On the surface, The Crucible by Arthur Miller appears to simply be a play about the Salem Witch Trials, but it is actually a powerful allegory pertaining to the McCarthyism era. The Crucible is a fictionalized version of the Salem Witch Trials which took place in Massachusetts in 1692 when the town of Salem accused and hanged its citizens for witchcraft. Many parallels between witches and communists appear throughout Miller’s play; when linked, they form a political commentary on Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare, a time from the late 1940’s to early 1950’s when many Americans had fears about communists in their country. Arthur Miller wrote parallels between The Crucible and the McCarthy era because he wanted to express how the government’s accusations of communism hurt innocent people, how hysteria can spread in society, and how
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The communist trials, “which were well publicized, could often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated accusation” (PBS). They key word is “unsubstantiated”; the government did not need to have evidence to ruin someone’s career by charging them for being a communist sympathizer. Miller, angered, writes in The Crucible, “But witchcraft is ipso facto, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and the victim. None other… Therefore, we must rely upon her victims - and they do testify, the children certainly do testify” (Miller, The Crucible 93). Relying upon the victims testifying is a parallel between The Crucible and the McCarthyism era that Miller wanted to add because he wanted to show how it is unjust; if the accusation relies solely upon the word of the witness without any evidence, it cannot be truly
The communist trials, “which were well publicized, could often destroy a career with a single unsubstantiated accusation” (PBS). They key word is “unsubstantiated”; the government did not need to have evidence to ruin someone’s career by charging them for being a communist sympathizer. Miller, angered, writes in The Crucible, “But witchcraft is ipso facto, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it? The witch and the victim. None other… Therefore, we must rely upon her victims - and they do testify, the children certainly do testify” (Miller, The Crucible 93). Relying upon the victims testifying is a parallel between The Crucible and the McCarthyism era that Miller wanted to add because he wanted to show how it is unjust; if the accusation relies solely upon the word of the witness without any evidence, it cannot be truly