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The Salem witch trials were a time of mass fear and hysteria around witches. Hundreds of women and girls were accused of being “witches.” A similar time of mass hysteria and fear also occurred at the beginning of the 20th century. It was called the Red Scare, spurred on by McCarthyism. Named after its leader, Joseph Mccarthy, a Republican Wisconsin senator, the movement gained huge traction due to pre-established hysteria around so-called “Reds” in the government and by hyping up this hysteria for their own political power. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller about the Salem witch trials during the late 1600s. The play is a strong parallel to McCarthyism during the Cold War due to the historical parallels of malice, sensationalism, abuse of power, and the ingenious use of the era of the Salem Witch Trials. One of the most important themes of both McCarthy and The Crucible is the hysteria created for their own selfish purposes. In 1950, Joseph McCarthy came to a conference claiming to have a list of 250 people who were members of the state department who were also known members of the communist party. “I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.”(BrainyQuote.com)
This also happened in The Crucible. Abigail sees an opportunity to get rid of people and begins naming names in order to create hysteria. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(Miller, 48) The idea of the enemy being near you is enough to put fear into the heart of the most battle-hardened soldier. Both Abigail and McCarthy employed these tactics because they realized that they could be deployed to their advantage. For McCarthy, it was used in order to block democratic policies, calling those who even dared to oppose him anti-American and Reds. Abigail realized that the hysteria around this to get rid of Goody Proctor, the wife of Abigail’s lover, John Proctor. This hysteria becomes a weapon for Mccarthy, who deploys it against the united states military. McCarthy brings forward hundreds of witnesses but is particularly malicious toward one young army lawyer. At this, the opposing counsel states the thought that is on all of our minds. ‘Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness.’ When McCarthy tried to continue his attack, Welch angrily interrupted, ‘Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?” (US Senate Hearing, 1954)
A similar moment also happens in The Crucible. Abigail arranges for a needle to be in her stomach, and a poppet to have a needle in its stomach at the proctor home. After the needle in Abbi’s stomach is discovered, Abbi names Goody Proctor to be a witch trying to kill her. “The girl, the Williams girl, Abigail Williams, sir. She sat to dinner in Reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warnin’ she falls to the floor. Like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. And he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed, she – to Proctor now – testify it -were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in.” (Miller, 74) Abigail and Mccarthy have already created fear for their own goals. Now they have weaponized it. Mccarthy created a situation in which he can pervert the judicial process by using senate hearings to get around court hearings and ruin someone by reputation rather than prison. Abbi has also done this because she knows that there is no way for Goody Proctor to prove that she is not a witch. Abigail believes that with the death of Goody Proctor, she can then marry her love, John Proctor.While the significant time difference between the age of McCarthy and the Salem Witch Trials can be interpreted as a blemish on the overall critique offered by Miller, in reality, it is a strength. This time difference gives the author the chance to create a dynamic, 3-dimensional character such as Abigail, who serves as the antagonist and motif. Both pieces of evidence have already been introduced, but they remain relevant for both points. “I have here in my hand a list of two hundred and five people that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.”(BrainyQuote.com) This also happened in The Crucible.
Abigail sees an opportunity to get rid of people and begins naming names to create hysteria. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(Miller, 48) In the play, Abigail doesn’t just use the tool of hysteria, she is hysteria. What this means is that the author has meticulously created Abigail and her actions to represent or mirror the ideas and intentions of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Neither of whom has any proof that what they are saying is true. What they do have on their side is the fear of the people. Both people come in swinging because they know that if they hit hard enough, their opponents will back down in fear. But the character known as Abigail would not have been possible without this huge gap. The author found the perfect time and place in history to create a strong critique of 20th century McCarthyism. No other time and place in history contains such a well-documented, absolutely hysterical hunt by those with dark intentions. The author quite simply chose the ideal setting in which to set The Crucible.Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play written as a brilliant critique of McCarthyism. The play contains all of the major themes of McCarthyism: abuse of power, hysteria, and malicious intent.
Works Cited
- Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY:Penguin Group, 1953.
- Print.Storrs, Landon R. Y. “McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare.”
- Oxford Research Lienhard, John H. “No. 1037: RYE ERGOT AND WITCHES.” No. 1037: Rye Ergot and Witches, 1997, www.uh.edu/engines/epi1037.htm.History.com Editors.
- “Joseph McCarthy.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 29 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/cold-war/joseph-mccarthy.’
- Joseph R. McCarthy Quotes.’ BrainyQuote.com.
- BrainyMedia Inc, 2019. 22 October 2019. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/joseph_r_mccarthy_182995Rtichie, Donald, and Elizabeth Bolling.
- “‘Have You No Sense of Decency?’.” U.S. Senate: ‘Have You No Sense of Decency?’, 24 Jan. 2019, www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Have_you_no_sense_of_decency.htm?platform=hootsuite.
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