Introduction and hypothesis
The Crucible, by 1950s playwright Arthur Miller, tells the story of Salem, Massachusetts, and the fear which led the townspeople to accuse each other of witchcraft. Miller wrote the play as a direct jab at Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who spent the years after 1950 arresting and trying suspected communists in America. McCarthyism, the practice that has been derived from this period of time, was the practice of making accusations of subversion without proper evidence. Miller chose the Salem Witch Trials as a basis for his play, as he believed it directly paralleled what was going on in America at the time – fear, mass hysteria and accusation. Thus ‘The Crucible’ was created, as an allegory showing Miller’s contempt …show more content…
People began to believe that their neighbours were “witches”. Hysteria, a condition in which community wide fear overwhelms logic and individual thought, is mentioned throughout the play. “A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. Once such an equation is efficiently made, society becomes a congeries of plots and counterplots, and the main role of government changes from threat of the arbiter to that of the scourge of God”. This quote, said by the narrator of the Crucible, provides an insight into the proceedings of mass hysteria. This same mass hysteria still exists today. Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has proposed a law which would require all Muslim people to wear an identifying badge on the outside of their clothing, much similar to what Hitler made the Jews wear during the World War II era. As well as this, the Republican candidate plans to filter all Muslim-Americans and immigrants through a data base. This blatantly xenophobic idea was birthed from the hysteria that thrives in many Western countries. The following quote from The Crucible, said by John Proctor, accurately displays what is occurring in this situation. “…Is the accuser always holy now? …I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is walking Salem. … but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law.” Specifically, in America, a strong anti-Muslim hysteria is present, and this identification system is a result of Americans retaliating against their biased fears. This hysteria has caused a range of accusations to be formed about the Muslim
The Crucible, by 1950s playwright Arthur Miller, tells the story of Salem, Massachusetts, and the fear which led the townspeople to accuse each other of witchcraft. Miller wrote the play as a direct jab at Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who spent the years after 1950 arresting and trying suspected communists in America. McCarthyism, the practice that has been derived from this period of time, was the practice of making accusations of subversion without proper evidence. Miller chose the Salem Witch Trials as a basis for his play, as he believed it directly paralleled what was going on in America at the time – fear, mass hysteria and accusation. Thus ‘The Crucible’ was created, as an allegory showing Miller’s contempt …show more content…
People began to believe that their neighbours were “witches”. Hysteria, a condition in which community wide fear overwhelms logic and individual thought, is mentioned throughout the play. “A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence. Once such an equation is efficiently made, society becomes a congeries of plots and counterplots, and the main role of government changes from threat of the arbiter to that of the scourge of God”. This quote, said by the narrator of the Crucible, provides an insight into the proceedings of mass hysteria. This same mass hysteria still exists today. Presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has proposed a law which would require all Muslim people to wear an identifying badge on the outside of their clothing, much similar to what Hitler made the Jews wear during the World War II era. As well as this, the Republican candidate plans to filter all Muslim-Americans and immigrants through a data base. This blatantly xenophobic idea was birthed from the hysteria that thrives in many Western countries. The following quote from The Crucible, said by John Proctor, accurately displays what is occurring in this situation. “…Is the accuser always holy now? …I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is walking Salem. … but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law.” Specifically, in America, a strong anti-Muslim hysteria is present, and this identification system is a result of Americans retaliating against their biased fears. This hysteria has caused a range of accusations to be formed about the Muslim