Unspeakable Actions In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Period4 The Crucible Essay Communism and Witchcraft have the same effect on humans, that effect is fear, when you hear fear you think of your worst nightmare or someone hiding in your closet, during the McCarthyism era and the salem witchcraft people had fear about whether their life is on the line or not. It all depended on one person in their community whether or not they choose to save their life. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because the girls feared Abigail just like everyone feared J.McCarthy, Elizabeth being accused is similar to McCarthy accusing the US Army, they are innocent just like Elizabeth. Both McCarthy and Abigail accuse innocent citizens of being apart of something evil. Accusing others of evil is a main part of the McCarthyism era and Abigail accusing others of in the book The Crucible.

Later in the story Tituba under the pressure of the court confest which ignited a hunt for witches. in both the salem witch trials and the red scare people where both paranoid of something. At the time of the witch trials the people were afraid of evil spirits, and the devil if you were accused of being a witch you would lose almost everything you owned. With the power of the church the people of Salem where easy overpowered by Propaganda and hysteria, with this people started so claim any was a witches for power, land, and even political strength. “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”( Arthur Miller.)

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.

In salem the accused were communist and the accusers are McCarthyists. So john proctor the hero of Arthur Miller’s story is the equivalent of a suspected communist and at the time was a cold war. The crucible was a tragedy because almost the whole town was accused of being a witch or having dolls in their homes which made then think they were doing something with the dolls to harm someone else. The children were often accused if you were related to the person being accused then you were tried as a witch. The kids that were hanged didn’t really understand why the were being hung because they do anything wrong.

Fear uses deception to increase prejudice towards the opposing idea. This type of propaganda was used in the play when Abigail, the protagonist of the story threatened the other women when they were opposing to her ideas and accusations. She threatened them by telling them about her history, and what she was capable of. Also, this was used often by the Court themselves. They used fear in order to convince people to confess to witchcraft.

People fear of things they don’t know. This fear can grow to a size that people start to get rid of the subject of the unknown and sometimes it can end up a Salem witch hunt or McCarthyism. There are many people that use lies to get what they want and there are even more people who would believe in those lies. That is the case of Abigail in The Crucible. It starts when she is lying to save herself from being accused of practicing witchcraft but after some time she is starting to use power of the fact that others believe in her lies.

The crucible essay The crucible is a book by Arthur Miller published in 1953. The book was based on puritans which are very religious society and also the Salem witchcraft trial. In the crucible witchcraft accusation developed fear and tension between the Salem residents. This fear is covered by anger turned to vengeance towards one another in the community. Before the play begins, Abigail Williams and john proctor has relationship which results being dismissed from her job as a servant.

She starts accusing people that she doesn’t like of practicing witchcraft, including Elizabeth Proctor. Elizabeth Proctor is John Proctor’s wife, and Abigail doesn 't like her because she wants to be with John, who she had an affair with. Abigail thinks that by accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft Elizabeth will be killed and then she can finally be with John. During these witch trials, many other people were accused and blamed for things that they did not do. It was mostly because of Abigail and her friends were lying about innocent people doing witchcraft.

In Lameman’s terms, it was a method to expose supposed communists who infiltrated the United States. McCarthy was notorious for making false allegations and accusations to attract attention to his policy, brainwashing Americans into believing their country was being intruded by communists. A large majority of McCarthy’s accusations were backed up by little or next to no evidence, “HUAC’s circuslike investigations and unproved accusations left a trail of shattered reputations and broken lives”. This was seen especially in the case of Air Force Reserve Milo Radulovich, who was discharged from the force due to supposedly having family who were Communist sympathizers. When trialled, a sealed envelope was present with supposed evidence but was never opened.

So people like writers, intellectuals, and artists are a major threat to Stalin. They could try to sway public opinion of Stalin being a perfect man through their works. So Stalin censored their work and arrested them. The poet Osip Mandelstam was one such writer and was arrested for reciting his famous anti-Stalin poem Stalin Epigram to his circle of friends in 1934. Another example would be theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold who was arrested in 1939 and shot in February 1940 for supposedly spying for Japanese and British intelligence.

How Paranoia and blame Affected the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy hearings In the 1690’s, a wave of fear for the devil washed over Salem, Massachusetts, resulting in the accusations of 200 supposed witches and the execution of 20. Almost 200 years later, after World War II, communists were highly feared. The strong urge to stay away from communists led to the McCarthy hearings where many innocent people were accused and tried for being communists. The Salem trials and the McCarthy hearings have many ties, the two closest being how paranoia highly affected the actions of individuals related to the cases and that the only way to save one’s self was to blame others. During the strange events known as the Salem witch trials, paranoia was

The McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials accurately represent the saying, "Desperate times call for desperate measures." In the 1950s, the McCarthy hearings tainted lives by falsely accusing those in the film industry of being associated with Communism. In the 17th century, the Salem witch trials charged innocent villagers of practicing witchcraft. Victims from the McCarthy hearings were isolated and ruined, while victims from the Salem trials were hanged and shunned. People were so full of fear that they would do anything to eliminate their anxiety.

Both situations spiraled out of control because of ignorance and the use mob mentality. A person who sympathized with Communists was persecuted, just as if someone tried to defend the accused witches of Salem. Parallel to the Salem Witch Trials, the McCarthy Trials accused hundreds of innocent people of being Communists without any proof. Like Salem, if the accused confessed to communism, they would be blacklisted from their community, but not jailed. Sir William Phips was the Governor of Massachusetts at the time of the salem Witch Trials, and he refused to stop the trials until one of the accusers targeted his wife.

Some innocent people were afraid that they might be accused of being an extremist. State and local police, military intelligence, private detective companies, and federal agencies like FBI formed and acted as law enforcement agent groups to target against foreigners, radicals and labor unions. McCarthy and his team accused many individuals of being communists and many Americans lost their jobs due to the accusations. The situation of fear and panic instigated by McCarthyism led thousands of Americans to sign loyalty oaths, many innocent people were imprisoned and some of the foreigners were deported from the

Tituba also afraid of facing consequences blames someone else. This blaming caused a domino affect, all started by Abigail Williams. In act one in The Crucible, Abigail Williams was the person for creating disorderly witchcraft in Salem. Abigail lied about herself to stay away from punishment, Betty also revealed that Abigail was partaking in