Crucible Essay

Crucible Essay

Arthur Miller's The Crucible describes the witch hunt that executed innocent citizens for crimes they did not commit. The play depicted the events fairly accurately but the real achievement of the play was to shed light on the modern witch hunt. Miller lived during the ninth teen - fifties in time when the new witch was a communist. Miller was affected by this new hunt personally having his own conscience tested much like the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts. This enabled Miller to write a play concerning two dark instances in American History, The Red Scare and Salem witch trails. The play deals with Miller's concerns with conscience, mass hysteria, and justice while indirectly relating to his personal arrest during the Red Scare.

The Red Scare (also Known as McCarthyism) affected many actors and playwrights. Senator McCarthy was elected in 1948 and was largely ignored and unimpressive. In his Communism trails McCarty made it clear that the only way to evade jail time was to give names to people who had connections with communism. [1] McCarthy can best be described as the modern Abigail Williams. As a girl orphan Abigail had little power and social status only above slaves, this prompted her to reach for power by any means much like McCarthy in his failing re-election. [1][3]People were afraid to accuse either of them in fear there honor would be questioned. Miller wants the reader to see similar imperfection with both individual which is a lack of conscience. Miller's close friend Kazan was accused of anti-American acts chose to provide names in order for his release. This ended a life long friendship and was the basis for Miller first visit to Salem. Miller's own conscience was tested when he was called upon before McCarty and The House of Un-American Activities regarding The Crucible.

Unlike many of his characters Miller did not reveal any names. His answer to his indictment was "conscience is longer a private matter but one of state administration" [2], coinciding with both era's in which the only way to save yourself was to condemn another.

Mass hysteria broke out in the Salem era, when the girls named innocent citizens condemning them to be hanged. This result in everyone fearing their neighbors not only as a potential witch that seized them, but also associating with them could mean their names would also surface.

This was represented in the petition by Mr. Corey in which everyone who signed would be question, and Danforth's desire to know the name of the man who accused Mr. Putnam. This situation repeats in the ninthteen- fifties when [1] Senator McCarthy gave a six hour speech reporting that he found eighty-one senators who are communist. Neighbors could accuse neighbors and the only way for that person