The Crucible vs. Army-Mccarthy Hearings

He Crucible and Army - McCarthy Hearings
The Crucible, a play written by famous author Arthur Miller, was inspired by Army-McCarthy Hearings. The book was written as a reaction to a tragic time in our countries history. The McCarthy hearings, as they came to be known, which dominated our country from 1950 to 1954, where hearings in which many, suspected of being related to communism, where interviewed and forced to give up names of others, or they where imprisoned, and their names were black listed. One of the similarities of these 2 eras is the ¨scare factor¨. In the area (country), a fear was released to the public. Everybody was afraid to speak up, tell their opinions in public, they all were afraid of being suspected to be against the ¨truth¨ which was the idea what leaders believed at the time. Also, in the government systems, the ¨everybody is doing it¨ mentality was spread. Other parallel is, lives were ruind because of accusations and punishments.

As we know, in the play ¨The Crucible¨, John & Elizabeth Proctor were found guilty but, there was nearly no real proof. He sadme occured in McCarthy Hearings and 2nd Red Scare. People were found guilty and imprisoned with nearly no real proof. If the same courts were held today, all suspects would have been freed. At the time of 2nd Red Scare, fear factor was used a lot. Everyone was scared of communism and being seen as communists.

Also, ¨everyone is doing it.¨ mentality was another point that had to do with it. It’s human nature that when somebody does something everyone starts to do the same. So when the leaders of the community started this witch hunt, the rest followed their leaders. Who disagreed were considered as witches. As everyone started to watch out for each other, tension is in the community escalated quickly and turned out to be such a horrible thing. Because I of the Red Scare in 1950s, everybody was scared of the term ¨communism¨. So the government accused Joseph McCarthy. Just like the Salem witch trials the situation escalated quickly and turned out to be a time which the whole country would soon regret.

The word crucible comes from the word ¨crux¨ which means ¨cross¨ or ¨trial¨ in Latin.
One can obviously see the similarities between the McCarthy period of history and the period of time in which the Salem witch trials took place. The people were scared of something, because they were told to be scared of it. Everyone backed the hunts and those who did not where accused. Due to this scare everyone desired to rid themselves of the impurities. The innocent where accused and put in a melting pot. Their careers, and lives where ruined. Another similarity the two periods of history have is the regret that America has when looking back on these tragic misfortunes.