Fear In The Crucible Essay

The threat of Communism and the Red Scare put fear of group mentality into many people during the late 1940-50s.   The authors of 1984 and The Crucible used their respective works to comment on the social injustice going on in their own lives, which connects to injustice the exists throughout time anywhere in the world. Miller wrote his play, set in 1692, about Puritans and the Salem witch trials because he believed that, similar to his trial for HUAC in the 1950s, the trials in Salem were caused by false accusations and mass hysteria led by powerful individuals. In 1984, Orwell creates a world in the near future that shows group mentality and its threat to conform society with the government.

During times of crisis and danger, what are some common human beliefs and behaviors? In the 1950s, people in America were living in fear of McCarthyism. As communism began to spread in Europe and China, the US government began to blacklist random people that are suspected to be communists. McCarthyism, also known as the “Red Scare”, is a political campaign proposed by Senator Joseph P. McCarthy that aimed to expose communists in the US government. During the period of McCarthyism, thousands of innocent people were being accused as communists and lost their jobs.

Senator McCarthy denounces more than two hundred government workers for being card-carrying communists. However, with the concerns of communism increasing in the East Asia and Europe, he believes that these accusations are justifiable due to the communists who allegedly infiltrated the U.S. government. “Known as McCarthyism, the paranoid hunt for infiltrators was notoriously difficult on writers and entertainers, many of whom were labeled as communist sympathizers and were unable to continue working” (213). These accusations are unjust to the people who are not actually communist sympathizers, it is difficult for one to speak up against these falsities. Furthermore, in The Crucible Francis Nurse explains to Danforth how the girls are just pretending.

Crucible Synthesis Essay The idea of ¨witchcraft hysteria¨ is still around in today 's world, it goes back to the Puritans hanging people for practicing ¨witchcraft¨, McCarthyism, and racial gun violence across the United States. This can be seen through these events, that fear is the main cause of the world 's uncontrollable emotions. One, such as racial gun violence brings in a lot of heated contention due to it being considered one of the worldś most uncontrollable issues today. Therefore, that is why todayś ¨witchcraft hysteria¨ is very violent, due to the cause of racial gun violence across the United States.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Miller uses one of his main characters, Abigail, to cause fear among the townspeople due to witchcraft. Abigail takes advantage of everyone's fear, and gets the townspeople to turn against each other or to take her side, however in the end the results are disastrous as 19 people are left dead and many remain in prison due to the accusations. Arthur Miller does this to demonstrate to his audience the dangers of using fear to motivate an audience to confront a threat. On the other hand, Franklin D. Roosevelt uses the Pearl Harbor incident to cause fear among his audience. Roosevelt uses his audience's fear of being attacked unexpectedly, like the Pearl Harbor incident, in hope to persuade them to support the war and volunteer to go to war, and the result left over 100,000 military personnel dead at the end of the war.

In order to better understand the correlation between The Crucible and to Joseph McCarthy’s claims, we must better understand the accusations of McCarthy. Joseph McCarthy took on an aggressive campaign towards communism, he made several accusations that government workers were secretly communist. Although he never proved these accusations he provoked hysteria and paranoia which led to negative impact on politics and diplomacy. Soon after, McCarthyism became a term to describe accusing without evidence.

Can the fear of people control the way certain things and events are looked at? In 1950 a nationwide historical campaign called McCarthyism took place. The campaign was against alleged communist in the U.S government and other institutions and accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence which was carried out by Joseph McCarthy. The primary targets were usually union activist, government employees, educators, and entertainment industry. Many people people lost their trust in others, causing a new outlook on life while relationships were destroyed. McCarthyism was caused by the fear of the people due to past events.

The crucible is defined as a severe trial of test, which not only happened in Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, but also in Miller's life. Arthur Miller wanted The Crucible to symbolize McCarthyism. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s McCarthyism was prominent in America and is known as the paranoid hunt for infiltrators who were communist sympathizers. Writers and entertainers were mainly targeted because they have a lot of influence in society and were used an example. Targeting writers and entertainers showed the people that the government wouldn't sympathize with anyone who supported communism and shook fear into the town.

In the Crucible many “[people were asked] to confess themselves”(Miller 140, hard copy) Seldom did they not confess. If they refused to confess they were considered to be a witch and were executed or jailed. During the Mccarthy Era, if people were accused of being a communist and questioned, some would often plead the 5th amendment. To many McCarthyist, they considered this “positive proof that the person being questioned is a communist”(Victims of McCarthyism).

Throughout the 1950’s, there was a threat of Communism taking over America called the Red Scare. Arthur Miller concluded to write an allegory for the Red Scare and make it into a play. The play exemplifies bits and pieces of the Red Scare. During this period of time, people were being accused of being communist. Everyone was blamed and no one was safe.

According to the article, “he had alleged 57 communists work in the state dept. Americans have been inclined to believe the worst even without evidence.” In other words he is just pointing fingers at people and had no corroboration at all. Americans had already

When you are blacklisted this meant for many that their promising careers would terminate. The Crucible is a story about a town accusing people of being witches if you were found to be a “witch” you were hang. After learning about McCarthyism, it is apparent that people had many ulterior motives for their actions, also conflicts and groups of people become apparent. McCarthyism shed light to my eyes that there was more to Salem. Many people had ulterior motives their motives profited themselves.

During the Great Depression, hearings were conducted by congress to investigate suspected communists. This is where McCarthyism came in play and completely ravaged the lives of individuals or organizations that were rumored to be communists. Most of the rumors were biases and rarely had hard evidence against them. According to the author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, this is another repeat in American history where mass hysteria occurred and threaten people’s freedom and reputation. There is no question that information could not be

The Trials of 1692 were a perfect way for Miller to express his thoughts about the hunt for communists in the U.S. as Americans let fear control them causing fellow neighbors to suspect each other and ignore one another 's civil rights and as stated by History.com “ the Red Scare – is often cited as an example of how unfounded fears can compromise civil liberties”(History.com “Red Scare”) . The attitude of the 50 's also helped to play a vital part in how Miller came to choose to write about the trials as Americans branded communists were as stated by History.com “hounded by law enforcement, alienated from friends and family and fired from their jobs. ”(History.com “Red Scare”), Miller lived in a world that was teetering on the edge of fear.

This paranoia led many Americans into accusing other Americans of being communist. This