Comparing Mccarthyism And The Crucible By Arthur Miller

McCarthyism period took place over the years The Crucible has been written and significantly impacted Arthur Miller’s thoughts while writing the book. The Crucible was seen as a modern-day witch hunt story in the McCarthy period. McCarthyism means the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversions without any evidence. Joseph R McCarthy made false accusations while being senator and charged people for being communism. Both McCarthyism and The Crucible by Arthur Miller are connected because paranoia is evident and innocent people are accused. It is clear that Arthur Miller was influenced by Mccarthyism while writing The Crucible because both include accusations of wrongdoing against innocent people and an attempt

Joseph R McCarthy made unconfirmed request of more than 200 members of the communist party had slipped into the United States government however he had no proof. He said “I have here in my hand a list of 205… a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party… working… in the State Department” (American History Henretta 108). Abigail Williams was considered the commander over the other girls because she willing to accuse others to keep her name safe. She cries in an outburst at the end of Act 1 saying “I saw Sarah good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Miller 1262). After Tituba confesses, Abigail decides to chime in saying the Devil has come to her too. She did not get punished since she did not call the Devil, all her sins were forgiven she called out a list of people and accused them for being witches. The other girls decided to nominate other people with false charges. Both of these situations possess elements of lying, mass hysteria and

The people in both situations become paranoid throughout both times. An example of McCarthyism that shows the people overthrowing democracy is “It is a challenge, at a time when men are faced with perhaps the cruelest and most violent enemy in all the history of Christendom, the Red Communists who today Europe and in the Far East and all over the globe are taking such a toll of freedom, democracy, human life, and liberty…” (how do i do this CITATION?). This explains the devil as “the cruelest and most violent enemy” and the “red communists” as the witches. Salem could also be known as their whole world in The Crucible. (Get help with explaining the quote). In The Crucible Abigail and the girls get sick at the trials which causes panic. They wanted to make the townspeople believe the person getting accused was asking the Devil to make them sick, however the girls were just pretending to be sick for attention. They wanted to create hysteria and wanted to overthrow the democracy. The accusations caused people to have awful reputations and caused them for tension to grow which created more