Andrew Marini
The Crucible is a play about the Salem witch trials of 1692. It follows the town of Salem Massachusetts that has gone in to panic because of fear that people in the town are witches. The play serves as an allegory to the Red Scare. Arthur Miller wanted to make a powerful statement about the dangers of hysteria and dehumanization that can result from fear. In The Crucible and the Red Scare they used common components like guilt without proof, profiling, and mass panic/hysteria.
Guilt without proof was used in both The Crucible and the Red Scare. Guilt without proof is one person’s word against another no real proof. In The Crucible Abigale accuses Elizabeth Proctor and Marry Warren of witchcraft. In the play Abigale says that “one night, stuck by a pin, Elizabeth Proctor created a poppet and sticking it with a pin to harm her”. Abigale also accuses Mary Warren of witchcraft she says the “Mary has sent her spirit out to try to harm her”. During the Red Scare the McCarthyism: In the 1940s and 1950s Americans feared the encroachment of Communism. The Soviet Union was growing in power and the threat of a nuclear holocaust was on the forefront of American minds. Eastern Europe had become a conglomerate of Communist satellite nations. Throw in China and Americans began to feel they were surrounded by a Communist threat. Paranoia ensued.
The Crucible: Salem established itself as a religious community in the midst of evil. Salemites considered the forest the domain of the devil. Salem was surrounded by forest. Paranoia ensued.
McCarthyism: Joseph McCarthy, U.S. Senator, made unsubstantiated claims thatSimilarities between McCarthyism and The Crucible
501px-Joseph McCarthy
McCarthyism: In the 1940s and 1950s Americans feared the encroachment of Communism. The Soviet Union was growing in power and the threat of a nuclear holocaust was on the forefront of American minds. Eastern Europe had become a conglomerate of Communist satellite nations. Throw...