The Crucible and McCarthyism
The Crucible is a modern day a parallelism to the events occurring within the United States after World War II. A rise of communism in many countries led to a fear of communists invading the United States, thus began the McCarthy trials. Within the contexts of The Crucible, the occurrences of the time affected the author’s writing by, give them a personal connection, inducing an opposition to the bigger powers within certain groups, influencing their themes around McCarthyism, and the death of many innocent people. A personal connection between the Arthur Miller and the events occurring was established through the accusations made about where their loyalties lied. These events led to people that opposed the government’s actions, to come together to strengthen each other in …show more content…
Already having had a friend be taken to court and facing dire consequences for his own beliefs Miller decided to go ahead with his personal ideals. Although the “parallels to the McCarthy hearings are inescapable, most critics consider Miller's point to be more universal than topical, for his concern with the issues of social responsibility and the moral prerogative of the individual is a recurrent one” (Harris). In The Crucible he wrote about how a group of people decided to contradict the central power and in doing so inspired others to do the same. In his play The Crucible,” Miller examines the theme of the rights of the individual and the crowd's urge to suppress their expression” (Harris). Miller depicts a scene where the characters suppressed the truth, that no one accused was truly a witch, in fear of shunning or worse death. Just as it happened in real life many were condemned guilty and in doing so they were forced to live out their lives without freedom to express their beliefs without facing
The Crucible is a modern day a parallelism to the events occurring within the United States after World War II. A rise of communism in many countries led to a fear of communists invading the United States, thus began the McCarthy trials. Within the contexts of The Crucible, the occurrences of the time affected the author’s writing by, give them a personal connection, inducing an opposition to the bigger powers within certain groups, influencing their themes around McCarthyism, and the death of many innocent people. A personal connection between the Arthur Miller and the events occurring was established through the accusations made about where their loyalties lied. These events led to people that opposed the government’s actions, to come together to strengthen each other in …show more content…
Already having had a friend be taken to court and facing dire consequences for his own beliefs Miller decided to go ahead with his personal ideals. Although the “parallels to the McCarthy hearings are inescapable, most critics consider Miller's point to be more universal than topical, for his concern with the issues of social responsibility and the moral prerogative of the individual is a recurrent one” (Harris). In The Crucible he wrote about how a group of people decided to contradict the central power and in doing so inspired others to do the same. In his play The Crucible,” Miller examines the theme of the rights of the individual and the crowd's urge to suppress their expression” (Harris). Miller depicts a scene where the characters suppressed the truth, that no one accused was truly a witch, in fear of shunning or worse death. Just as it happened in real life many were condemned guilty and in doing so they were forced to live out their lives without freedom to express their beliefs without facing