The Crucible Significance

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Miller wrote this because of his communist “witch hunt” situation. Miller had ties with communist and was suspected of it. He was summoned to the House of Un-American activities because of his connections, by Joseph McCarthy. Miller was condemned for 30 days without any evidence to support that he had any connections with communists. This was very similar in The Crucible where witch trials took place. People were condemned for practicing witchcraft without any evidence to show. During Millers time period, a senator named Joseph McCarthy led investigations to identify individuals for having connections with communism. This was in common to the Salem witch hunt in The Crucible, where the authorities would

Miller was subpoenaed to testify before HUAC (The House of Un-American Activities Committee) (Johnson 32-33). Miller refused to give up the names affiliated with the Communist party, consequently he was convicted of contempt of Congress (“Arthur Miller and…”). Miller was sentenced to prison, but an upper court changed the decision. His act of bravery and defiance seemed similar to his character’s behavior from The Crucible. From there on out, Miller was a vocal political activist on many issues (Johnson

A paradox is a statement that appears to be self-contradictory or obvious but may include a hidden truth. It is also used to illustrate an opinion or statement contrary to accepted traditional ideas. Authors often use paradoxes in their works to make them more interesting. In the play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller presents the audience with a paradox, which he developed from the Salem witchcraft trials. In the small town of Salem, a theocracy was created for good purposes. However, the need and want of individual freedoms drove people to go against each other. Theocracy was built on the idea that the unity of the Puritan community was based on the exclusion of anyone who did not conform to the community. The characters lie and tell the truth, but lying is what gets the community of Salem into trouble. The play begins with lies

The Crucible. A true story of a time of witchery and a poor court system today I 'm going to talk about the similarities and differences. But first a recap over the Crucible so first off the story opens on a fast note and shows our first character Reverend Parris him in an upstairs bedroom praying the narrator describes him as a suspicious man in his forties,One who often imagines that the world is against him. Later down the line we learn that they live in the town of Salem. The Crucible describes Salem as a strict Puritan way of life.

In one's journey to power, individuals manipulate people and situations for political advantage. This view is reflected in Arthur Miller's 1953 play, 'The Crucible', an historical play based on events of the Salem witchcraft trials, that took place in a Puritan society in Massachusetts in 1692. Similarly, Kevin Rudd's 2008 speech, apologising to the indigenous Australia communities for past government policies, stemmed from a need to right past wrongs. Both texts explore how individuals and groups often manipulate political situations to serve their own ends and coerce others.

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.

Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953. Arthur Miller wrote the play because he was inspired by McCarthyism. McCarthyism was the hunt for communists that was taken too far. In The Crucible he presented a universal message. He was comparing how communists did exist and witches did not, but yet they were both taken as serious. He was explaining how if anyone stood up to the witch trials in Salem, 1600s they would face immediate arrest, the hardest interrogation and possibly even the rope. People who were even thought to be communists would be trialed with un-American activities. Miller wouldn’t have written The Crucible if he wasn’t trialed on un-American activities. Witchcraft is the beliefs and practicing of magic spells to create unnatural happenings. A crucible is a metal container that is used to melt metals and separate valuable metals from the less valuable ones, it can also be a severe test of life. The title of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible is symbolic to both these terms. In act one of The Crucible, Abigail Williams was the most responsible person for the hysterical witchcraft in Salem.

The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are very similar even though they took place such a long time from each other. If someone was accused of witchcraft in 1692 they had to confess and lose all social standing or be executed, in the 1950’s if a person was accused of being a communist they would be fired and put on trial, if they would not confess they were blacklisted until they admitted to their “crime”. Arthur Miller used the Salem Witch trials to protest McCarthyism in a somewhat discreet way that proved to be a timeless comfort to the citizens experiencing oppression from their government (“Why I Wrote The Crucible”, 911).

In 1953, Arthur Miller wrote the famous play The Crucible, in response to a fear of Communism The “Red Scare”, was led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was afraid of communist takeover. The Crucible a play in which Arthur Miller changes some events of the Salem witch trials of 1692 to the problems that were happening in his own society. In this essay we’ll see the ties between The Crucible, McCarthyism , The witch trials and Puritans.

History is bound to repeat itself. Events in history can always be parallel to modern examples. This is a frequent occurrence and it is natural progression of history. Of course these parallels aren’t flawless. As such making a social commentary alluding to one event through the perspective of another may require some invention of facts. Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible is one of these social commentaries. Many critics and even Miller himself has stated his play was an allegory for the McCarthy’s red hunt. He feared the red scare, and such writing a play directly on the subject would’ve been dangerous. Miller wrote an article on why he wrote The Crucible, and he references the thought process in which people were undergoing.

Arthur Miller’s main purpose in writing The Crucible was to show the similarities between the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Trials and to warn against government propaganda. At the time that The Crucible was published, America had a huge fear of communism. Anyone accused of having ties with the communist party was shunned. It much resembled the Salem Witch Trials in how the government, or leader of the time, used fear against the people to gain power. For example, Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Reverend Parris in how they both lead the people into the belief that there were intruders in their mists that had plans to sabotage the community.

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. The new decision led to a cyclone of accusations because people realized the possibility of their condemnation regardless they were guilty or innocent. Many helped that system by untrue confessions to save their lives. Miller, among others, refused to surrender to questioning. People who were revealed communists suffered greatly (Bly 2-5).

Although, many people that were condemned weren’t actually apart of the Communist Party, (under McCarthyism around 1950-1954) they got blacklisted or lost their jobs. This social injustice is also portrayed in The Crucible as its characters face the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as his own reaction to the injustice of McCarthyism. Miller’s purpose was to show how people accused each other with false denunciations because of their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another under McCarthyism.

The poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband", and parts of the play "The Crucible" have many similarities. In the poem Bradstreet states her love for her husband, and how she'd rather not live than live without him. For example, she says, "That when we live no more, we may live ever." This statement shows how much love she has for her husband, and how she couldn't go without him. This relates to "The Crucible" because both of the stories show their love for their significant other. For example, in "The Crucible" John Proctor cheats on his significant other Elizabeth; when Elizabeth finds out she is livid. This scene shows that Elizabeth cares about John's actions very much. Both of these scenarios lead me to conclude that the stories have many

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,