Thesis statement: The play, 'The Crucible,' was written by American author Arthur Miller in 1953. The Crucible is set against the backdrop of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 when a group of girls thought to be demonically possessed in the strongly religious Puritan village of Salem accused a series of local women of practicing witchcraft. This led to widespread hysteria, a trial was set up, and multiple people were sent to the gallows after being found guilty of practicing witchcraft (Miller, 112). The Salem Witchcraft Trials share similarities with the Communist trials of the 1950s in that unsubstantial claims ruined many lives, mass hysteria led to both events, and innocent persons were singled out and persecuted in both events.
Why Miller Wrote “The Crucible.”
The author of the Crucible found the Salem Witch Trials inspiring, especially his situation after he was accused of being a “witch” himself. A crucible is a big metal plate where metals or other substances are subjected to very high temperatures. Since pure metals usually have different melting points, a crucible is an efficient way of separating metals from impurities. Miller used the term “crucible” as a metaphor. Given that the Crucible is used to separate pure metal from impurities, Miller likened the Salem Witch Trials to a crucible because of its role in separating the puritans from the witches. In the mid-20th century, after the Second World War, both America and Russia, two countries of enormous military might and conflicting political ideologies, came to be such intense rivals (LaFeber, 124).
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America was scared of Russia's nuclear arsenal, and Russia was equally scared of America's nuclear might. Meanwhile, America was a capitalist state, a social leaning that it took great pride in. On the other hand, Russia chose to adhere to the Marxism discourse, and together with China, became a very staunch communist state (Bette, 215). Due to the rivalry with Russia, and the ideology of freedom and hard work on which America was founded, patriotic American citizens were not only contemptuous of communism, and they were frightened of the idea. Somehow they believed that communism could creep into their country and dismantle its social and political structure. The mid-twentieth century, referred to as The Second Red Scare, was characterized by a campaign spreading fear of communism and heightened political oppression (Schrecker, 204). The hysteria of communism spreading to the US was so high that the American government established a committee whose sole purpose was to investigate Un-American Activities (communism) from spreading in America. The chair of the Non-American Committee was none other than the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy (Schrecker, 312).
McCarthy soon started accusing people who had leftish political leaning of being communists. Moreover, people were also outing one another. Celebrities were not spared, and many were outed as communists’ spies, including Arthur Miller, who was accused of being a communist because of his liberal political views (Schrecker, 414). Miller was furious, likening the shambolic way that McCarthy’s Committee operated to the Salem witch trials of the late 15th century. Many people that were accused of being communists lost their jobs, and reputations and were blacklisted although they were not communist spies. Miller wrote “The Crucible” to portray the stupidity that he thought surrounded the communist hysteria that existed in America in the 1940s and 1950s (Carson, 208). Miller wanted the public to reflect on how the witch hunts ruined many innocent lives during that dark part of American history and liken it to the prevailing political atmosphere of his time. The moral of Miller's story is not to support something because the more significant majority is already supporting it. Meanwhile, Senator McCarthy's name is forever etched in the English vocabulary, referring to the process of making subversive and treason accusations without regard for evidence (Ward & Butler, 265).
Investigations and Trials in the Salem Trials and McCarthyism Hearings
During the McCarthyism investigations, the committee largely ignored the rights of the accused, and the norms of the fair trial were thrown out the window (Schrecker, 245). Constitutional rights no longer applied, and new laws were implemented that oppressed personal freedoms. For instance, people suspected of being communists during McCarthyism were subject to very intense and unorthodox investigations; their phones were illegally tapped and were subject to rigorous questioning before government committees, agencies, or private industry panels (Schrecker, 271). Just like Salem started by targeting women, those targeted in the 1940s and 1950s were government employees, revered members of the entertainment industry, activists of the labor union, and academicians. Arthur Miller blacklisted himself three years after he wrote 'The Crucible.' The level of threat accorded to those accused or suspected of being communists (Carson, 21). Most of whom were people with leftish political views, were greatly exaggerated.
Anyone who happened to appear within the radar of the House of Un-American Activities' suspicion of communism immediately received a subpoena. During the hearings, the suspects were often grilled, after which they were expected to give out names of communist conspirators (Schrecker, 211). Any names that were provided were immediately issued with subpoenas, and the committee's scope widened. Some people who appeared before the HUAC had not committed espionage acts, but had in the past expressed communist 'thoughts.' People that refused to answer the committee's questions or give away names were often sent to jail (Schrecker, 253). Moreover, subjects that invoked their Fifth Amendment Rights were often portrayed as guilty.
Likewise, in the Salem Witch Trials, confessions from a series of delusional girls who were more afraid of the punishment that their shameful acts would get them decided to subvert the blame to innocent members of the society as their testimony was the only investigation required (Miller, 123). Just like communist suspects of the 1950s threats were extremely exaggerated, and the accused “witches” of Salem faced overwhelming and easily faked evidence; consider the spectral evidence that held about the witches’ spirits visiting the victims (Hill, 112). Furthermore, the McCarthyism hearings expected those who had been found guilty to give away the names of others, and many former communists must have denounced others as being more communist than they were to obtain absolution for themselves. A young Caribbean n slave girl by the name of Tituba confessed to being a witch with the thought that she would be spared the gallows if she cooperated. Tituba became an informer just like the many communist suspects. Just like Tituba, more alleged witches confessed to gain absolution (Hill, 536).
Singling Out Persons for Persecution
Several people were singled out in the Crucible as well as during the 1950s McCarthy hearings for practicing witchcraft or being communists, respectively. A striking similarity in the singling out of individuals and the fate that followed between the two separate events can be that of Rebecca Nurse and the Hollywood Ten, who refused to cooperate with the communist trials. Rebecca Nurse was a real person that was persecuted and eventually hung during the real Salem Witch Trials whom Miller chose to include in his play. In 'The Crucible,' the Nurse is married to Patrick Nurse and is portrayed as a sensible and upright elderly woman. The nurse is initially held in high regard by the Salem community. Even Reverend Gale, a non-Salem dweller is not immune to her exemplary character; he says about Nurse, 'It is strange how I knew you, but I suppose you look as such a good soul should. We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly.” (Miller, 152).
Miller sets Rebecca as the moral high ground from which his other characters can be measured. When she is accused of witchcraft (having allegedly killed seven through her spirit), she refuses to confess or give out names. She has too much integrity to drag anyone down with her. In 1947 when HUAC widened its scope to the entertainment industry, it accused ten Hollywood members of promoting communist influence in motion pictures (Schrecker,212). These ten men Hollywood men publicly denounced the shambolic tactics employed by HUAC, refused to cooperate or give out names of 'fellow' communists and were eventually blacklisted from ever working in Hollywood after being handed jail sentences (Schrecker, 234).
The social conditions that made Salem and the Communist “witch” hunt Possible
The belief that the devil could give individual humans supernatural abilities to harm fellow humans was widespread in Europe in the 14th century onwards, a belief that was also shared in New England. Life was also not easy in the rural community of Salem (Hill, 114). The member residents were still recovering from the effects of the British-French wars in the American colonies, the village had just been hit by a smallpox epidemic, and most were scared that Native Americans could attack anytime (Hill, 115). Among such conditions, the trials could have been sparked by the slightest of resentment, suspicion, or fear of outsiders, and they did. John Proctor tries to get the court to fathom the madness fueled by suspicion, resentment, and malicious agenda by saying,
“Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God's fingers? I'll tell you what's walking Salem-vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrants vengeance! I'll not give my wife to vengeance!” (Miller, 86).
Proctor wants the court to know that nothing has changed in Salem, the only thing out of the odd is that young girls with spirits of vengeance are now running around falsely accusing innocents and the court wants to believe them. Biblical principles of justice have been put aside as vengeance now writes the law.
After the Second World War, the United States lost its sense of national-self identification. Many had seen the effects of the great depression and associated it with capitalism and as such, might have expressed a little admiration for communism. The United States feared that communism might encroach within its systems. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union was growing in power, Moreover, eastern Europe was a conglomerate of communist states, and the US believed a nuclear threat surrounded it. Coupled with the fear of nuclear war with Russia. Paranoia led to the formation of HUAC (Schrecker, 286).
Can Mass Hysteria Happen Today?
Mass hysteria such as the ones that happened in Salem in the 1690s and in the United States during the 1950s led to more harm than good can happen anytime and anywhere. Furthermore, I have seen it happen in some places in the world. For example, the Arab Spring Revolution that began in the early 2010s was sparked when a man set himself ablaze in Tunisia in protests of an oppressive regime and low living standards; this soon led to full-blown protests that spread throughout the Middle East. Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Bahrain, followed, and some of these nations are far much worse than they were before the revolution (Noueihed & Warren, 17). Moreover, I have seen hysteria spread because of mysterious contagious diseases such as the Bird Flu hysteria of 2006 that led to mass quarantine and communication breakdown but eventually faded away without substantial damage. Mass hysteria is most likely to happen today due to the anxiety and psychological stress caused by mysterious diseases.
Why the Crucible failed in Averting the “Red Baiting”
One of the reasons why I believe that Arthur Miller’s book could not stop the red-baiting caused by the communist scare was because politicians took advantage of the public’s fear and used it to advance their agenda. Politicians are of a more significant influence than playwrights and they especially take advantage of the illiterate and ignorant to further their agenda. It has always been easier to appeal to fear than to reason, and politicians took the advantage of the underlying conditions to gain electoral support, by creating an aura for the public to associate what they opposed (communism) with something deeming and alarming. Arthur Miller could have written “The Crucible “in the form of a screenplay and made it into a movie immediately since motion pictures have a wider immediate audience. Maybe then, more people could have paid attention.
In conclusion, the play, “The Crucible,” is a play that was written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. The Crucible is set against the backdrop of the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692 when a group of girls thought to be demonically possessed in the strongly religious Puritan village of Salem accused a series of local women of practicing witchcraft. The Salem Witchcraft Trials share similarities with the Communist trials of the 1950s in that unsubstantial claims ruined many lives, mass hysteria led to both events, and innocent persons were singled out and persecuted in both events.
References
- Betts, Richard K., ed. Conflict after the Cold War: arguments on causes of war and peace. Taylor & Francis, 2017.
- Carson, Neil. Arthur Miller. Macmillan International Higher Education, 2008.
- Hill, Frances. A delusion of Satan: The full story of the Salem witch trials. Tantor eBooks, 2014.
- LaFeber, Walter, and Brian Abbott. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1975. Wiley, 1972.
- de Medeiros, Julian. 'The Battle for the Arab Spring: Revolution, Counter-Revolution and the Making of a New Era (Updated Edition).' (2014): 115-117.
- Schrecker, Ellen. 'McCarthyism: Political repression and the fear of communism.' Social Research (2004): 1041-1086.
- Ward, Jerry W., and Robert J. Butler, eds. The Richard Wright Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO, 2008.
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