Arthur Miller wrote the novel The Crucible as a way to reflect the state of hysteria the United States was in at the time. The novel was written during the time of the Red Scare, when people believed that there were communists inside the United States’ government. The fear of communism grew when Joseph McCarthy accused 205 people of being communist within the government, this is why many people refer to this hysteria as McCarthyism. In the novel, parallels are drawn between Joseph McCarthy’s accusations and the acts of a group of girls in a small puritan town called Salem. The girls throw false accusations of witchcraft towards people causing a mass hysteria within their town. These false accusations ruined the lives of the accused, imprisoning
In response to the second Red Scare, prompted by the accusations of Senator Joe McCarthy, Arthur Miller felt it necessary to express his political feelings through an author’s medium. Similarities are shown between McCarthyism and the Salem witch trials in the way Senator McCarthy gained power and control by inducing fear and hatred of communists in America, comparable to the fear and hatred of witches in the late 1600s. Miller shares that themes of paranoia and vengeance continue on even as society progresses, and presents The Crucible as an example to shed light on issues inherent with using accusations to gain power. With its ability to relate to a number of political situations in many countries, even as far as 50 years past its creation,
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953 during Senator Joseph McCarthy 's congressional investigations to root out suspected Communists in the State Department, the entertainment industry, and the US Army. Miller himself had been blacklisted after being accused of supporting communism. The Crucible mirrored by Miller of how McCarthy accused people for communism, just like the people in Salem, both McCarthy and The Crucible accused for revenge towards their enemy 's. One theme of The Crucible is that fear motivates people to do unspeakable actions. The girls in in Salem had fear towards the punishment that would happen if they were caught lying about conjuring spirits. Some of the girls faked to be in a spell out of fear of their
In 1953 Arthur Miller wrote the play, The Crucible. Arthur Miller wrote the play to display to the American people the inner workings of politics during the communist hysteria. Similar to U.S. politics, the people of Salem were accused of being witches, just as people were accused of being communists. The hysteria of witchcraft lead to many accusations and the death of 19 innocent people. The accusations made were motivated by personal desires of the accusers.
The amount of hysteria that Aruther Miller expresses through his characters in the crucible is more than relevant to what was going on at the time. Aruther Miller shows hysteria through many characters throughout the story. The characters I choose to focus on are Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor. The ways that he includes hysteria helped show the public how they were treating people at that given time. One of the characters Miller chooses to cause hysteria is Abigail Williams.
For many, The Crucible was just the next powerful and dramatic venture of Arthur Miller's work, but for Miller himself it was an urgent political and social statement. In the 1940’s and 50’s the cold war led many americans to fear and suspect that communism has taken over the United States. Senator Joseph Mccarthy was a famous activist of the Red Scare. The Red Scare was when people accused of being communists were blacklisted, One person who was accused of being a communist was Arthur Miller, a famous playwright. As a result of these events Miller was inspired to write The Crucible, which was during the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600’s.
A crucible is a metal container with a high temperature known to melt substances, but it is also defined as a severe test or trial. The Salem witch trials took place between 1692 and 1693, during this time a tremendous amount of people had been accused, executed, and prosecuted. The reason for these prosecutions was witchcraft. Many had been convicted of practicing the Devil’s magic. Young girls had been screaming, barking like animals, and dancing in the woods.
Injustice and hysteria are all too frequent in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, as people become convinced that false statements and accusations with insufficient evidence are truthful. The people in Salem fall victim to false preconceptions of guilt about those accused, making it almost impossible for the accused to defend themself. Now, they have to prove innocence on top of already having to defend themselves from further accusations. In The Crucible, Miller conveys the idea that people tried in court should be seen as innocent until proven guilty to prevent hysteria and preconceptions ruin a fair trial through the actions of Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Reverend Hale. Abigail Williams, the main accuser in The Crucible, plays a big
In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, Mary Warren, Abigail Williams, and Tituba, a slave, are instrumental in spreading the hysteria that resulted in the Salem Witch Trials. Throughout the play, Miller based the plot of his play on historical events and his characters show how paranoia and fear can escalate. Abigail Williams has a good sense of how to manipulate others and gain control over them. All these things add up to make her an awesome antagonist. She accuses Tituba for conjuring spirits which causes mass hysteria that blinded the people of Salem from the truth which is disregarded through the domino effect of accusations, the destruction of Salem, and death as the result.
Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.
Brook Mills Mrs. Brown English 10 11/03/15 Many individuals of Salem have to deal with everyday hysteria with many people accused of being a witch and being executed. Other than Abigail, three characters who are to blame for the hysteria in The Crucible are Judge Danforth, John Proctor, and Mary Warren. A character that contributed to the hysteria in The Crucible was Judge Danforth. He contributed to the hysteria because he sent men and women to be executed for no reason.
Collective Hysteria is a significant aspect in making and ending relationships. In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, hysteria displays a key role of tearing apart the community of Salem, Massachusetts by forming an environment where people act on their resent and hatred, which is exemplified by, the protagonist, John Proctor. Miller uses Proctor's internal conflict and logical fallacies to express his message of the harmful results of hysteria. Firstly, Miller uses Proctor’s internal conflict to forebode the harmful results of collective hysteria in the Puritan society.
How would you react to hysteria? Would you join or stay far away from it? In the 1960s people were accused of being communists. Arthur Miller publicly stated he was a communist. He was inspired by what had happened in the 1960s and personal experiences.
The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a story based off of a lot of main characters and scenes. The story itself is based off the salem witch trials hence the story is in the town of salem. The three categories of this story was mass hysteria where people believe things and all join in. Group think is how people together make decisions based on ideas in the group.
The Crucible is a story by Arthur Miller this story was released during the Mccarthyism era and is written to relate what is going on during Mccarthyism time and compared to what had happened during the time of the Salem witch trials. The setting or the crucible will impact the characters, the plot and the tone of the story. The setting of The Crucible affected the characters because during this period of time Salem Massachusetts was a Puritan colony. The Puritans were very strict people, for example on page 1154 of Arthur Miller's The Crucible Paris the town's Minister threatens to beat his slave Tituba “ You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to death Tituba” that statement says that the fact that Parris is going to whip Tituba to death if she doesn't do what he says and confess that he is willing to kill anyone who does not follow the rules. Another
Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.