The Crucible and McCarthyism

A detailed Summary of The Crucible and McCarthyism


In the late 1600's, a tragedy fed by lies and personal grudges swept the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This tragedy was called the Salem Witchcraft Trials, where 20 innocent people were put to death based solely on the accusations of others. These others were also just girls who tried to save themselves by blaming others. After the injustice had been done, another "witch hunt" wouldn't occur until about 250 years later. However, these new "witch hunts" weren't for witches at all, but for the modern-day threat of communists in our government. Just like the old witch-hunts in Salem, the hunt for communists in the government resulted in many innocent people being wrongly accused and arrested. Though these events are separated by 260 years, the accusations and trials that followed are very similar.

In The Crucible, the accusations were made based on feelings of greed, vengeance, jealousy, and fear. In addition, most of the people accused were people who were different from the group, or who looked different in some way. Also, if anyone dared to speak out against these charges, they were likely to be accused of witchcraft themselves. In the McCarthy-era, The kind of people targeted were likely to be left-inclined me


In both the Salem witch-hunts and the House Committee on Un-American Activities' hearings, friends were turned against each other in the prosecution of an unseen enemy - Lucifer from Hell, and Uncle Joe from Moscow. The judges of the Salem witch-trials were harsh and unfair toward the alleged witches. They found almost everyone who was accused of witchcraft guilty, yet the only evidence they based these convictions on were the "eye-witness" testimonies of the girls. The punishment for those deemed a witch was death by a rope, unless they confessed their crime. However, many did not confess because they new the truth, and if they gave in to church and its lies, then this tragedy may have never been righted. In the McCarthy-era, juries were much like the judges of Salem. Countless numbers of people were unscrupulously jailed and had their careers and reputations ruined. This placed a fear on society that discouraged anyone from speaking what they think for fear of being put on the blacklist. Anybody who spoke against the actions of McCarthy was in return, accused of being "soft on Communism." Coincidently, when The Crucible was copyrighted, Miller himself had been called before a Congressional Committee in order to testify his political beliefs.


Some common words found in the essay are:
Witchcraft Trials, Jews Miller, Arthur Miller, Joe Moscow, Salem Countless, Abigail Williams, Joseph McCarthy, American Communist, John Proctor, , salem witch-trials, committee testify political, political beliefs, testify political, committee testify, judges salem, mass hysteria, accused witchcraft, innocent people, arthur miller, accused people, testify political beliefs,

Approximate Word count = 852
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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