After World War II drew to a conclusion, the long Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union began. In the 1950s, tensions ran high between America and its one-time ally, and fear of the Communists was widespread. Joseph McCarthy, a little known senator from Wisconsin, exploited the fears of the masses in an attempt to gain popularity and a good reputation. He declared that not only did Americans face the Communist threat overseas. McCarthy spearheaded an effort to rid the country of Communism in a mass movement called the Red Scare.
showing us that the thought of murder was already at the back of his mind. Macbeth could not have been as honourable and trustworthy as people believed him to be, given that if he had had but a shred of integrity, murder would have been the last thing on his mind. Macbeth is given prophecies by the witches and he is encouraged to act on these suggestions by Lady Macbeth, but he ultimately makes the choices to murder Duncan, Macduff's family and Banquo. The fact that Macbeth feels guilt, fears being caught and fears losing the throne reveals he has hidden anxiety. If Macbeth was truly at the mercy of fate, following the prophesise that was “set out”, he would have no difficulties in carrying out his crimes.
During the Scare, thousands of innocent citizens were accused of holding Communist sympathies, accusations which had little or no evidence to support them. Arthur Miller, appalled by the wide approval with which McCarthy’s actions were received, set about trying to convince the public of the spuriousness of the charges and attempted to reveal the greed and fear which motivated them. Realizing that any overt criticism would be rationalized by the public, he sought to describe another more removed event that would serve as a parallel to the Red Scare. Due to the striking similarities between the two events, Miller chose the Salem witch trials to represent the Red Scare in his play The Crucible. The impetus behind both the Red Scare and the Salem trials came from the innate
The Salem Witch Trials brought fear of being a witch in Puritan community whereas McCarthyism brought fear of being communist in US politics and society. It is difficult to believe that so much pain and fear can be spread by one person. However, that is the case with both the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. While Abigail Williams used the strict Puritan values as her reign of terror, Senator Joseph McCarthy chose the growing fear of communism. In both situations, it has been stated that the possible motive behind both “Witch Hunts” was the personal gain of their originators.
The accused had two options; either they “admit” to being a witch/communist and name others, or maintain their innocence and be hanged/blacklisted. It was all delusional. Miller was motivated to write ‘The Crucible’ while seeing McCarthyism take place. Miller used several different techniques to create tension in the first Act of ‘The Crucible’ as to capture the audience’s attention. For example in the first scene of ‘The Crucible’ where Parris is trying to get to the bottom of what Abigail, Betty and the other girls did in the forest.
The Crucible is said to be significantly related with McCarthyism during the early 1900s in America. Arthur Miller, the author of the play The Crucible was inspired to write about the late 1600s witch-hunting incident because of a massive hysteria that aroused McCarthyism to emerge in the 1900s. Joseph McCarthy was an American politician that became the Republican Senator from the state of Wisconsin played a major role in McCarthyism. In order to achieve the office, during his campaign, McCarthy announced false claims against La Follette who was the preceding Senator of McCarthy. During his office as a Senator, McCarthy claimed that there were numerous communist subversives and Soviet (Russian) spies in the federal government and elsewhere in the nation.
Salem, Massachusetts in the late 17th century was full of hysteria about witches casting spells, spirits being conjured, and the devil influencing the townspeople. Accusations of witchcraft, for personal vengeance, hurled fellow citizens into jail for eventual execution. The greedy were taking neighbors land once their innocent blood was spilled for crimes of witchery. John Proctor disliked the court’s lack of justice, and thought that the spreaders of the lies only did it to get what they wanted. All he wanted was for fair trials to be conducted and evidence to be looked for, because he was a very just individual and when a debate of who had authority he said “we vote by name in this society, not by acreage” (1.
Parris feared that Abigail’s increasingly questionable actions and the hints of witchcraft surrounding his daughter’s coma will threaten his reputation and force him from the pulpit. “Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my very character.”(12) His pride makes him cover up the truth about what he saw in the woods. Parris could have said something about what the girls where doing so people would not have assumed that the girls’ sickness was due to witchcraft. John Proctor also wanted to keep his good name from being destroyed. Early in the play, he had a chance to put a stop to the girls’ accusations, but his desire to preserve his reputation keeps him from testifying against Abigail.
The Red Witch Hunts: McCarthyism and Anti-Communists activities in Postwar America Cody Green APUSH Per. 2 Mr. Zuckerman 14 March 2011 The Red Witch Hunt Between the late 1940’s and the late 1950’s, America was living in a constant state of fear of communists influence in government institutions, espionage by soviet agents and international communism as a whole. Contributing to the suspicions and overall sense of fear shared by much of the nation was a new and upcoming senator named Joseph McCarthy whose anti-communists pursuits and unsubstantiated attacks on citizens suspected of being communists or of being communists supporters created the term coined for similar efforts. One of the most prominent examples of accusations that would be considered “McCarthyistic” throughout American history would be the Salem witch Trials. 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 three witches are to some degree responsible for Macbeth’s demise. In Shakespearean era, the people were increasingly preoccupied with witches and witchcraft. They acknowledged witches and their supernatural powers. Thus Macbeth Becomes by predicting that Macbeth will be king, prompting him to become king at all cost. Nevertheless, it is the innate evil in Macbeth that makes him curious about their predictions.