Many have said that history repeats itself. This has never been more evident then with the tragic events that happened with the Red Scare and the events in The Crucible. Both deal with mass hysteria and how accusers are given power and use that power for evil. In both the accusers look down upon the rest of the society and just accuse away with your accusing finger. What we learn from both of these horrible events is that we should never look down upon others or accuse someone of committing an "immoral crime" without seeing or never or hearing what really happened. There's no such thing as an "immoral crime" because everyone has different moral codes, what one person thinks is horribly wrong could be totally normal to another so there's no such thing as a "moral person". …show more content…
Nobody dared to contradict them out of fear, fear of being accused. Both Abigail and McCarthy brainwash society by saying we must purge our society of this evil made society believes that they were serving a greater purpose in both events people were blinded and Took in over by fear they were afraid of being tainted by the evil one they would have believed that their own mother/father was a communist year which is the finger of truth pointed that way The moral code was very strict in the 1950s and during the events in Salem is not followed you to have to deal with being communists are which and that would either get you killed hanged or
In the 1940 's and 1950 's, an anti-Communist movement swept the United States of America. Fueled by the anti-Communist actions of Congress, particularly a Senator from Wisconsin by the name of Joseph McCarthy, the movement escalated and many people lost their jobs as a result of various blacklists. Congressional hearings, both in front of HUAC and McCarthy Senate committee were a study in organized persecution. The actions taken during the "Red Scare" were eventually given the general name McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, there exists a common theme of adultery, a sin according to the commandments of the Puritan church. The stories center around the adulterers- John Proctor in The Crucible, and Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter. Both are members of early Puritan communities that are known for their very devout faith. Each character shows different reactions and feelings towards the sin, and each must face different consequences. A common theme that brings the two characters together is that they are given a chance to escape their sin and move on with their lives.
The Red Scare and The Crucible Backstabbing is the most painful thing you could emotionally feel. It was a common occurrence when it was displayed in The Crucible and during the Red Scare. People would walk around on a daily basis with a knife to their throats and were watched every day on what they would say. One slip up and their lives and careers could and would have been ruined.
While the Salem Witch Trials, the topic of Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, is one of the more famous examples of American witch hunts, many other witch hunts were equally as terrible, such as the Lavender Scare. The Crucible is a historical drama that begins with Reverend Parris finding his daughter, Betty, his niece, Abigail, and several other girls dancing in the forest. When Betty becomes very sick afterward, the townspeople begin to look to witchcraft as the answer, and Abigail begins accusing people of witchcraft. Similarly, The Lavender Scare involved the prosecution of queer people due to the short-sightedness of Americans from 1945-1960s. People during this time believed that members of the LGBTQ+ community could spread their homosexuality
Representations of people, events and personalities in both Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible 1953 and Percy Bysshe Shelley’s sonnet Ozymandias, reveal the composers personal agenda and effectively demonstrate this in relation to people and politics. Millers The Crucible is a classic parable of mass hysteria drawing a chilling parallel between the Salem witch trials of 1692 and the Congressional hearings of the McCarthy era which griped America in the 1950’s. Shelley’s masterful sonnet is a first person persona describing a meeting with someone who has travelled to a place where ancient civilizations once existed. Both composers even though they have varying contextual eras, both display similar ideals including those with power are deluded
Cameron Oldfield Mrs. Brincks English III 15 November, 2015 The Crucible and Red Scare Imagine being thrown in jail, blamed for something that you didn't do .The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a story about how certain propaganda and false accusations can ruin lives, just like in the case of the Red Scare. Although 1692 the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare were over 200 years apart, The similarities are striking. both trials used intimidation, fear, hatred, and false accusations to ruin innocent lives. Both trials resulted in terrible outcomes, with both ending with innocent people being put to death and shunned from society.
People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.
With all of the accusations going around, people were forgetting that everyone can have their own opinion. Edward R Murrow, a television host of See It Now bashed McCarthy by saying “’We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty’” (Roberts, 2). Murrow was saying that just because a person disagrees with what the president or a government official says, does not mean they are a communist. The United States has freedom of speech, and citizens can say whatever they want about the government.
The Salem witch trials proved to be one of the most cruel and fear driven events to ever occur in history. Many innocent people were accused of witchcraft, and while some got out of the situation alive not everyone was as lucky. Arthur Miller the author of The Crucible conveys this horrific event in his book and demonstrates what fear can lead people to do. But the reason as to why Arthur Miller felt the need to write The Crucible in the first place was because the unfortunate reality that history seemed to have repeated itself again. In the article “Are You Now or Were You Ever”, Arthur Miller claims that the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trials were similar and he does this through his choice of diction, figurative language, and rhetorical questions.
Often times there’s a point in a person’s life where one wonders if they’re crossing the red line when it comes to reaching their goals. When the lines a drawn and crossed, people suffer, much like the 20 sad souls who were executed in the Salem witch trials, or the 205 falsely accused state department officials. False accusations that ended and ruined people’s lives have been going on for ages like the examples before. Either for self-preservation or to cheat their way up, these things have always been embedded in human nature. Just like in Arthur Miller’s, The crucible, Abigail William’s false accusations propelled the community into its own demise, which also happened when McCarthy doomed 205 members of the state department with his accusations.
McCarthy created the uproar of having a ‘witch hunt’ on communists in America. His influence on the people gave him credibility when he accused those innocent people. “He cited 81 cases that day. He skipped several numbers, and for some cases repeated the same flimsy information. He proved nothing, but the Senate called for a full investigation.”(ushistory.org).
Almost every kid in school has read a passage or a story, and never really understood the purpose of learning the topic in school. The teachers expect us to do the work, and hopefully understand it, but we never truly understand why we learned such a topic or event. The Crucible is a prime example on what students read in school, or why we’re obligated to read the book. The crucible and McCarthyism have many similarities that many people over look, and don’t realize, and connects more than we perceive. Books like the crucible and McCarthy are historical events, many schools have very few books based on historical events, which is why teachers spend more time on them.
Miller’s purpose of The Crucible was to represent and mirror the social injustice under McCarthyism as people falsely accused each other because their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another. Although, around 1950-1954 the “innocent until proven guilty” clause existed, most trials and accusations were led by “guilty until proven innocent.” Despite Miller’s efforts to criticise people’s actions as
The Crucible Fear has effected much of history. Many of these events in history are very similar. One of the biggest examples in history would be The Holocaust. An example would be the Salem witch trails which were depicted in the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible and The Holocaust are related because one person was to blame for the mass hysteria, there was one person in power, fear was used to control the people and many people were wrongly punished.
In the play, The Crucible, Salem, Massachusetts, along with the United States during McCarthyism, is engulfed with paranoia. Although both situations include different causes, their effects are strikingly similar. For instance, throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is being shown repeatedly accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Her actions begin sending the small town into a panic as they throw people into jail and hang them in an effort to try and cleanse the town from any aspect of evil. Similarly, throughout 1950-1954, Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people within the United States Government of being a member of the Communist party.