FREE ESSAY ON MCCARTHYISM IN THE CRUCIBLE

MCCARTHYISM IN THE CRUCIBLE

McCarthyism in The Crucible
In The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, the madness of the Salem witch trials is
explored in great detail. There is more to the play than the witch trials, though. The
Crucible was composed during a time when a similar hysteria was sweeping through America.
A virtually unkown senator by the name of Joseph McCarthy was propelled into infamy when
while at a speaking engagement at thee Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia
he charged 205 persons in the U.S. State Department of being members of the Communist
Party (Martine 8). Fear caused the American people to succumb to the preposterous charges
brought forth by McCarthy displaying resemblance's to that of the Salem community in 1692
(Carey 51). In Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, there is evidence of parallels between
the Salem of 1692 and America of the 1950's, the American Government of the 1950's and
its misuse of power, and the high court depicted in the play, using its power to impose a
misguided ju!
stice.
The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in the spring of 1692 in a village
shrouded with chaos. The people of Salem were in uncertain times. Just a year earlier a
witch in the nearby town of Beverly was executed and now the witch hysteria had spread to
their village. Confused, the people didn't know who to blame whether it be the girls, the
negro slave, or even the Devil himself. The insanity that came about was an indication of
the fear of individual freedom (Miller 6). In The Crucible, hysteria and hidden agendas
break down the social structure and then everyone must protect themselves from the people
that they thought were their friends. The church, the legal system, and the togetherness
of the community died so that the girls and their families social status might be
protected.
The fact that Salem was a Puritan community did not help matters either. Puritans were a
strict religous group that tolerated no devious behavior. Being isolated from any other
group of people with different beliefs created a church led Puritan society that was not
able to accept a lot of change. Anyone who was not in good standing with the church was
not even allowed in the community (Carey 42). They believed God elected those who were to
go to Heaven by the same token though they believed the Devil could choose his disciples
also (Carey 43). Puritans deemed anything pleasurable was motivated by and came directly
from the Devil.
When The Crucible was written, the American society was threatened by communism much like
Salem was threatened by witchcraft (Bly 32). On September 23, 1949, President Truman
reported that the Soviet Union had developed an atomic bomb striking fear into the
American nation (Martine 8). Miller even acknowledged this fear when he said, 
America had just finished fighting World War II with the help of the Soviet Union against
the Germans and now they felt threatened by them, knowing not wether they were still
allies or if another war was inevitable. The war made people wary of communism. What
Hitler had done was ugly. Americans feared this ugliness.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live (Exodus 22:18). The puritans of Salem definitely
believed in witches and gaurded against them just as the Bible told them so, executing
them. Once a person was accused as a witch the only way to live was to turn back to God
by repenting and revealing names of other witches so that they might repent or be
vanquished (Bly 88). 
Judge Danforth was devoted to the prosecution of witches. When he arrives in the town of
Salem, Danforth sets in motion acts that bring about an evil destructive state of chaos
(Carey 15). He believed he inherited his authority directly from God, and therefore
carried on the witchhunt mercilessly (Bly 33). He did not give up easily; once he decided
someone was a witch he would not rest until a confession was made as is evident in the
following quote: Will you confesss yourself befouled with Hell, or do you keep that black
allegiance yet? (Miller 111). Danforth may have had too much power also; being the Deputy
Governor of Massachusetts, Danforth had the power to try, convict, and execute anyone he
decide was a witch (Bly 27). 
When writting The Crucible, Arthur Miller chose to speak through John Proctor on of the
Salem witch trials victims. Miller uses Proctor as his character that defies the
authority of the judges and their corrupt power (Carey 14). Miller also uses Proctor as
his hero which critic James J. Martine recognized and captured when he said, John Proctor
is heroic not merely because he points the finger at himself, but because his story allow
him to point out the evil in his environment, the enemy of man's freedom, here the
repressive structures of society that would take a man's name (79). At the first of the
drama Proctor is not conccerned with the witch madness or anything to do with the
community. One can see Proctor's lack of interest in the community when Thomas putnam
states: I never heard you worried so on this society, Mr. Proctor. I do not think I saw
you at Sabbath meeting since snow flew (Miller 27). Proctor changes though; when Proctor
is accused of being a w!
itch himself he getst interested. 
America, entering into the cold war, felt that the threat of Communism was real and with
World War II just ended and the fear of another possible war, Americans of the fifties
did not want people whose political ideology was so rash, violent, and disagreeable with
their way of living (Carey 51). Martine called them for what the were, and that was
simply witches (9). 
Senator Joseph McCarthy was devoted to the prosecution of communists. McCarthy was
ruthless in his investigations; anyone who opposed his hearings or even criticized them
was quickly defending himself on the charges that he was a communist (Carey 51). McCarthy
also had power; in September 1950, McCarthy was able to pass the McCarran International
Security Act required that all members of the Communist party register with the Justice
Department and all communist-front organizations reveal their membership (Martine 9). 
Arthur Miller himself was also put on trial by the House Committee so that he might
testify on Un-American activities. Miller refused to name any names and was found in
contempt of Congress. Miller imitates Proctor in this way of refusing to give in even
though there would be consequences.
In Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, a dozen teenage girls and a black slave woman were
caught dancing in the forest and were accused of being witches after two of them become
sick. There was one girl in particular who was very cunning; her name was Abigail.
Abigail is a devious girl which critic William Bly explains in his quote: Abigail lies
without shame, threatens without fear, and thinks nothing of sticking a needle two inches
into her belly in order to bring about the murder of Elizabeth Proctor (20). She, and she
alone, led the town of Salem in murdering 19 people, all accused of witchcraft. Once the
girls are found out, they start accusing people of being witches and Abigail starts with
Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor's wife. Not long after even one of the most respectable
women in Salem, Rebecca Nurse, was accused of being a witch. When court was called into
session more accusations came; one of the girls, Mary Warren, out of fear of being
hanged, confesses that !
John Procor is the Devil's man! (Miller 110). 
At the beginning of the drama, Reverend Parris stumbles upon the girls dancing naked and
later he finds out they were not only dancing but also drinking charms and conjuring the
dead. After this the girls start confessing and most people that were charged were
charged purely on the testimony of the girls' seeing them with the devil. Leonard moss
realized this fact and speaks about it in the following quote: The authority of the
prosecutors has suddenly come to depend upon confession by those victims recently
condemned, so that continued defiance by a highly regarded citizen like John Proctor will
cure the town's fever (Moss 43). 
A total of 19 persons were hanged, 1 person was pressed to death, and two dogs were
hanged for witchcraft during the Salem Witchcraft Trials (Carey 49). Judge Danforth
sentecnced most including Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor for witchcraft and other
immorality.
When Joseph McCarthy announced the contents of his blacklist in 1950 people started
accusing others of being communist just like in Salem 1692. This did not stop McCarthy
though. In 1953, McCarthy led 157 more investigations especially into the Voice of
America and even the Army Signal Corps in New Jersey. These further investigations go on
to parallel that of the judges of the Salem trials and their efforts to find anyone
guilty that they possibly could. People such as former U.S. Department of State official,
Alger Hiss was accused of being a communist spy. The accusations by McCarthy were so
powerful that President Truman himself decided to put in loyalty boards to keep communist
out of America (Miller 1). 
McCarthy did not have enough evidence to convince an investigating committee, led by
Senator Millard E. Tydings. His evidence merely depended on others naming people that
were communists just as the evidence of the Salem trials was merely the girls naming
names. The accusations and investigations spread quickly and affected thousands of
people. Librarians, college professors, entertainers, journalists, clergy, and others
came under suspicion. McCarthy did not have any evidence though and he eventually lost
his support from the people. A few people spent time in jail and thousands were denied
jobs, memberships, and other normalities because they had been accused of being
communist.
It is not difficult to see why a catastrophe such as the Salem witch trials occured. Once
one accusation was made, it was easy to release all the buried suspicions and hatred into
a wave of madness. The judges of Salem were fooled and many people paid with their life.
In the fifties a catastrophe much the same occured just without the same end results.
People in Salem who tried to undermine the court were accused as witches themselves just
as anyone in America in 1950 who opposed McCarthy's trials were accused of being
communist (Carey 52). America fell prey to the McCarthy hysteria at first but then
realized there was no evidence and put down the idiocy. The Salem witch trials and the
McCarthy Investigations were so closely related that one can only wonder when or if it
will happen again. In both cases, a party ended up with too much power than they should
have as Danforth and McCarthy do. Who is the next to be accused?
Works Cited
1. Bly, William. Baron's Book Notes: Arthur Miller's The Crucible. New York: Baron's
Educational Series, 1984.
2. Carey, Garey. Cliffs Notes on Miller's The Crucible. Lincoln, Nebraska: C. K.
Hillegass, 1968.
3. Martine, James J. The Crucible: Politics, Property, and Pretense. New York: Twayne
Publishers, 1993
4. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Pengquin Books, 1995.
5. Miller, Arthur. Why I Wrote The Crucible: An Artist's Answer to Politics. On-line.
Internet. Available World Wide Web:
http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/miller-crucible.html.
6. Moss, Leonard. Arthur Miller. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1980.