Abigail Williams, from the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and Joseph McCarthy from the movie Good Night, and Good Luck directed by George Clooney are both really similar. The Crucible is about a man name Reverend Hale he found his daughter lying unconscious in the woods and asking Abigail, his housekeeper or maid, why they were in the woods and why did it look like a ritual then Abigail told him that it was witches. Good Night, and Good Luck is about a group of professional newsmen who with great precision remove a cancer from the body politic. They believe in the fundamental American freedoms, and in Sen. Joseph McCarthy they see a man who would destroy those freedoms in the name of defending them, but in reality he’s just paranoid. Because McCarthy is a liar and a bully, surrounded by yes-men, recklessly calling his opponents traitors, he commands great power for a time. He destroys others with lies, and then is himself destroyed by the truth. …show more content…
First,. she started the witch trials and accused everyone that she didn't like or knew about the lie of being a witch. She is a cruel and selfish person she says this to Mary Warren, Betty, and Susanna “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” this shows that she will do anything so she can be safe. The government of Salem would believe because they didn't know how to tell if they were lying. Anyone that was accused had the choice of either confessing to something they didn't do or to get
Crucible Essay The Crucible. A true story of a time of witchery and a poor court system today I 'm going to talk about the similarities and differences. But first a recap over the Crucible so first off the story opens on a fast note and shows our first character Reverend Parris him in an upstairs bedroom praying the narrator describes him as a suspicious man in his forties,One who often imagines that the world is against him. Later down the line we learn that they live in the town of Salem. The Crucible describes Salem as a strict Puritan way of life.
In both the play The Crucible and the film Good Night and Good Luck, the characters reflect the people during the Red Scare of the 1950’s and the Salem witch hunts of the 1600’s. Even though in different time periods, both events caused controversy and chaos that made people very afraid of having a communist or witch reputation. Both Edward Murrow and John Proctor are similar in the manner that they both fight against the government’s power. For example, Proctor was against Judge Danforth because he was accused of association with the devil, just like Murrow was accused of communism by Senator McCarthy. Both were willing to stand up against hysteria even if it would ruin their reputation.
The times back then were terrible. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953 about The Salem Witch Trials of 1692.McCarthyism was the “witch hunt” for the communist in 1953.the parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism are naming names,lack of proof ,and reststance. The first reason they are parallel is because of naming names. Hollywood director Elia Kazan went in front of the HUAC twice. The first time he did not confess and names.
In The Crucible, the normal social and moral order is completely inverted. Salem was a secluded village in Massachusetts that was a strict, theocratic, hierarchical, patriarchal society where power and morality were two incredibly important aspects within the community. The men of Salem held all of the political power in the community and their rule was strengthened not only by the law but also by the hypothetical approval of God. However, the Salem witch trials empowered several individuals in The Crucible who were formerly marginalized and powerless and similarly inverted the normal moral order in Salem by forcing the characters in the play to make a decision between adhering to or abandoning their fundamental morals in order to survive or
Do Abigail Williams and Joseph McCarthy share the same beliefs, behavior, and motives? Or are they completely different people with different characteristics? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail is a very important role in the book. In the movie Good Night and Good Luck Joseph McCarthy is a big part of that movie. Not only are they both very important, they are also rude and manipulative.
She accused Elizabeth of being a witch hoping she would be hanged in order to have John come back to her. She also set up Mary Warren using the doll she helped her make by sticking a needle through it. All of this started out with false accusations by Abigail, and people believed her because they were
When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.
“Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,” (Act I, 160). She was the first person in the play to accuse a person of seeing people summon spirits of the Devil. This caused a massive, wide-scale witch hunt to take place; families torn apart, mothers, fathers, and even children murdered for what was considered to be the greater good. Now, others began to accuse people of witchcraft and people who had been lifelong friends to each other now had no choice other than to point fingers at each other or be put to death. Widespread panic and unreasonable action was sweeping through everyone in Salem, all because of a little lie by
Senator Joseph McCarthy was a merciless politician who would be censured by the Senate in 1954 for his false accusations. However, his political journey throughout the country had a significant impact on the American public. Americans let fear override their conscious and allowed a bully to insert panic into their minds. McCarthy’s crusade was powerful and convinced the naive public during a time of war to question their own government without sufficient
McCarthy manipulated the media, told outrageous stories about the communist conspiracy in the United States, and used his power and America’s fear to besmirch any opponents as “communist sympathizers” to make sure he remained at the top. Actually, most conservative members of Congress supported McCarthy because it helped them gain votes during elections. The majority of McCarthy 's movement attacked liberals and members of the Democratic Party and this aided anyone who was not part of those topics and organizations. Then McCarthy began to target the Army because they wouldn’t favor David Schine, one of his former investigators, who had been drafted in. “Senator Joseph McCarthy began hearings investigating the United States Army, which he charged with being ‘soft’ on communism.
Fueled by fear, McCarthy’s false accusations affected Arthur Miller and had him blacklisted along with several artists like his friend Elia Kazan. Miller obtained plot ideas for the book from the Salem Witch trials and the era of Mccarthyism. Miller used Mccarthyism when Abigail and her friends were able to name people guilty just with their sole distorted statement. In the Crucible the character Abigail Williams a
Arthur Miller’s portrayal of a town in the midst of a downfall “The Crucible”, tells the story of how mob mentality and hysteria can significantly influence not only individuals but the whole town. This mob mentality leads to unthoughtful acts and false accusations. Two characters who demonstrate how mob mentality can lead to the demise of Salem are Abigail and Mary Warren. As Abigail begins to be accused she is pressured to deter from the truth. While Mary Warren gets pressured by Proctor to reveal the truth about Abigail, but the overwhelming pressure from the mob makes her turn from the truth.
The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because no one wanted to be punished or killed. In Document B, Act 1 of The Crucible, Reverend Hale arrives to see who is behind all of the witchcraft. When he asks the girls to give him, the names of the people they saw with the Devil. “Abigail: I want to open myself. I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus!”
By doing this, she was accused of witchcraft and put on trial in front of the whole town. Her kindness was also shown when she helped
However, records from the Salem trials show that her original convicted crime was not witchcraft, but having an “independence of mind”, and being an “unsubmissive character”. She was “…indicted for the bewitching of certain persons” and blamed for a smallpox outbreak that she had ‘caused’ by