What’s Right? & What’s Wrong?
One of the world’s wisest philosophers once said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light” (Plato). In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Miller demonstrates how the Red Scare of the 1950s is similar to the devastating Salem Witch Trials of 1692. When Arthur Miller put The Crucible into writing, the world was a scary place, even in such a great nation such as the United States of America. This was the same as the town of Salem Massachusetts, when everybody began pointing fingers at one another and started bewitching each other. Throughout history, there have been many morality plays, such as Shakespearean plays, novels like Animal Farm, …show more content…
During the time that Miller was writing The Crucible, the United States was experiencing the Red Scare. The Red Scare of the United States was a fear of the rise of communism in the United States. The main people affected by the Red Scare were people working in the government and especially Hollywood actors. Anyone thought to be a communist were immediately blacklisted and were not allowed to work until proven innocent. Just like the Salem Witch trials of 1692, anyone thought of being a witch were immediately condemned. Miller realized the comparison between the two events, the Red Scare, and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and decided to write The Crucible just to show how overactive the United States was being over the whole ordeal. The “good” thing about people being blacklisted, was that the U.S. government was being thorough and keeping things in check during the Red Scare, just like the Salem Witch Trials was keeping “witches” out of the village. While it was good that the government being thorough, there was too much finger pointing going around. In both events, many people who were either accused of being communists or witches but actually were not actually witches or communists, and the people who were accusing them could not admit that they were wrong in their accusations because it is hard for a human to admit mistakes. Clearly, Miller’s use of symbolism in comparing The Crucible to the Red Scare wax highly
One of the world’s wisest philosophers once said, “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light” (Plato). In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Miller demonstrates how the Red Scare of the 1950s is similar to the devastating Salem Witch Trials of 1692. When Arthur Miller put The Crucible into writing, the world was a scary place, even in such a great nation such as the United States of America. This was the same as the town of Salem Massachusetts, when everybody began pointing fingers at one another and started bewitching each other. Throughout history, there have been many morality plays, such as Shakespearean plays, novels like Animal Farm, …show more content…
During the time that Miller was writing The Crucible, the United States was experiencing the Red Scare. The Red Scare of the United States was a fear of the rise of communism in the United States. The main people affected by the Red Scare were people working in the government and especially Hollywood actors. Anyone thought to be a communist were immediately blacklisted and were not allowed to work until proven innocent. Just like the Salem Witch trials of 1692, anyone thought of being a witch were immediately condemned. Miller realized the comparison between the two events, the Red Scare, and the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and decided to write The Crucible just to show how overactive the United States was being over the whole ordeal. The “good” thing about people being blacklisted, was that the U.S. government was being thorough and keeping things in check during the Red Scare, just like the Salem Witch Trials was keeping “witches” out of the village. While it was good that the government being thorough, there was too much finger pointing going around. In both events, many people who were either accused of being communists or witches but actually were not actually witches or communists, and the people who were accusing them could not admit that they were wrong in their accusations because it is hard for a human to admit mistakes. Clearly, Miller’s use of symbolism in comparing The Crucible to the Red Scare wax highly