In my class, we have been reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This book/act is a drama about people being accused of practicing witchcraft. The play takes place in the late 1600s in a town called Salem. In the town, there were many people who had enemies that they hope to get rid of such as the characters Abigail and Elizabeth Proctor due to Elizabeth firing Abigail because Abigail was having an affair with Elizabeth’s husband.
Being asked or forced to “name names” or implicate others in a problematic situation
The Crucibles – Arthur Miller
In Act 1, there were people who believed that a witch is causing Ruth and Betty to sink into a coma-like state. Tituba was a suspect of forming a pact with the Devil. When brought into questioning she was threatened to be whipped to death or hanged unless she confessed she formed a pact with The Devil. Tituba scared by the threat “confessed” that she saw four people with The Devil. From this point, people in the scene began to yell out their enemy’s names. Everyone saw the witch scenario as a chance to get rid of their enemies so they called out their enemy’s names to accuse them of performing witchcraft without any evidence of if their enemy actually performs witchcraft.
self-accuse by Hartwig HKD via Flickr CC BY 2.0
McCarthyism
The accusing fiesta in The Crucible reminds me of McCathyism that we are learning in history class right now. McCarthyism began when the idea of communism invaded America in the 1950s. When Joseph McCarthy became the Senator in 1947, he introduced the practice of McCarthyism, which is a practice of accusing people without evidence. Americans in the 1950s accused others in hopes to avoid others accusing them. I think the practice of rooting out suspected communists and communist sympathizers during this time is similar with the scene of where people began accusing enemies about witcraft without proper evidence. Also, like the people being accused of performing witchcraft, the suspected Communists were encouraged to confess their crimes and to “name” others that are sympathetic towards communism. Both the crucible and McCarthyism requires people to name out other innocent people.
McCarthyism Source: “McCarthyism.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2017.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism
1. I like how you start off the blog post.
2. I really like in depth analysis. I now understand the character, Abigail more.
3. I really like your connection with McCarthyism
1. You introduced the story of The Crucible in the first paragraph, giving readers some background information. This helps the further development of your blog post.
2. Your comparison between the witchcraft accusations and McCarthyism is interesting yet accurate. Arthur Miller actually wrote the Crucible to implicitly condemn the anti-communist sentiments in 1950s.(he said it in the book)
3. You highlighted certain important concepts so that readers could quickly grasp the main idea of a paragraph. It becomes clear that “lack of evidence” is the reason of terror behind the two events you discuss.