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Becca Meekins
AP Language
S. Pritchard
October 7,2011
The Crucible
John Miller wrote The Crucible in the early 1950’s in a period of great distress. The entire play consists of
a fictional account of the historical Salem witch trials. In this play, Miller uses The Crucible as a direct parallel for
the happenings of his time. The Crucible serves as a comparison between The Salem witch trials and McCarthyism
during the time the play was written. Although Miller was obviously trying to compare McCarthyism and the Salem
witch trials, there are some problems with interpreting The Crucible as a strict allegorical treatment of the 1950’s
McCarthyism.
In the early 1950’s, America was in a great period of alert. Americans were terrified of the threat of
communism spreading and lived in almost constant fear of attack (warranted and unwarranted). This period of time
is known as the Second Red Scare and is where the actions of John McCarthy originally coined the usage of his
name to describe the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for
evidence now known as McCarthyism. John McCarthy was a U.S. senator for Wisconsin and he capitalized on the
fear of communism by making a public accusation that two hundred and five communists had infiltrated the U.S.
government. Following these accusations, he continued to suggest that communists worked in the State Department
and also to attack a number of politicians and other individuals outside the government. His accusations started a
period in which massive blacklists were created to punish suspected communists, one of the lists targeting the
Hollywood film industry. The government established many committees to deal with and investigate all accusations
such as the House Committee of Un- American Activities and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. John
Miller saw the connections of this era to that of the Salem witch trials and used these connections to write The
Crucible.
The Crucible is an account of what happened during the Salem witch trials. The play is considered a
parallel to The Second Red Scare for multiple reasons. First of all the play is about how a few young girls fall ill
after being caught dancing in the woods and they confess to having dealt with the devil. The girls go on to accuse
others in their village of witchcraft and a court is set up to deal with these accusations. Many innocent people are
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either hanged or sent to jail unless they confess for something they didn’t do. One way in which the play relates to
McCarthyism is when Abagail (one of the young girls) accuses Sarah Good, Good Osburn, and Bridget Bishop of
consorting with the devil. These false accusations seem to mirror the accusations of John McCarthy during the Red
Scare Period. He played on peoples fear of communism just as Abagail and the other girls play on their town’s fear
of witches. After the town learns of these accusations the people are thrown into a fit of mass hysteria. Everyone is
suspected of dealing with the devil and more and more “evidence” is brought up about innocent people. Just as in
the book, following John McCarthy’s accusations people became even more paranoid and started pointing fingers at
everyone. Many people lost their jobs or the promise of a career and some even went to jail. In The Crucible the
people who were accused of witchery lost their land, were imprisoned or put to death. The accused were pushed to
confess there wrong doings but since many of them were innocent they refused to do so. Corey or Guiles was
tortured in hopes of receiving his confession but he did not give in and died. During the Red Scare Period many
people were brought up against courts that demanded they confess to being communists many who failed to do so
saw their careers suffer as they were blacklisted from potential jobs for many years afterward. In the play, there is a
Supreme Court that investigates the accusations and holds trial over the accused. The Court is over zealous in the
matter of finding the accused guilty and is terrified of being overthrown. This court is much like the different
committees formed to seek out and investigate those accused of being communists. Thought the Salem witch trails
seem like a perfect match to The Red Scare Period and McCarthyism, there are some differences.
Some treat The Crucible as a strict allegory of McCarthyism in the 1950’s but there are a few problems
with doing so. One such problem is that, as far as we know, there weren’t any actual devil-worshipers or witches in
Salem. In contrast, in the 1950’s there were actual communists in the United States. Many of these communists were
victims of McCarthyism at the time such as the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss which were later found to have been in
the pay of the Soviet Union. So several of the victims of McCarthyism in the 1950’s were less innocent than the
accused such as John Proctor or Rebecca Nurse in the play. In the Crucible, Miller stuck to the basic happenings of
Salem in 1692 but he took liberties with the characters. His central plot device relies on an affair between John
Proctor and Abagail which has no base in fact seeing as Proctor was sixty at the time of the trials and Abagail only
eleven. Thus Miller’s use of sexual jealousy as one of the driving forces of the play, undermines the direct
relationship between the play and the 1950’s a bit.
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When reading the Crucible it is evident that Miller meant to create parallels between the hysteria of the
Salem witch trials and the McCarthyism of his day. Both refer to the mass hysteria that broke out over mostly false
accusations and the drama that ensued. Though the Crucible has many similarities to the Second Red Scare era,
there are some issues with viewing it as a strict allegory of McCarthyism in the 1950’s. Overall, The Crucible serves
as an excellent depiction of how hysteria and intolerance can intersect to tear a community apart.
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Citations
Teagle, Sophie.”McCarthyism and the Crucible.” American History. 22 June 2010. Web. 3 October 2011.
Jones, Cody.” Arthur Miller McCarthyism.” American Masters. 23 August 2006. Web. 3 October 2011.