The Salem Witch Trials In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

In 1692 two hundred people were victims of witchcraft. Hundreds of years later in 1952 even more people fell to McCarthyism. Arthur Miller, an American playwright, wrote The Crucible to demonstrate how history was beginning to repeat its self, Like for instance in the Salem witch trials people were being accused with no evidence, and during the McCarthy Trails it was the same thing, there was no evidence to show that people were actually communist. The McCarthy Trials were and unfortunate series of events; however, Miller uses the Salem Witch Trails to connect the events through setting, main events or parts, and lastly through characters. In the 1950s Americans feared Communism was approaching. The Soviet Union was becoming more and more powerful everyday, and the thought of a nuclear war was in the back of everyone’s mind. Some European countries were

The victims were expected to name names of those who were part of the Communist Party, if one failed to do so they were penalized for disobeying. In act three of the crucible those who were accused were put on trial, the court had already assumed they were guilty. The accused was asked to name the names of people who were working for the devil. If the accused gave names they were spared, however, if one failed the accused would be sentenced to death. Another example would be during the McCarthy Trails Jospeh McCarthy made claims against people in the United States government that Communism was infiltrating the US, he had no proof. During the Salem Witch Trails the girls made claims against the townspeople about witches infiltrating Salem, they had no proof either, just stories. Both examples are connected to McCarthyism because one, people were penalized for not naming names, and two there was no evidence to support the ridiculous accusations made by paranoid