Summary “The Devil in Massachusetts: A Modern Enquiry Into the Salem Witch Trial” by Marion L. Starkey is a historical novel based upon facts of people and events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials. The format of the book is a narrative, with dialogue from actual trial records. The trial records are applied with a modern psychiatric knowledge, surrounding the witchcraft hysteria. Starkey recreates the sense of pity and terror that surrounded Salem and the suffering that many innocent people endured during the time. “The Devil in Massachusetts” presents an account of the accusers, accused, prosecutors and defenders surrounding the trials at Salem.
The natural instincts of humans to attack minority groups in the midst of fear and paranoia have repeated numerous times throughout history. The events portrayed in Millers “The Crucible” based upon the Salem witch hunts mirrors the anti-communist regimes during the mid 20th century. Fear, suspicion and paranoia fuelled the hearts of the villagers, dominating over logic leading to the witch hunts of Salem. Through the hysteria and chaos, Abagail claiming to be “God’s finger” manipulated the court and people of Salem to believe in the existence of witches. History then repeats itself through McCarthyism-the anti-communist period.
A crucible represents the events in the town because it suggests how the town is boiling due to all the incidences going on within the society and how the court is trying to purify Salem of witchcraft and evil. The poppet represents the witchcraft within the play, because these types of dolls are connected to voodoo and other superstitious deeds that the Puritans considered evil. As it was found in the hands of the accused Elizabeth Proctor, they immediately concluded she was associated with witchcraft, this is obvious when Ezekiel Cheever says “’Tis hard proof! I find here a poppet Goody Proctor keeps.” When Abigail accuses Mary Warren of sending her spirit out to harm her in the church, Abigail uses the symbol of a bird and relates it to evil when she says “Why do you come, yellow bird?” Throughout history, bird
Political Witchhunt of the 60s ( McCarthyism ) Research Essay Political Witch hunts of the 40 - 60s has always been a discussive topic throughout years. It involved with many other occasions that happened during the Cold War between the United State and the Soviet Union in McCarthy Era. There are many different opinions about the affects of it, wether it should be considered as recklessness or a great movement, on society and politic in the middle age, but it’s undeniable that it was “ indeed for the purpose of weakening the entire political opposition to the Cold War against the Soviet Union.” (The McCarthy Period) After World War II, Americans' fear of Germans and Japanese was transferred onto the communist Soviet Union. Eventhough
Julius Rosenberg worked as an engineer in labs for the Army Signal Corps in 1940, but was soon fired due to the United States fear of the new communist party. Rosenberg was previously a member of the party and was said to be have brought in by the spy Semyon Semenov who was known as a threat to the U.S. (Kostin) Rosenberg was first in question when Harry Gold was arrested in 1950 for being named when the U.S found out about major documents given to the Soviets during the war. Gold then named David Greenglass, brother of Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg. David went on to pass blame on the Rosenberg’s for being accomplices. David
Witch Hunting 10.May.2014 Psychoanalysis and Art/Society Witchcraft in Central Europe Between the years of 1470-1750, a panic emerged form European societies regarding the alleged witches amongst their midst. Consequentially, large scale witch hunts, especially in Central Europe gained prominence and resulted in the trial, torture and execution of tens of thousands of victims. While there were, unarguably, male victims accused of witch craft, the vast majority of victims where female. Since then, scholars have linked these horrific events with the gender correlated persecution of women. Ties between femininity and witches have also been viewed from psychoanalytic perspectives to provide commentary on the attitudes toward women that
This was supported by the work of Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose extensive and often criticized work in searching out Communists in the US Administration and more general society created a hysterical fear of Communism throughout America. Beginning in 1950, but continuing until 1954, McCarthy, in his role as a United States Senator, carried out a huge number of high-profile investigations into the lives of American citizens, both public and private, and
Loyalty Security Program’s views towards Communists McCarthyism was a political movement that made accusations against Communists, named after Senator Joseph McCarthy. This era was during post-World War ll from the late 1940’s through the 1950’s. McCarthyism focused on the Communist party which was a threat to the American government. Many other Americans’ were worried about Stalin and the Communist party in Russia. The executive branch of federal government created a Loyalty Security Program which President Harry S. Truman had written as the Executive Order 9835.
On February 9, 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy launched his crusade against "communism" as he saw it. The speech delivered in Wheeling, WV was infamous for its reference to members of Congress who McCarthy accused of being members of the Communist Party. The insinuation was that these men were silent enemies working in favor of the Soviet Union for the downfall of the American government and way of life. In the Wheeling speech, McCarthy played on the Cold War and Red Scare fears (fear of a communist takeover) by asserting that the communist world, particularly the Soviet Union, was in a showdown with the democratic nations led by the United States. He charged that there were 205 communist spies in the state department who were selling out the United States.
The Crucible Aurthur Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory to the "witch hunts" of the Communist party in the 1950s. Much like Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Joseph McCarthy turned the blacklist of Communism into fear for many people. An allegory is a written work that tells one story but refers to another. Miller's The Crucible writes of witches and black magic to convey the story of an illegal and frustrating assault upon those who embrace Communism. Miller's literary work exposed both intense and disturbing times in American history.