Why I Wrote The Crucible Essay | FreebookSummary

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?Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, portrays the fundamental causes of paranoia amidst its effects on a society and its individual counterparts, united with the terror of supernatural forces. In Puritan New England, the occurrences involving the presence of witchcraft fittingly resembled the appearance of Communists in America in the mid-1900s. Senator Joseph McCarthy roused up hysteria in the American people by encouraging the belief that Communism had slipped through the cracks of the United States government, similarly to how Reverend Parris allowed the notion of witchcraft to escalate to the point of death in Salem, Massachusetts.

Miller’s drama rendered certain elements that mirrored the Second Red Scare, such as societies having just been delivered from a time of disorder and confusion and the institution of duress causing persons to irresponsibly accuse another so to uphold their reputations. In the earlier lines of The Crucible, Miller explains that part of the overwhelming suffering that took place occurred because of “their self-denial, their purposefulness, their suspicion of all vain pursuits, [and] their hard-handed justice” (Crucible 6).

The defeat of a society, if not from another civilization, originates within itself. This same concept is shown in the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era since both Parris and McCarthy, as leaders in their communities, instigated panic and continued falsely preaching about nonexistent injustices. In his drama, Miller states, “the witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom” (7).

In regard to all communities, panic excites even more paranoia; Under these conditions, people tend to assimilate under the same judgments due to lack of reason. Those accused in Salem began voicing the names of innocent people to the court because they acknowledged the fact that death would result if they refused. Similarly, Americans felt that if they did not create allegations against others, their reputations would be tarnished and their livelihoods ruined. Parallel to the Communist trials, the witch trials were substantially progressed by the proclamations of the accused, who were driven into naming other offenders.

In his article, addressing those questioning his play, Millers explains, “the best proof of the sincerity of your confession was naming others whom you had seen in the Devil company – an invitation to private vengeance, but made official by the seal of the theocratic state” (“Why I Wrote’). Spectral evidence was a damning indication of witchcraft during the Salem Witch Trials, but the pressure to save oneself from acquiring a destroyed reputation was also a motivating factor.

The people accused during the Salem Witch Trials also can be compared to the artists, writers, and actors during the McCarthy Era. Collectively, the groups had the duty to reveal to their society the fallacious convictions of the Salem Court and the House Un-American Activities Committee, who were claiming legitimacy based on unreliable ideas. While obliged to expose the corrupt nature of the court systems, the people also recognized that accompanied by this responsibility came the possibility of imprisonment or death.

Miller states, “the Red hunt, led by the House Committee on Un-American Activities

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