Anarthyism And Mccarthyism In Arthur Millers The Crucible

As America entered the post-war era after World War II, there was still an ongoing sense of paranoia throughout the country. In the mid-nineteen hundreds, McCarthyism, initiated by Joseph McCarthy’s accusation of 205 Communists and the use of unjust methods to hunt Communists, arose. As this era emerged, Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, which highlighted and dramaticized the scandal of the 1692 Salem witch trials, gained popularity and opened on Broadway. Though the two events in American history, McCarthyism and the witch trials, lie almost 300 years apart, Miller’s The Crucible serves as an allegory to the closely mirrors the events of McCarthyism, specifically in the request of the names of those accused, the absence of reliable†¦show more content†¦His private list started off with two hundred and five names, then two days later decreased to fifty-seven. â€Å"In the following weeks, McCarthy bumped this number up to 81 and then shaved it down to 10,† (The Crucible Mini-Q, 301). In Act III of Miller’s play, there is a conversation between Reverend Hale and Deputy Governor Danforth concerning the seventy-two death warrants Hale has signed. Hale states, â€Å"I dare not take a life without there be a proof so immaculate no slightest qualm of conscience may doubt it,† and Danforth responds by saying that there is nothing else that can be done, besides relying on only the allegations given by the victims (Miller). The inconsistency in McCarthy’s claims proved the lack of reliability his â€Å"private list† had, just as there was a lack of reliability in the proof regarding those accused of witchcraft. Though there were people that easily gave up their right to silence, in both The Crucible and during the era of McCarthyism, there were people who stayed true to their beliefs and refused to testify. When approached by the HUAC, Pete Seeger, a folk singer and activist, followed Albert Einstein’s advice when it came to opposing Congressional investigations. In a letter to a schoolteacher, Einstein said, â€Å"... Every intellectual who is called