This anti-communistic fervor created a massive hysteria forcing suspected individuals to confess and identify other communists to save themselves. During this period, panic ensued across the country as people were falsely accused of associating with communists putting at risk the reputation and lives of numerous people. Joseph McCarthy, a U.S senator, was in charge of the committee that sought to find communists in the country, giving rise to the term McCarthyism. Written in 1953, The Crucible explored a more recent witch hunt in the 1950s, where individuals accused of supporting and sympathizing with communism were hunted and jailed.
The play was influenced by the historical event of the Salem witch hunts in 1862 that involved innocent men and women falsely accused of witchcraft and hanged. Miller efficiently illustrates how blindly following religion can result in preconceived ideas about other people’s values leading to false accusations. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a dramatized and fictionalized story that explores inconsistencies in religions and social norms.
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