The Crucible vs. the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials
The play The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller in response to him being accused of being a communist sympathizer in the 1950s. This happened during the Red Scare. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin blacklisted hundreds of Americans because of the rising fear of communism (6). These people were then looked at as and many of them lost their jobs because they were accused of supporting communism with little or no backing evidence. Miller wrote his play about the Salem Witch Trials, and compared it to the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York in 1915. He was raised in a wealthy household until his family lost everything in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Despite this, he went on to go to the University of Michigan, where he started writing. He took courses under well-known playwright professor Kenneth Rowe. Miller liked to write on controversial topics (1).
Miller’s writing career did not achieve much success at the start. His most popular works came later in his career. Among these is The Crucible. The play describes the horror and chaos of the Salem Witch Trials. One main topic in this play is intolerance (2). The people of Salem had a lot of grudges against one another, and they used the witch hunt to get after their enemies.
The 1950s were also a time of distress in America. It was the time of the Red Scare and a huge fear of communism in the United States. He compared the Red Scare with the Salem Witch Trials in the play, and how intolerance can be greatly exaggerated (2). One example of this is the case of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. The Rosenbergs were accused of espionage. They were found guilty and executed. While it could be argued that this was fair, they were also blamed for the deaths in the Korean War (Julius and Ethel Rosenberg). In the Salem witch trials people were in trepidation of witchcraft the same way that Americans were in apprehension of communism (7). Both cases showed that fear and paranoia can lead to power, and too much power in the hands of one person can lead to chaos.
The Salem Witch Trials were quite similar to the Red Scare, even though they were hundreds of years apart. The witch hunt started from a seemingly silly situation, but it led to people getting scared. These people were so paranoid that they began to accuse people with little or no evidence. The only way one could get out of accusation was confess or put the blame on someone else. Both of these were lies, so it led the community to be very dishonest and not trustworthy (9). Above all this, people started to accuse people in order to get their land and possessions. This led to several very good people sitting in miserable jail cells and hung.
This play is still relevant today. With the War on Terror, there is a lot of paranoia. There are a lot of false accusations today, as there was in the witch hunt and the Red Scare. A Muslim professor named Sami Al-Arian was accused of being partially responsible for the 9/11 attacks. He immigrated to the United States in 1975 from the middle east to get a higher education and a doctorate degree in computer engineering. He came to America to make a better life for himself and his family, which he did as he became a professor at the University of South Florida (5). Dr. Sami Al-Arian was just a normal person, but because of his race, he was suspected to be a terrorist. He was in prison for six years, and while he was finally declared innocent, there is no way to get that time back. He was an innocent person sitting in a jail cell because of his ethnic background.
Unfortunately, this situation is not unique, and there have been multiple cases of false accusations over the centuries. These have had similar upbringings even though the lifestyle has been different each time. Discrimination has taken different forms throughout history, even today. People have been very quick to judge, and it has led to chaos and even taken lives. It is still happening today, even with all of the bad things that have happened in the past.
Works Cited
1. “Arthur Miller Biography.” Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.biography.com/people/arthur-miller-9408335>.
2. “The Crucible Themes.” Sparknotes. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/crucible/themes.html>.
3. “Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.” Wikipedia. N.p., 19 Feb. 2015. Web. 24 Feb. 2015.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_and_Ethel_Rosenberg>.
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism>.
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content/how-us-falsely-accused-palestinian-teacher-aiding-terror/13910>.
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Scare>.
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<http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/78462.html>.
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<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials>.
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<https://www.google.com/search?q=salem+witch+trials+vs+red+scare+cartoon&safe=active&biw=1280&bih=890&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=jG7nVMfBIsizogT384HoDg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ#imgdii=_&imgrc=g
el_z8cDGH8gWM%253A%3B5-_zEtQfQZGAcM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.cartoonstock.com%252
Fnewscartoons%252Fcartoonists%252Fkmh%252Flowres%252Fkmhn128l.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252
F%252Fwww.sodahead.com%252Ffun%252Fdo-you-sometimes-wish-you-could-read-minds%252
Fquestion-2017071%252F%3B400%3B558>.
10. Withers, James. “Red Scare vs. Salem Witch Trials.” Classroom.synonym. N.p.,
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