Preview

Who Is Joseph Mccarthy Innocent In The Crucible

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2360 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Who Is Joseph Mccarthy Innocent In The Crucible
Throughout Joseph McCarthy’s accusations of communism there was talk of some of his victims possibly being innocent. One of these victims that was allegedly innocent was Arthur Miller. Miller, because he was wronged by the law, decided to write a similar story to the events of the McCarthy trials in order to make McCarthy’s ideals seem flawed. Miller believed that if he could write a story to prove the accusations incorrect he would be able to re-establish his respectable reputation. This story is known as “The Crucible”, a story about the Salem Witch Trials and how the townspeople were falsely accused of witchcraft, but couldn’t do anything to plead there innocence. Miller managed to show through “The Crucible”, how ridiculous McCarthy’s accusations were and how it was very …show more content…
The term began to be used when Joseph McCarthy started his search to root out public figures involved with the communist party. While on the hunt for communists, McCarthy would show no mercy and go to any lengths in order to prove his case true. Critics stated that his accusations were wild, baseless and that it was clear that McCarthy only did this to keep his spot in the senate. As people began to question his tactics McCarthy and his admirers responded by saying that it was merely “Americanism with its sleeves rolled up”. Over the years, as Joseph McCarthy was no longer involved in politics and the fear of communism began to die down, the term was still used to characterize anti-communism groups in America. In the end, even though there were cases in which McCarthy managed to root out actual communist supporters all of his muckraking, lies, and negative enforcement led to the downfall of the McCarthy era. Eventually after three-thousand federal employees were questioned, including McCarthy, it was made clear that many of his accusations were false and many of the charges were dropped.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    McCarthyism, or the time known as the McCarthy Era, dominated our country from 1950-1954. During this time, there were many hearings in which people suspected of being related in some way to communism were interviewed and forced to give up names of others. If they refused to give up names of others, they were put in prison.…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ is based upon the Salem Witch Trials which occurred in the year 1692. The text also serves as an allegorical warning about much more recent events, in particular the McCarthy Trials of 1953. The McCarthy Trials were exploring communism. ‘The Crucible’ was written to highlight the similarities between McCarthyism and communism in the 1950’s in the United States of America and the witch hunts of Europe in the 17th century. The play is literally written about the witch trials but it is figuratively about the society Miller lived in, in 1953. Thousands of Americans were accused of being communists like in ‘The Crucible’; hundreds of the town’s people were accused of being witches. Three major ideologies that are still relevant in society today are evident in the play, intolerance, mass hysteria and reputation.…

    • 770 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Between February 1692 and May 1693, in several towns in the state of Massachusetts, dozens of people were accused of witchcraft. Nineteen people were sentenced to death by the state government because of all the villagers that accused each other of being possessed by the devil. In contemporary times, these events are generally known as the Salem witch trials. A few hundred years later, in the early 1950’s, author Arthur Miller wrote a play about this part of American history called The Crucible. In this analysis I will argue that The Crucible, a play with hysteria and paranoia as main themes, partly represents the McCarthy Era, in which hundreds of United States inhabitants were accused of being communistic without hard evidence.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The allegory of Arthur Miller and McCarthyism began when Miller wrote The Crucible which shows the similarities between the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare. The fear of the the crucible still in some people as it did in the fifties “the play seems to be about the dilemma of relying on the testimony of small children accusing adults of sexual abuse, something I'd not have dreamed of forty years ago.” Arthur Miller once stated “The…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    McCarthyism wasn't just in Salem, Massachusetts. McCarthyism is found upon Joseph McCarthy; It's when someone will make false allegations against someone else. He was the senator of Wisconsin, and he would accuse everyone of being a communist. This was going on during the Red Scare of 1919. People began to know that they couldn't believe him because he began blaming many officials including some high ranked army soldiers.…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    You ask me what parallels there are between the play The Crucible and the event The McCarthy Era. There were many parallels throughout the whole play. In this play everyone was blamed for no reason at all and all everyone one did was make excuses to try and not get their own selves in trouble. They were always wondering why everyone was getting tricked into believing that witches existed and it was because they were all just trying to get themselves out of trouble. Arthur Miller shows the audience that people have not moved on that much from when people were believing in the Salem witch trials. All through this play, Miller used the trails in The Crucible and the McCarthy Era because he realized that the events were the same. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to help everyone today, who wasn’t alive back then, notice that they were not going crazy they were just trying to keep themselves alive and just they were believing everything they heard.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The author purpose to write this story is to explain why he wrote The Crucible, what pushes him to write such a story. Arthur Miller tried to make life real by showing that things get repeated in history. The McCarthy trials are similar to Salem Witch trials. People were being accused for things that they never did and do not have any proof that they did these thing. The Crucible shows that whatever is happening now happened before, and we are repeating the history. It is important for people to remember so they do not make any more mistakes,or make up any silly stories that will affect society The anti-communist rage in the McCarthy era and the Salem witch trial in Massachusetts destroyed people's lives; the mass hysteria that swept the United States.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    McCarthyism is the practice of making wrongdoing of disruption or treason without proper regard for evidence. It is also the practice of making unfair statements or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict resistance political criticism. Part of McCarthyism was paranoia and finding a victim and blaming innocent people for things they did not do.…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arthur Miller’s The Crucible showed the injustices faced by the Salem society, while also showing the injustices faced by the society of the one he lived in. The Crucible has character John Proctor who is a aware of the unlawful accusations of witchcraft. John Proctor has a very close friend, Giles Corey who is very against the accusations as his wife has been accused and he knows the only reason for the witch trials is vengeance from the town girls. Giles Corey represents Arthur Miller’s role in McCarthyism, the “witch trials” of the 1950s. Arthur Miller’s story correlated to his society in that people were terrified of communism, and were wrongly accused of Communism. McCarthy was afraid people would be Soviet Spies out to get America, so…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    When McCarthy won as Senate in 1946, World War II was over and the Cold War was beginning. Communist governments had gained hold in Eastern Europe and China, and Americans were increasingly concerned about it and about rumors of U.S. government officials who were secret communists (Hoyt,1). Joseph McCarthy used this fear it to his advantage making unsupported incriminations. The American Heritage Dictionary defines McCarthyism as "the political practice of publicizing accusations of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence." McCarthy made the incriminations public that more than two hundred communists had infiltrated the United States regime. McCarthyism has referred to the unfair tactic of incriminating people of disloyalty without corroborating with any solid evidence. House Un-American Activities Committee was made to investigative committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. Originally created in 1938 to inquire into subversive activities in the U.S. (dictionary). HUAC often pressured witnesses to surrender names and other information that could lead to more communists. With this program the came up with a list of names suspected of communism call “black list”. This was publicized in the media, became what amounted to “an official black list." The Republicans did little to stop McCarthy’s attacks because they believed they would win the 1952…

    • 1595 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Those involved in the McCarthy witch hunts and those in The Crucible are mainly motivated to condemn others for personal gain or out of sheer panic and hysteria. Many--if they did not share views of the general population--are openly condemned in both the McCarthy era and in “The Crucible.” In both instances, regardless of the amount of evidence present, people were suspected of witchcraft/communism and consequently condemned. The many claims of witchcraft made by characters in Miller’s “The Crucible”--lacking sufficient evidence--share great similarities with the communist “witch hunts” of the McCarthy…

    • 616 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In his article, "Why I Wrote The Crucible," Arthur Miller speaks of the 1950's "which nobody seems to remember clearly"- a time of fearful insanity and unrest. Anyone could be accused. Showing excessive opposition ensured prosecution. Most shrunk back from disputing the McCarthy hearings for fear of their safety. Now, this period of panic is viewed as absurd. As Miller describes Hitler as being almost comical to his generation, the modern generation sees the Salem witch trials as foolish scuffles between ignorant people. The actual events were much different as perceived. Just as a feud with a neighbor seems trivial to those not involved but of intense frustration to the embroiled , the trials were not silly and insignificant. The trials were…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    A quote by Edward R. Murrow states, “No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.” During the Red Scare, Senator McCarthy did terrorize a whole nation, and Arthur Miller became a victim of McCarthyism. Miller suffered through accusations of possibly believing in communism; as a result, he wrote a play called The Crucible, in which he used the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 to explain the communist hysteria during the 1950s. Arthur Miller develops an allegory in The Crucible by comparing the Salem Witch Trials to McCarthyism by using ringleaders, persecuted couples, and hypocrisy in the government or legal system.…

    • 1429 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Crucible Symbolism

    • 276 Words
    • 1 Page

    Hathorne says he is trying to overthrow the court and soon he is arrested for contempt…

    • 276 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trust In The Crucible

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Three years after The Crucible was written, He refused to name any names in court and defied the House Committee on Un-American Activities, also known as HCUAA (History.com). Miller wrote The Crucible because of McCarthyism. He saw how the Salem witch trials and McCarthy trials were similar and wrote it to get the public to recognize how history is repeating itself.. In his play, Abigail Williams motive was John Proctor and was determined to get her way. She would throw accusations without any proof and no one would question it. The girls she manipulated were too scared to go against her because Abigail could and would accuse them of being witches. In The Crucible, a servant girl to John and Elizabeth named Mary Warren tried to confess and have Abigail incarcerated. However, her plan failed since Abigail made the girl turn against Mary and were screaming and crying out that they saw visions or her being a witch. “The wings! Her wings are spreading! Mary, please, don’t, don’t!-She’s going to come down! She’s walking the beam!- Look out! She’s coming down!” (Miller, The Crucible 117-118). The Ultimately she liked her power that everyone had given her. McCarthy found a way to rise to power by doing the same. He said many allegations against many innocent people. Hardly any questioned because they feared that their reputation would be ruined. President Harry S. Truman had his doubts about Joe McCarthy and tried to express his worries at “News Conference at Key West” on March 30, 1950 (Truman Responds). His concerns were not taken into consideration and he was ridiculed. His accusations destroyed lives. Most of the senate would agree with him because they were too frightened or they genuinely believed him because they didn’t think about what they were agreeing to before hearing stories from both…

    • 1427 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays