why i wrote the crucible essay
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, portrays the fundamental causes of paranoia amidst its effects on a society and its individual counterparts, united with the terror of supernatural forces. In Puritan New England, the occurrences involving the presence of witchcraft fittingly resembled the appearance of Communists in America in the mid-1900s. Senator Joseph McCarthy roused up hysteria in the American people by encouraging the belief that Communism had slipped through the cracks of the United States government, similarly to how Reverend Parris allowed the notion of witchcraft to escalate to the point of death in Salem, Massachusetts.
Miller’s drama rendered certain elements that mirrored the Second Red Scare, such as societies having just been delivered from a time of disorder and confusion and the institution of duress causing persons to irresponsibly accuse another so to uphold their reputations. In the earlier lines of The Crucible, Miller explains that part of the overwhelming suffering that took place occurred because of “their self-denial, their purposefulness, their suspicion of all vain pursuits, [and] their hard-handed justice” (Crucible 6). The defeat of a society, if not from another civilization, originates within itself. This same concept is shown in the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era since both Parris and McCarthy, as leaders in their communities, instigated panic and continued falsely preaching about nonexistent injustices.
In his drama, Miller states, “the witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom” (7). In regard to all communities, panic excites even more paranoia; Under these conditions, people tend to assimilate under the same judgments due to lack of reason. Those accused in Salem began voicing the names of innocent people to the court because they acknowledged the fact that death would result if they refused. Similarly,
Miller’s drama rendered certain elements that mirrored the Second Red Scare, such as societies having just been delivered from a time of disorder and confusion and the institution of duress causing persons to irresponsibly accuse another so to uphold their reputations. In the earlier lines of The Crucible, Miller explains that part of the overwhelming suffering that took place occurred because of “their self-denial, their purposefulness, their suspicion of all vain pursuits, [and] their hard-handed justice” (Crucible 6). The defeat of a society, if not from another civilization, originates within itself. This same concept is shown in the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era since both Parris and McCarthy, as leaders in their communities, instigated panic and continued falsely preaching about nonexistent injustices.
In his drama, Miller states, “the witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom” (7). In regard to all communities, panic excites even more paranoia; Under these conditions, people tend to assimilate under the same judgments due to lack of reason. Those accused in Salem began voicing the names of innocent people to the court because they acknowledged the fact that death would result if they refused. Similarly,