In 1692-1693, in the small rural farming community of Salem, over 200 people were executed for the crime of witchcraft. Another witch hunt occurred between 1950-1960, in Cold War America. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy Era because the accused had no legal defence, the Government was prosecuting people, and the general public was in a more vulnerable and gullible state.
Because intangible things were used as evidence, there was no legal defence for anyone accused. The only way to save a person’s life was to self-incriminate, even though the majority of the time, the defendants had not committed any crime. In the Crucible, the Girls, led by Abigail Williams, would frequently “see the spirits” …show more content…
Similarly, during the Cold War, the concept of complete global destruction was not taken lightly. In both cases, the government of the time was the main cause of this panic and misunderstanding, though for different reasons. For hundreds of years, spirits, unusual events, and any other not well understood topic were believed to be acts of God, not science. The ideas of evil surrounding everything and everyone was perpetuated by the Puritan dominated local government/s of the Massachusetts territory. This duo of unknown and fear met, and turned into a deadly combination, as it has done countless times in the past. While the fear brought in the Cold War was somewhat justified, the differences are small beyond that. During the Cold War, huge amounts of propaganda was made by the two opposing governments. Propaganda hardly ever conveys a accurate description, so logically, people started to believe lies and inaccurate “facts”, which only made the hysteria and confusion worse. The lack of factual reason, and such a extreme belief that evil was everywhere as depicted in the Crucible, as well as the Puritan government’s emphasis on being a devout follower of God, closely resembles the state of mass panic the people during the Cold War
Because intangible things were used as evidence, there was no legal defence for anyone accused. The only way to save a person’s life was to self-incriminate, even though the majority of the time, the defendants had not committed any crime. In the Crucible, the Girls, led by Abigail Williams, would frequently “see the spirits” …show more content…
Similarly, during the Cold War, the concept of complete global destruction was not taken lightly. In both cases, the government of the time was the main cause of this panic and misunderstanding, though for different reasons. For hundreds of years, spirits, unusual events, and any other not well understood topic were believed to be acts of God, not science. The ideas of evil surrounding everything and everyone was perpetuated by the Puritan dominated local government/s of the Massachusetts territory. This duo of unknown and fear met, and turned into a deadly combination, as it has done countless times in the past. While the fear brought in the Cold War was somewhat justified, the differences are small beyond that. During the Cold War, huge amounts of propaganda was made by the two opposing governments. Propaganda hardly ever conveys a accurate description, so logically, people started to believe lies and inaccurate “facts”, which only made the hysteria and confusion worse. The lack of factual reason, and such a extreme belief that evil was everywhere as depicted in the Crucible, as well as the Puritan government’s emphasis on being a devout follower of God, closely resembles the state of mass panic the people during the Cold War