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The Red Scare And Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Imagine being an innocent person accused of being a communist and jailed. In the article about McCarthy and the Red Scare, Alan Brinkley states how the Red Scare started rumors that affected the way people acted. Alan Brinkley states in the article, “The Red Scares were fears when government officials and other groups promoted a fear of communism in the United States, which would overthrow capitalism and democracy” (Brinkley). The government starts to fear that there were communists in the United States and they do not want it to cause anything bad for the country so they start to accuse people and jail them. When the Red Scares starts to happen everyone starts to be afraid because they do not want to be part of the rumors and have connection …show more content…
The play is by Arthur Miller who wanted to base the play according to the witch trials in Salem. In Salem, rumors go around about a group of girls pretending that everyone is a witch or has something to do with witchcraft. The girls are accused of dancing in the woods which makes them tell rumors about everyone else. Rumors go around and make people act differently because the rumors are affecting their lives and families. Some people even get hanged or jailed for it. In summary, the rumors about Abigail accusing people about being a witch, the witch trials not being true, and John Proctor lying that he signed with the devil affects everyone in “The …show more content…
There are many different rumors going around about the witch trials so it was hard to see if they were right or not. Abigail confronts to Parris, “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there’s the whole of it” (I, i, 92-95). Abigail is telling her uncle a lie that they do not have anything to do with witchcraft. When Abigail tells her uncle this she is causing a problem with the witch trials because she is stating that Betty just fainted when she could be cursed with witchcraft. The court will not know what to do because they do not know if what Abigail is saying is true or not. Abigail telling this to her uncle affects the trials by the court jailing and hanging innocent people. When no one knows if the rumors are true they start to accuse innocent people like Giles’ wife. Giles states, “They be tellin’ lies about my wife, sir, I-” (III, i, 79-80). Rumors were going around about Giles’ wife that she was a witch. The rumor affected Giles by making him mad because he knows the witch trials are all lies. With the girls going around and accusing all of these rumors, everyone is affected because they are all innocent but no one knows what to believe. The witch trials not being true effects John Proctor by him giving up on proving they are

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