"The Crucible"

Paper Summary:

This paper presents the play, "The Crucible", written by Arthur Miller at the height of the McCarthy period. The paper contends that Miller wrote the play about the Salem Witch Trials in the 17th Century as a parable for what was going on around him. The paper illustrates that, whereas the unfortunate "witches" in "The Crucible" were actually executed, the "witches" of the McCarthy era were executed socially, economically, and ideologically.

From the Paper:

"Perhaps one of the best accounts of both historical events is found within Arthur Miller's 1953 play, The Crucible, written in the height of the McCarthy period. At the time of its writing, the United States was entering into a period that is now described virtually universally as "dark". In it, a feeling of general threat pervaded the country a threat, it was believed, in which Communists inside the United States would threaten the national security of the nation (today known as the "Homeland"). Further, the government sought to convey a sense of urgency and fear, seeking to galvanize public opinion in favor of the immense spending that would support the new "Cold War"
Against the terrorist oops, I mean Communist threat."

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