... the paranoia about communism that pervaded America in the  1950s. Several parallels exist between the House Un-American Activities Committee's rooting out of suspected communists during this time and the seventeenth-century witch-hunt that Miller depicts in The Crucible, including the narrow-mindedness, excessive zeal, and disregard for the individuals that characterize the government's effort to stamp out a perceived social ill ... ...

• Word Count: 4038
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... of the forty-eight possessed, mostly were females. Forty-four percent of the possessed were females between the ages of sixteen to twenty who were "single-women" or "maids" in seventeenth century terms. Another 38 percent were over twenty while 18 percent were under sixteen. Three-fourths of the non-possessed accusers whose main concern was maleficium were men. In 1711, the ... ...

• Word Count: 2568
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

The Play Crucible is a fictional re-call of events in the American history surrounding the Salem witch trials of the seventeenth century which also provide the metaphor for Miller's parable of the Mc Carthy trials of the 1950s, John Proctor's agonising struggle with guilt emphasises the restrictive nature of the Puritan society. ... ...

• Word Count: 2628
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

Power and the Capability to Kill The tragic circumstances which resulted from the Witch Crisis in the late seventeenth century was the effect of the mass amounts of power held by a group of individuals. Within the drama The Crucible by Arthur Miller, several characters are pinned as the possessors of ... ...

• Word Count: 993
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School