ipl-logo

The Crucible Dbq Essay

1085 Words5 Pages

The Crucible, is a play written by Arthur Miller and it was first produced on Broadway in January of 1953. This play came out during the same time period of Joseph McCarthy and the hysteria of the Red Scare. The Crucible is mainly about the Salem Witch Trials and the hysteria of the people that were being hanged just because they were accused of being guilty of witchcraft. The Red Scare which is also known as McCarthyism was solely based on the claims of Senator Joseph McCarthy and how he believed that over 200 communists were working in the State Departments. McCarthyism is the political practice of making public accusations of betrayal without having any evidence to back it up. During this time period, Joseph McCarthy was just one of the …show more content…

During the Salem Witch trials, people could only be proven guilty through testimony of the witch's “victims” or through a confession from the Witch herself. This is because witchcraft is not assumed to be an “ordinary crime” and it is an “invisible crime" which means that there are no witnesses (Doc D). This led to a lot of innocent deaths because people would just lie to save themselves and also if they did not admit to participating in witchcraft they could also be killed so a lot of innocents died because they did not admit they were witches. In the play Abigail Williams and the girls accused half of the town for witchcraft without having any concrete evidence for it other than they saw them “with the devil”. During McCarthyism, people were also punished because if they were accused of being communists they were blacklisted and outcasted even though they said they did not do anything and were not associated with communism. There was no way to prove that they were not communist and so all they could do was take the punishment and also give out more suspect names. This basically shows how in The Crucible and in McCarthyism they showed a lack of proof and that people were blamed solely on accusation which is not reliable. Also because of this, people ended up …show more content…

It shows mass fear and hysteria in The Crucible from the townspeople in the courts where they accepted all the absurd claims that the girls gave on witchcraft. An example of this is in Act III when Mary Warren says that the witchcraft claims are not true and that it did not happen but Abigail and the girls instead blame Mary Warren for witchcraft and everyone believes them. They were all really scared during this time and they believed all the things the girls were saying even though they were absurd. During McCarthyism the same thing happened and people were full of fear and hysteria. This took place after World War II and Americans were filled with the fear that communists would take over America and so they believed in all the events that happened because of their fear of communism. Joseph McCarthy’s claims on communism also intensified the public's concern for Communists in America and it made more people start accusing government officials. The media during this time was also not doing anything to stop the hysteria because they believed that if they stood up to McCarthy they would be accused and suspected of being a Communist and they were too scared to go through with that. We can now see that fear can do awful things to a person’s decision making skills and that people are far more likely to agree with something when they

Show More
Related

Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

655 Words | 3 Pages

The Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller and he discusses dreadful events of the witch trials that took place in Salem in 1692. Arthur Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials to represent the McCarthy Era and to show connections and parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism. The Salem witch trials were many different hearings and prosecutions of people being accused by a group of girls of witchcraft which caused distress in the community. McCarthyism was also popular at this time. “McCarthyism represented a prolonged effort (1948–54) to expose and root out domestic communism.”

Read More

The Salem Witch Hunt During The Cold War

436 Words | 2 Pages

During the height of the Cold War, Americans were extremely fearful of Communism. Like how witches were construed in Salem, Communists were viewed as an omnipresent threat to the country. In both instances, neither was widespread, but fear caused people to act as if they were true dangers. It led people in both instances to accuse others, without evidence, of witchcraft or Communism. In the McCarthy Trials, the outcome had already been decided: the person was a Communist.

Read More

Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

592 Words | 3 Pages

The Crucible is a playwright of the Salem witch trials that was written by Arthur Miller as an allegory for McCarthyism in the 1950s. Allegations from the characters in the Crucible very closely related to the claims made by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both situations caused mass hysteria that contributed by the people of Salem and McCarthy. The accusations of McCarthy caught the attention of many people and the US Federal government. Communism during this time was frightening because the US was apart of a cold war with the Soviet Union.

Read More

Similarities Between The Crucible And Mccarthyism

771 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written in response to the abuses of power under McCarthyism, a period in the 1950s when the United States government conducted a witch hunt for supposed communists. The play draws parallels between the Salem witch trials of 1692 in Massachusetts and the Red Scare and its investigations in the 1950s. McCarthyism led to the false accusations of thousands of people, and those accused lost their jobs. Similarly, the Salem witch trials had false accusations that led to the deaths and imprisonment of hundreds. We can see another parallel in more modern situations where people use their power to prosecute others.

Read More

Examples Of Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

872 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible, written by playwright Arthur Miller, is an accurate representation of the Communist Red Scare. The play is a metaphor for McCarthyism; the act of falsely accusing without any evidence. It is written based on the Salem Witch Trials, a time during the 1600s when men and women all over Salem, Massachusetts, were being wrongly prosecuted for practicing witchcraft. In both history and the play, many innocent people were proceeded against for a crime they didn’t commit, being communist. Even though the fear of being accused of communism was widely known, and not one person would dare to commit such a crime, many guiltless individuals were charged anyway.

Read More

The Crucible Dbq

666 Words | 3 Pages

One parallel between McCarthyism and The Crucible is that immense power was given to those who accused others. McCarthy’s unsubstantiated claims ruined the lives of many people living in America, and the girls’ unsubstantiated accusations ruined the lives of many people living in Salem. Both McCarthy’s actions and the girls’ actions led to increased hostility and hysteria. In both instances, the accusers could accuse anyone they wished to accuse, and they did not have to show much or any evidence; their claims were unreliable and erratic. This is portrayed in Documents B and C.

Read More

Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

672 Words | 3 Pages

Miller wrote The Crucible as a response to the McCarthy era and the witch hunts that characterized it. He saw parallels between the two events and used the play as a way to criticize the unjust prosecution of people without evidence. In The Crucible, characters are accused of witchcraft based solely on hearsay and rumors. Similarly, during McCarthyism, individuals were accused of being communist sympathizers without any concrete evidence to support the claims. In “The Crucible '' Rebecca Nurse is accused of killing Ann Putnam's babies with witchcraft.

Read More

Argumentative Essay On The Crucible

955 Words | 4 Pages

The crucible is a historical fiction text that is well known throughout the world and is a staple in English literature. In 1952 Arthur Miller, a popular writer in the 50s, set the stage for a dramatic act of the Salem Witch trials. Miller wrote this play not only to shed light on the tragedy that is the Salem witch trials, but also a subject that hit closer to home for him; the red scare. He wrote the essay “Why I Wrote the Crucible to educate his readers and viewers on the true purpose of the story.” Miller explains in his writing through logical historical examples, comparisons to the Red Scare and McCarthyism to the Salem Witch trials through strong illustrations of personal experiences.

Read More

Similarities Between The Crucible And The Red Scare

767 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

Essay Comparing The Crucible And Mccarthyism

906 Words | 4 Pages

When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

Read More

Enemies From Within Speech Analysis

462 Words | 2 Pages

Senator Joseph McCarthy was a merciless politician who would be censured by the Senate in 1954 for his false accusations. However, his political journey throughout the country had a significant impact on the American public. Americans let fear override their conscious and allowed a bully to insert panic into their minds. McCarthy’s crusade was powerful and convinced the naive public during a time of war to question their own government without sufficient

Read More

Fear Of Corruption In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

807 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

Read More

The Crucible Dbq Essay

608 Words | 3 Pages

The Soviet Union was on the verge of a nuclear war, so McCarthy put fear in everyone because no one had any idea who was a communist and who was not. He made everyone afraid to trust people, even the friends other had. They were afraid that they would be accused

Read More

The Crucible Pros And Cons Essay

462 Words | 2 Pages

The main accuser during this time was Joseph McCarthy. The people who were accused were just everyday people. Joseph McCarthy said that he knew people who are members of the communist party working for the government, he may have done this because he didn’t like those people. This scared everyone, primarily because during the years that followed WWII everyone feared communist. So after McCarthy made these statements, it almost made like a ripple effect by having everyday people, being accused of people that “suspected” that they were communists as well.

Read More

How Does Arthur Miller Use Dramatic Irony In The Crucible

696 Words | 3 Pages

This demonstrates irony due to the fact that many (if not all) of the accused were convicted of witchcraft with no proof, other than simple testimony and hearsay. The Court became a follower and just went with whatever the accusers were saying, even with the lack of proof, and that was fine with the Court. One would expect that the Court would accept their own witnessing of John Proctor’s confession, but the Court decides that they need proof. This idea can be transferred over to the 1950s in the United States, where instead of witchcraft, it was Communism and Socialism. A person who even somewhat agreed with Communism and used their 1st Amendment rights to convey their idea could be discriminated against and blacklisted from many jobs, and even if they were not a Communist, the same could happen even with little to no proof, just as the supposed witches are in The Crucible.

Read More

More about The Crucible Dbq Essay

Related Topics

Open Document