Similarities And Similarities Between The Mccarthy Trials And Salem Witch Trials

Any individual could be found guilty due to the claims of their neighbor. During the McCarthy trials; Senator McCarthy accused a majority of the State Department of being communists, because he blamed them for China turning to Communism. In both occurrences, those who had been accused had no way to defend themselves. This was due to the idea that if someone accused you of being a witch or a communist then there was no doubt that the accusation was credible, and therefore you were guilty. In modern times, if a person is accused of sexually harassing women, they too have no way to defend themselves from the accusations. An example of this from The Crucible is when Rebecca Nurse was put on trial for witchcraft because one of her neighbors claimed that she had killed all of the woman’s children during childbirth. This was an effective way to represent how witch hunts bring such great harm to people, due to the fact Rebecca Nurse was portrayed in Miller’s play as a respectable, kind, and religious elderly woman. As the audience comes to realise that such a noble character will be destroyed because of false claims from a resentful person, they are angered. This appeal to emotion helps the reader to consider coming to understand both the victim and the accused before finding them

“Everyone loves a witch hunt as long as it's someone else's witch being hunted.” this is a quote by Walter Kirn. The Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials are very similar to the time of McCarthyism and it the most likely reason the why the book was written. “It was not only the rise of "McCarthyism" that moved me, but something which seemed much more weird and mysterious.” (Budick 1985) a quote by the author himself proving it was a factor that made him write the book. They were both witch hunts one literally one not so much a witch hunt as a communist hunt. Events in the play and events in McCarthyism are both very similar. A general thing that happened during both is hysteria, a mass feeling of fear in a way. They were both about people

The crucible provides evidence of scapegoating due to the false accusations of witchcraft witchcraft toward innocent citizens of salem. The Salem witch trials was when accusations were made towards the citizens of Salem involving witchcraft. These accusations led to nineteen killings and many more people jailed. An example of scapegoating in the crucible is seen in the following quote, “Oh Mary it is black art to change your shape...No I cannot, cannot stop my mouth; it is God’s work I do”(120). This quote describes a “scapegoat” because instead of Abigail accepting that she had been caught in a lie, she turns to please Mary Warren under blame. This showed Abigail was only in judgement of herself and did not care about the way Mary Warren was perceived by others. The quote proved to be as scapegoat because the fault was shifted to Mary to Abigail in the clear. Another example of a scapegoat from “The Crucible” was when Mary Warren accused John Proctor of being a witch. This is seen

A well renowned founder of western philosophy, Socrates stated, “False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil” (Socrates). This quote relates to the evil that Senator Joseph McCarthy and antagonist of The Crucible Abigail Williams brought to their time. Abigail used her opportunities to strike fear into everyone in her town.This resulted in, the Salem Witch Trials were a series of witchcraft cases brought before local magistrates in a settlement called Salem, which was a part of the Massachusetts Bay colony in the 17th century (History of the...,3). Also, Arthur Miller was one of the Hollywood 10 accused of being a communist and that affected his life which he wrote The Crucible to not only show the Salem Witch Trials but to give insight to the readers about the time during McCarthyism. Secondly, Senator Joseph McCarthy claimed that over 200 communist have infiltrated the U.S government, as a result the 1947 Taft-Hartley act had an anti-Communist clause that required union leaders to take an oath stating that they were not communists (Facts about McCarthyism, 6). McCarthyism and The Crucible were very similar in the way they were governed, their judicial systems and the way they blamed the people.

Martin Niemöller once said,“First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” The culture of accusations is a part of hysteria. As paranoia ensued in “The Crucible”, Joseph McCarthy made false allegations that influenced many peoples lives. An affair integrated in Arthur Miller’s play created controversy among the community. Trials were held for those accused and lying was the only way to survive. The harsh truth that was revealed in “The Crucible” and the parallels between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials show patterns in which fear was used as an advantage, unsubstantiated claims occurred, and unethical punishments were given.

Does the Salem Witch Trials and The Holocaust Have Things in Common? During both of these times mass numbers of people were being killed and driven by fear in their own society. This fear became mass hysteria. Mass hysteria occurred in 1692 in the town of Salem and again “between 1933 and 1945, [when] more than 11 million men, women, and children were murdered in the Holocaust” (Lehnardt 1).

When we hear or read about a tragic story, our mind will often prompt us to read or hear the end result first and then glimpse over how the event actually came to that particular point. However, the events that led or caused the event to happen should also capture our attention as well because we would have a better understanding of the situation on a rounded spectrum. An example of a similar situation is the infamous event occurring in the spring of 1692. When Arthur Miller retold the event in the format of a play in 1967, the United States was recovering from WWII in 1945. In that period, the country was going through an overwhelming era of post-war paranoia and intolerance because the Communist Era shook people on an emotional level. There are many similarities between the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and the communist paranoia in the U.S. in the 1960s. People were asked to point out names who they thought were in suspicion of being one of the wretched communists. As soon as a person’s name was called out, that person’s status diminished almost immediately along with their family members which a similar event occurred in Salem as well. Miller wanted to point out that if hysteria and paranoia continued, it could ultimately lead to the loss of innocent lives once again. Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” displays the lack of knowledge in medicine and psychology accompanied with the horrendous effects occurring from the causes led to the hanging of 19 people.

The Crucible is the fictional story of the Salem witch trials in which many women were accused of being witches. The Crucible is written by Arthur Miller, who was recorded as the greatest American playwright (“Arthur Miller” 1). The scene for the play is based in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1692. McCarthyism was the act of accusing people of treason without evidence, attacks on a person's character, and attack on their patriotism by accusing many Americans of being communist (Ortega). Lisa Martin says, “Communists control led the two world superpowers, China and the Soviet Union Americans feared a takeover in their own country” (Martin 1). Many people tried to accuse the men and women who were spreading the fear. One man named Joseph McCarthy was a senator that charged communists that interfered with the U.S. State Department (“Joseph McCarthy” 1). The accusations lead to investigations, questioning and finding people guilty without evidence,

McCarthyism is when people make accusations of treason without evidence, and take advantage of some extreme fear in order to send people they don’t like to jail or to death. Though wrong, it was used many times throughout history. I intend to explain how McCarthyism is comparable to what happened in the Salem Witch Trials, how it was used in The Red Scare, and the effects of it on the people accused.

Witch hunts have been mentioned in the times of McCarthyism and in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Being put on the list for being a witch like in The Crucible, or being blacklisted in McCarthyism times was not a good thing. McCarthyism and The Crucible are similar in the concept of witch hunts, but the consequences are rather different.

Many similarities can be found between the McCarthy period and the events of The Crucible. In the 1950’s, communists in America were sought after and punished for their beliefs. In The Crucible, women accused of witchcraft were sought after and, as a more severe punishment, killed for their actions. Senator Joseph McCarthy can be compared to Abigail from The Crucible because they both put forth many false accusations. McCarthy falsely accused over 200 government officials of being communists (McCarthyism). Likewise, Abigail accused many townspeople of being witches. In The Crucible, the government of Salem hung people simply for not admitting to being a witch even if it was a false statement. If someone was accused of being a witch however, they could lie and say that someone else was forcing their spirit on them and then the second person would be to blame. So, when Abigail was being accused of witchcraft instead of defending her innocence she blames other women for being with the devil so they would be punished instead of her. While being accused Abigail calls out the names of girls she does not like and says, “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Miller). The three women Abigail named were innocent and had to go through investigations after

The Salem witch trials and the Holocaust are similar in many ways. Though they were nearly three-hundred years apart, they share many similarities; false accusations, mass hysteria, and the slaughter of many people are some similarities This essay will compare and contrast both topics. During the Holocaust and witch trials there were accusations of people being either Jewish or a witch with little to no proof. In Nazi Germany, Jewish people were considered an inferior race (Classification System in the Nazi Concentration Camp) .

The connection between “The Red Scare” and Salem witch trials shows that history can repeat itself because the people who started it accused many people, people from two different time periods can both accuse other without any remorse, and while trials have been placed for those innocent victims. Accusation was a known thing for people back then and is what made such events take place. In Salem, Massachusetts around 1690’s the Salem Witch Trials took place. The Salem Witch Trials was a dark period in time where woman and men were accused of interacting with the Devil and interacting with Witchcraft. While 2.5 Centuries later a nationwide issue took place during World War 2, “the most widespread war in history (Wikipedia) “. People would ask themselves what

“YOU’RE A WITCH!”, “YOU’RE A COMMUNIST!” Imagine you’ve been brought to a court or government panel, even though you haven't committed any crime or been charged with one. You are questioned about your political or biblical values and are accused of disloyalty or of being a witch and are asked to incriminate your friends, neighbors and associates. If you don’t cooperate, you risk jail, losing your job, or are killed; this occurred during the Salem witch trials and the McCarthyism era. McCarthyism was a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy in the period 1950–54. Many of the accused were blacklisted or lost their jobs, although most did not in fact belong to the Communist Party. The Salem witch trials were a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft in colonial Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. The trials resulted in the executions of twenty people, fourteen of them women, and all but one by hanging. The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatized and partially fictionalized story of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during 1692/93. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy era because people believed false evidence out of fear, people falsely accused each other out of fear and self gain, and after the trials the accused lives were

In the 1940s, the Holocaust became one of most famous genocides to this day. Also, the witch hangings in 1600s Salem was another case of people being wrongfully accused and killed. The amount of similarities of the two are apaling. (A Comparison of the Holocaust and the Salem Witch Trials.”2008) Both leaders in these incidents, had enormous control