Arthur Miller links his play The Crucible to the events occurring during his lifetime, especially those during the 1950s. He tells the story of a single community during the time of the Salem Witch Trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Miller uses his play to link two completely different events together that share similar outcomes and consequences. He also utilizes the trials to help emphasis the hysteria of events that occurred during the Cold War. Miller cleverly uses his play to emphasis his feelings on the Cold War and to symbolize one event in particular: the Red Scare in which multiple ties can be made throughout the play to this time in history.
Miller’s The Crucible is set during the 1600’s in Salem. Salem was a town that was focused on Puritanism and God. The community within Salem that Miller sets up was then plagued by an outbreak of witchcraft. Witchcraft was considered to go against everything the Puritan Church stood for leaving the top authoritative figures within the community a large problem. They believed anyone associated with witchcraft was of the Devil and should be executed. This created pandemonium within the community leaving friends to turn against friends, family against family. The storyline created by Miller in the play directly resembles the events that occurred during the Red Scare and the idea of McCarthyism.
The idea of McCarthyism was started by Joseph Raymond McCarthy. He took communism and decided to make a larger deal out of it than was necessary, creating what is now known as “The Red Scare.” During this phase, McCarthy tried to seek out those who were associated with communism or were loyal to the Communist Party. He would use any force necessary to find those who had any ties with the party or could possibly (even if there was not justifiable evidence). Many lost their jobs due to the “Red Scare”; others were imprisoned if they were even considered slightly suspicious. McCarthyism put a damper on the legitimacy of the...