During the 1950’s the original suspects charged with communist affiliation were often in the lower or less respected ranks of society. At first anyone from debtors, low level actors and artists to homosexuals were charged with affiliation with the Communist Party. Eventually the accusations worked its way up to more prominent levels of society; eventually even Miller himself was called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1956, three years after writing The Crucible. In his play a similar pattern is followed. At first the girls start accusing people of the lower class of witchery. Tituba, th

The Salem Witch Trials along with the era of McCarthyism were two changing points in the history of this country. The witch trials proved to be the defining moment in the history of theocracy in the United States. Theocracy would give way to democracy just the same way that after the end of McCarthyism a new found sense of toleration of all sorts of free speech would be ushered in. Fortunately, the people in both cases were able to learn from their mistakes and new and positive changes would start to take affect.

Another similarity between McCarthyism and The Crucible is that those who were accused had no means of defending themselves. In Miller’s tale the court reasoned that if you were a good, upstanding, Puritan than one would not need a lawyer to help defend yourself. The same held true for the infamous McCarthy hearings where it was believed that if one were not a communist, then why would you need a lawyer to help defend you? Also, in The Crucible people realized that a confession would in fact bring about a lighter sentence. Often they would name other supposed witches just to show that they had reformed. The same could be held true for those interrogated by McCarthy. In bot

Some topics in this essay:
McCarthyism Crucible, Miller’s Crucible, Party Crucible, Un-American Activities, United Army, John Proctor, United Theocracy, America Indeed, Witch Trials, Salem American, witch trials, arthur miller’s crucible, affiliation communist party, affiliation communist, mccarthyism crucible, american people, help defend, people salem, salem witch trials, communist party, lawyer help defend, held true, miller’s crucible, lawyer help,