Charles Danna Essays - Film, Culture, Literature, American Children

Charles Danna Professor Kimberly Martin March 2, 2017 The Crucible - A Metaphor ? In writing the Crucible, Arthur Miller is thought to have used the fear of witches in Salem, Massachusetts as a metaphor for societies' fears of communism in 1950's America. In the crucible Mr. Miller wanted to demonstrate that the attitudes of citizens and actions of the committee ran by Senator Joseph McCarthy were as absurd and irrational as those of the people of Salem, Massachusetts. Mr. Miller uses the puritan setting of centuries before to provide a certain disconnect between the events and the feelings and emotions they incite. Three Centuries later, Americans in the 50's understood that witchcraft was not a viable threat to the country or its people, just as we understand now that Communism was never the threat to our society, it was the fear of communism and the actions made out of that fear that were hazardous. So is the crucible a subtle attack on McCarthy and his minions? Anticommunism sentiments were so high that if Miller's piece would have been a contemporary play about what was going on at the time surely his career would most likely have been over. Who knows if that was the only possible consequence. Now to the irony of the play. It cleverly undermines several of McCarthy's main policies. The baseless and somewhat ridiculous hysterical accusations made by a group of young girls is such a great way to mock what was actually happening at the time in the 1950's. The play is also about a peoples basic right to think for themselves and not have to conform to every popular ideology of the time. The martyrs of both time periods were the people who chose not to obey the pressures of society. "Being a witch" in this play is simply a substitute for "being a communist". Ironically the hero in this story is the man who holds his ground and stands up against the leaders of Salem just like all the heroes who were persecuted for nothing in the 1950's by senator McCarthy and his band of lunatics. Salem, Massachusetts was a puritan village led by Matthew Parris, being the villages spiritual leader he had plenty of clout and control over the day to day operations of Salem. We don't know much about Salem but we do know that it is far from a picturesque version of puritanism. It seems that there are disagreements and bickering going on all over the place even though from the outside everything seems to be running along perfectly. Might Miller be suggesting that although America looks so strong and mighty from the outside that she had plenty of problems going on within. The growing of the "witchhunt" is shown by the progression of the allegations the children are making against the townspeople. In the beginning the accusations they make are against the lower class of townspeople, or people no one cared about so there was no problem believing these people were witches. The problems really expanded when people started to notice how easy these allegations were turning in to arrest/conviction/death sentence. Once noticed, anyone with any disagreement or grudge or basically any reason to seek revenge on someone else would just accuse that person of being a witch and their problem would be solved. I think Miller uses these situations to show that this is what he thought that Senator McCarthy and his committee were doing, preying on innocent American citizens in order to increase their own standing and influence within the government. It wasn't just McCarthy and his committee, in Hollywood accusations of communism flew wildly between stars looking to get a head of one another by any means necessary. One famous actor, Charlie Chaplin, left the country at the time just so he wouldn't have to deal with this sort of thing. Miller's primary objective was Senator McCarthy. He wanted desperately to tell the world what a monster the senator truly was without any risk to himself. Who better to play the senator then a young girl, Abigail Williams. Abigail was the ringleader of the group of children driving this whole situation further and further into oblivion. A clever trick Miller