Parris: All innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem! These people are gloomy for it. Here, Parris reacts to others disagreeing with his desire to question the ninety-one townspeople who signed a testament in defense of the good characters of Rebecca Nurse, Elizabeth Proctor, and Martha Corey—three women accused of witchcraft. Hawthorne: This is contempt of the court, Mr. Danforth, to avoid that : You will surely tell us the name.
Giles: I will not give you no name. I stand mute. Here, Giles Corey is being pressured by the court to provide the names of others in Salem who have practiced witchcraft, but he refuses to do so.
Giles already regrets mentioning that his wife, Martha Corey, read books, a statement that led to her imprisonment because it was assumed she was reading books about witchcraft and spells. Danforth, angered now : Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!
Hale: But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it. Danforth: No uncorrupted man may fear this court, Mr. To Giles : You are under arrest in contempt of this court. Reverend Hale has just explained to Deputy Governor Danforth that the residents of Salem have come to fear the court because of the many innocent people who have been imprisoned and killed as a result of being accused of witchcraft.
Danforth insists that no innocent person need fear the court, a statement readers and Hale know to be false based on the fact that Giles Corey was arrested simply for refusing to give names.
Miller closes his essay by saying, "I am not sure what The Crucible is telling people now, but I know that its paranoid center is still pumping out the same darkly attractive warning that it did in the fifties. The fear of witches only seems archaic because most of society no longer holds serious beliefs in the supernatural. Today, scenarios like this can be even more insidious because "witch hunts" are conducted for types of people that really do exist.
There were, of course, communists in the US in the s, but the vast majority of them had no designs on overthrowing the US government or becoming Soviet spies. The danger lies in assuming that purely because someone holds a political or religious belief, he or she must pose a threat.
People who are viewed as "other" continue to be persecuted out of fear and ignorance. The Crucible and McCarthyism can be compared to other modern forms of rumor, persecution, suspicion, and hysteria such as:.
Now that you've read the article, you can try your hand at answering some of these discussion questions. I've included a few different types of questions on this topic that you might encounter in your English class:. Check out our full book summary of The Crucible so you can see for yourself how the play fits into its historical context. Need some quotes to fill out your essay for English class? Read this article for a list of all the most important quotes in the play , categorized by theme.
To fully understand the messages of The Crucible , you need to get to know the main characters. Interested in what witchcraft and magic in America looked like in the years leading up to the publication of The Crucible?
Learn who Aleister Crowley was and what influence he had on counter-culture with this article. We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:. Samantha is a blog content writer for PrepScholar. Her goal is to help students adopt a less stressful view of standardized testing and other academic challenges through her articles.
Samantha is also passionate about art and graduated with honors from Dartmouth College as a Studio Art major in Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers. How to Get a Perfect , by a Perfect Scorer.
Score on SAT Math. Score on SAT Reading. Score on SAT Writing. What ACT target score should you be aiming for? How to Get a Perfect 4. How to Write an Amazing College Essay. A Comprehensive Guide. Choose Your Test. How did his own experiences shape his writing? Where does "fear" come from? The play presents itself as a metaphor for the House of Un-American Activities Committee that was created during the Cold War when communism was spreading, but Miller never actually referenced it in the play.
Fear plays an important role in both stories. Citizens of the United States during the McCarthyism era were scared of communism and communists infiltrating the United States or worse, that they were already there. To many, this ending is unsatisfying, as they wish for the happy ending aforementioned.
There is a spiritual resolution to all the characters, each one corresponding with their role in the plot. 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 to explain the communist hysteria during the s.
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.
Certainly, Miller creates a. Arthur Miller is an American playwright who wrote The Crucible in The story is basically about a time of suspicion and accusation of many innocent women and men caused by a group of girls doing witchcraft that led to hysteria and complete turmoil in Salem village, and this exists in the late s. It was actually written on the heels of World War II, during a time when the United States, especially Senator Joseph McCarthy as one of the most outstanding people at the time, was highly concerned.
The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller in Miller also wanted Americans to understand that McCarthyism was giving them false information and causing them to have unfounded fear; he accomplished this by comparing McCarthyism to the Salem Witch Trials.
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