Many of these accusations had no substantial evidence to back them up. They were often simply put forth because the accused had differing or leftist, believes and did not simply conform unquestionably to the norm at the time, which was that Communism was the greatest
McCarthyism in the 1950’s was the practice of broadcasting allegations of political treachery or rebellion with inadequate regard to evidence. The events that took place in the 1950’s concerning McCarthyism are what inspired Miller to write his play on the Salem witch trials of 1692. The fear of repeating the horrors of the past pushed him to try and open the eyes of those who seemed to be following a dangerous path. The Crucible and McCarthyism both contain instances of false accusation, wrongly gained power, and mass hysteria. Similarly to the Salem witch trials, McCarthyism started in a time of great fear, but instead of fearing witches that made pacts with the Devil, the people of the 1950’s feared communism.
Compare the presentation of female characters in The Crucible, Othello and Enduring Love Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play set in Puritanical New England, 1692. Miller wrote the play as an allegorical statement against McCarthyism in the US. Abigail, one of the central female characters, was the previous mistress of John Proctor; the play’s protagonist, portrayed as a tragic, noble hero and therefore Abigail, who was his mistress who he no longer has feelings for, and causes him trouble, is bound to be seen in an inverted light to the one John Proctor is seen in. Certainly Arthur Miller goes to great length to use Abigail as the anti-hero to John Proctor’s noble, almost incorruptible (if it weren’t for his affair) figure. Miller takes the “woman scorned” approach to his character of Abigail.
Occurring in late sixteen hundreds, the Salem witch trials was a manhunt derived from greed and vengeance. During the 1940s and the 1950, a wave of paranoia and anti-communist sentiments consumed the nation. Headed my Senator Joseph McCarthy, the House of Un-American Committee arrested and questioned citizens about their past or resent connections to the communist party. In play The Crucible, the Salem witch trials serve as the foundation for Arthur Miller’s allegorical tale about the era of McCarthyism. At a first glance, many assume a direct connection does not exist between the play and the dark event in history, but analyzed closely, the Crucible parallels the events of the Red Scare.