(Miller 150) Abigail uses her envy of Elizabeth’s marriage to john and resorts to name calling to persuade john to come to her. The Evil practices and sins will cast chaos in the town of Salem from one person. For the most part, Abigail Williams stirred up drama and made her move by accusing Goody Proctor and changes her behavior constantly to ruin Elizabeth’s marriage.
In Arthur Miller 's play The Crucible, false accusations and fear are used to imprison and kill many people accused of being witches. In this way, The Crucible stands as an allegory for McCarthy 's communist hunt, during which many people were also killed and imprisoned due to accusations of communism. By comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials, Miller is able to communicate that people should not conform to societal trends because these trends may be misleading and cause innocent people to get hurt. Many characters in The Crucible serve as allegories to McCarthy 's communist hunt, specifically Abigail Williams, Giles Corey, and Betty Parris.
During the Witch Trials, Parris’ teachings also revolved more around Satan and a person’s sinful ways. Lastly, the final effect of the Salem Witch Trials was that it affected many individuals personally. Reverend Parris’ reputation became so horrible, they voted him out of the church. Then, John Procter was convicted of witchcraft and hung. Meanwhile, Abigail was driven out of town and thought to have become a prostitute in Boston.
The play is about human weakness, hypocrisy, and vindictiveness. In each paragraph these traits will be further explained. The first trait is human weakness. This appears man times throughout The Crucible.
Why point a finger at someone, when four are pointing right back at you; history continues to repeat itself over and over again. The Salem Witch Trials were a time when Puritans turned on their own kind, accusing them of witchcraft. This continuous accusation turned the Puritan’s well-being upside down. Over hundred years ago, the Red Scare occurred and people with higher states were getting accused of being named Communist. These allegations have been just as ruinous as being called a witch throughout the 1800’s.
In the book Night by Ellie Wiesel there are many words that can describe the horrible events that went on during the Holocaust. There was a tremendous amount of evil that the Germans displayed during this time period. One of the most soul opening quotes from Ellie was, “Yes, I did see this, with my own eyes … children thrown into the flames" (Wiesel 51). The people in this book that committed these crimes were always so corrupt. It is extremely wrong to kill any person, but it is especially wrong to kill babies that still have so much more of their life to live.
Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials.
He also defends himself as he was faced with scrutiny and backlash for his role in the Witch Trials. Many believed that he is one of the few people that “fueled the fire”. Mather’s talks about how the Devil became irate after the Puritans descended onto his territory. Satan then sent forth legions to extinguish the threat of God’s wrath. The witches of Salem, in this case, were the Devil’s instruments of destruction.
A witch hunt is seen as an intensive effort to discover and expose disloyalty, subversion, dishonesty, or the like, usually based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692 and recounts one such witch hunt. During this time, witches and conspiring with the devil were frowned upon by the Puritan church, and were the cause of much fear and suspicion. The Salem Witch Trials were a product of this fear and uncertainty that eventually overwhelmed the village for more than a year. Miller wrote The Crucible during the time America was concerned about the rising power of Communism in the Soviet Union on the heels of World War II.
Back in a time where everything is black or white, good or evil, one is either with the church or a witch this leading to the persecution of those against “good”. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller the belief that the church is always right and evil is always lurking caused many to die due to fake accusations. The church, wanting to help, begin to kill of those who were considered impure. There is a danger in having a profound belief in something, one becomes close minded and with time carry on actions that contradict that very belief.
When present, fear can often be exploited for one’s personal gain. The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, which exemplifies the power of fear due to the imaginary idea of witchcraft in the small village of Salem. During the time this play was written, the United States was overcome by the fear of communism, which had led to the government accusing many innocent people for ridiculous reasons. Miller uses The Crucible to show how many of the accusations in the Salem Witch Trials, a similar event, often had underlying, selfish, and personal reasons behind them. In the play Abigail Williams, and Thomas Putnam’s take advantage of the pervasive fear in the village, allowing them to fulfill their selfish and exploitative motives which are what truly fuel the Salem Witch Trials.
The Salem witches and McCarthyism are two of the most shameful moments in modern U.S. history. A great play writer named Arthur Miller decided to make a statement about McCarthyism and Salem Witch Trials; he did this through an impactful play called the Crucible. McCarthyism, named after Joseph McCarthy, was a time where actors, writer, and poets had accusations of being Communist. If you were accused of being Communist, you were called before the court. If denied these accusations you were blacklisted.
One of the main causes of the salem witch trials was the belief in the Occult. The puritans strongly believed in the existence of witches and warlocks or things from the underworld. All of these creatures were blamed for all of the bad things happening to their crops and lives. Due to this belief, they were inclined to make some of the most improbable explanations to the situations that were occurring. Multiple cases were filed after the 9-year old Elizabeth and 11-year old Abigail were diagnosed.
How Paranoia and blame Affected the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy hearings In the 1690’s, a wave of fear for the devil washed over Salem, Massachusetts, resulting in the accusations of 200 supposed witches and the execution of 20. Almost 200 years later, after World War II, communists were highly feared. The strong urge to stay away from communists led to the McCarthy hearings where many innocent people were accused and tried for being communists. The Salem trials and the McCarthy hearings have many ties, the two closest being how paranoia highly affected the actions of individuals related to the cases and that the only way to save one’s self was to blame others.
People were so full of fear that they would do anything to eliminate their anxiety. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950s reenacted the hysteria of the Salem witch trials of 1692 by spreading mass fear of prosecution, creating false accusations, and blacklisting people. The Salem witch trials were considered to be America 's most notorious episode of witchcraft hysteria. Many innocent people were killed as a result of false accusations, and many other women were put through trials to determine if they were witches.