Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

The Crucible, an allegorical play, was written by Arthur Miller because he observed and personally experienced events occurring in America during the McCarthyism Era in the 1950s that were similar to those of the Salem Witchcraft Trials in 1692. Now, there are various ways to how the Crucible and the McCarthyism Era are similar, these reasons being the strongest ones. McCarthyism and the Crucible both contained the idea of higher status people having the most power in these situations. To illustrate, Abby accuses the wife of a government man in the Crucible movie. Danforth tells Abby that she must be mistaken and that she should rethink about it again. Leading Abby to realize that she didn’t have that much power compared to what the court has.

For example, Arthur Miller (author of the Crucible) refused to give out any names and was punished in response by having to go to jail. Giles Corey, a character in the Crucible, also refused to give out the name who told Giles that Thomas Putnam was only supporting these trials because it would let him gain more land. This example shows the similarities between the two of them staying loyal to protect those that trusted them from harm. In the end, both trials started out of fear. The concept of detecting a new threat led to these trials and what brought them to the end (downfall). McCarthyism only began because McCarthy lied that communists wanted to give away national secrets, etc. Anything that leads to the privacy of citizens and the government. (It was never illegal to be a communist) This scared citizens and in response to the trials were overjoyed to know that they would soon be safe again. The witch trials also began the same way because these girls in the town were behaving unusually. They were out dancing in the woods and boiling hot water while throwing things inside it for a love spell. Which was found to be quite strange by everyone in the