Today, one would normally disregard a rumor of Communism or witchcraft among their coworkers and/or acquaintances, believing that it is just gossip, but in certain times in history, people’s lives were ruined by rumors such as those. In the 1950s and late 1600s Salem, MA, rumors of Communism and witchcraft would be believed and taken to extremes. The destructions of reputations or even lives in consequence of these trials were paralleled in the McCarthy Hearings and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Arthur Miller uses The Crucible as a comparison between the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism by showing how the accusers in both situations used their power to stir mass hysteria, harbored corrupt motives, and dictated unjust trials and punishments.
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As if the Salem Witch Trials did not seem absurd enough as a standalone, the McCarthy Hearings were dubbed “witch-hunts” in reference to the parallels between the mass fear and spread of accusations of the Salem Witch Trials, along with the use of circular logic in that in each scenario, one was considered guilty until they admitted that the accuser was correct in their condemnations (Sowers). Hundreds of thousands of Americans in the 1940s and 1950s believed Senator Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of Communism without any solid evidence, spiraling even deeper into the hysteria by accusing others and making the lives of the suspects difficult— for example, some would never be able to get a job again (“McCarthyism”). Even when citizens involved in the Salem Witch Trials or McCarthy Hearings began to see the reality of the situations and began to oppose them, such when Salem citizen Burroughs continued to try to prove his innocence by praying the Lord’s Prayer flawlessly before his execution at Gallows Hill (which witches were believed unable to do), the leaders of the events would do or say something to conform the people’s opinions to what the leaders wanted or would benefit from (“An
As if the Salem Witch Trials did not seem absurd enough as a standalone, the McCarthy Hearings were dubbed “witch-hunts” in reference to the parallels between the mass fear and spread of accusations of the Salem Witch Trials, along with the use of circular logic in that in each scenario, one was considered guilty until they admitted that the accuser was correct in their condemnations (Sowers). Hundreds of thousands of Americans in the 1940s and 1950s believed Senator Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of Communism without any solid evidence, spiraling even deeper into the hysteria by accusing others and making the lives of the suspects difficult— for example, some would never be able to get a job again (“McCarthyism”). Even when citizens involved in the Salem Witch Trials or McCarthy Hearings began to see the reality of the situations and began to oppose them, such when Salem citizen Burroughs continued to try to prove his innocence by praying the Lord’s Prayer flawlessly before his execution at Gallows Hill (which witches were believed unable to do), the leaders of the events would do or say something to conform the people’s opinions to what the leaders wanted or would benefit from (“An