Salem vs McCarthyism Essay - 1648 Words

Imagine you are called in by an official of your government. He sits you down in a chair and informs you that you have been accused of something terrible, something that everyone in your city fears. You defend yourself and tell him that you had nothing to do with this crime. The official says he believes you, but in order to let you leave, you have to give him the name of someone you know who has committed this crime. You know of no one who would commit such a heinous crime, but the official refuses to let you go until you give him a name. One name. Any name. This situation sounds a little extreme, and even a bit barbaric. One would think that it would have happened a long time ago, before men were civilized and refined. They are right.†¦show more content†¦This was one of the reasons that there was so much hysteria that went along with the Salem Witch Trials. In 1692, Reverend Samuel Parris of Salem was shocked to discover his nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth (known as â€Å"Betty†) and his eleven-year-old niece Abigail Williams acting extremely strangely. The young girls were screaming and crying and contorting their bodies into strange and uncomfortable positions. The girls said they felt like their bodies were being pricked with hundreds of needles. Their hysterical episode was described as beyond the power of epileptic fits or natural disease to effect. An unknown doctor, (historical evidence suggests that it was Doctor William Griggs) examined the girls and could not find anything physically wrong with them. There were no signs of any illness that he knew of. Most accounts say that this doctor was the first one to suggest that the girls’ behavior could be a result of witchcraft. Soon, other girls in the village began to show the same symptoms as Betty and Abigail. Eventually, Betty, Abigail and two other â€Å"afflicted† girls named Tituba, Reverend Parris’ slave, Sarah Osborne, a woman who rarely came to church, and Sarah Good, a town beggar, as the women who bewitched them and caused their strange sickness. It all went downhill from there. Anyone in the town who exhibited even mildly suspicious behavior, or spoke out against the trials was accused ofShow MoreRelatedSalem Witch Trial vs Mccarthyism1208 Words   |  5 PagesA review of A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials, by Laurie Winn Carlson, Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, 2000; 224 pp. $14.95 Paperback. ISBN: 1-566633095 A FEVER IN SALEM POSITS A biological cause for the early modem witchcraft epidemic, which resulted in the hanging of 19 people in Salem, MA, in 1692. Witchcraft persecution, Laurie Carlson writes, arose because of the strange behavior of the supposedly bewitched accusers. She concludes that the cause was a disease unrecognizableRead MoreThe Powerless- Analysing Mccarthyism Vs. The Salem Witch Trials2054 Words   |  9 PagesThe Empowerment of the Powerless- Analysing McCarthyism Vs. The Salem Witch Trials During the witch trials, almost two hundred innocent people were convicted of consorting with the Devil and practicing witchcraft, and a surprising twenty people were hanged for their lack of confession. The source for this mass hysteria, was nothing more than the silent influence of eleven young girls ranging from the age of nine to twenty-five. They began to accuse their neighbors of witchcraft, gaining them theRead MoreArthur Millers The Crucible And The Second Red Scare1293 Words   |  6 Pagesfearful†¦of being identified as Communists† (Miller â€Å"Why I Wrote The Crucible†). Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an effective allegory due to Miller connecting Salem to McCarthyism by the showing the people of Salem being driven into rash actions and unjust court systems because of their paranoid spirits. The most apparent similarities between Salem and the Second Red Scare are the trials themselves, however, Miller does not utilize them as his strongest con nections. Miller creates the most connectionsRead MoreThe Mccarthy Hearings Vs The Salem Witch Trials Essay1011 Words   |  5 PagesMcCarthy Hearings vs The Salem Witch Trials The McCarthy Hearings and the Salem Witch Trials both transformed the thought process of Americans today. Despite being described as completely unique and distinguished events, they both are eerily similar in appearance. The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are both described as witch hunts with several similarities in the way the inspired fear but they have several differences in the motivation and the end of each event. The Salem Witch Trials is knowRead MoreMccarthyism And The Salem Witch Trials1195 Words   |  5 PagesMcCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence (â€Å"McCarthyism†). The Salem Witch Trials was when more than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft and 20 were killed because of these accusations (Brooks). During the Red Scare like there are accusations of people committing treason during the Red Scare. In The Crucible people are accused of being witches during the Salem Witch trials. There are many similarities and differencesRead MoreThe Hands Of An Angry God1627 Words   |  7 Pagesdirected to a Puritan congregation urging with orthodox fervor for transgressors to repent. Arthur Miller wrote the allegorical play The Crucible in 1953, lively portraying the hysteria occurring during the Salem Witch Trials in an effort to describe his perceptions of the post-war climate of McCarthyism and the sh eer terror of Communism. In the pulpit oratory â€Å"Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God†, Edwards eloquently uses imagery, metaphors, and symbolism in order to instill fear in his congregation andRead MoreThe Crucible : An Allegory For The Red Scare2011 Words   |  9 PagesAmericans being equal in status to White Americans during the Civil Rights movement. Although the crucible takes place in 1692, Salem, it reflects the concerns of 1950?s American life and is an allegory for the Red Scare, and Homosexuality. [2: Wall, Wendy. Anti-Communism in the 1950s. www.gilderlehrman.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016. .] The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts, which was a puritan town.[endnoteRef:3] Reverend Parris is praying over his daughter, Betty, who appears toRead MoreThe Cold War And The Cuban Missile Crisis2976 Words   |  12 Pagesannihilation at any moment in time. Many can even name important events in the Cold War, such as ‘The Berlin Wall Collapsing’ or ‘The Cuban Missile Crisis’, however there is one major part of the Cold War that most tend to forget and glance over: McCarthyism, or the Red Scare. Senator Joseph McCarthy stressed an importance on ending communism in America, and during the 1950s, many accused to be affiliated with communists were sent to court and sometimes to prison when, in fact, most were innocent. ThoseRead MoreEssay about The Fear of the Noose in The Crucible by Arthur Miller713 Words   |  3 PagesArthur Miller establishes a period in the American history known as the Salem witch trials of 1692. It is a well built Puritan s ociety in which the citizens are bonded with the church. During this time McCarthyism was in play, it was the anti-communist suspicions into the U.S. The theme in the story The Crucible was honesty and truth versus scapegoat. Arthur Miller used the noose to lead the reader to the theme of honesty vs. scapegoat. The noose represents the most prevalent symbol in The CrucibleRead MoreMccarthyism : Alive Yesterday, Today, And Tomorrow2146 Words   |  9 PagesMcCarthyism: Alive Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow â€Å"Want of foresight, unwillingness to act when action would be simple and effective, lack of clear thinking, confusion of counsel until the emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong - these are the features which constitute the endless repetition of history.† Winston Churchill Winston Churchill was correct to state that history does in fact repeat itself, and when one looks at the past one can see that McCarthyism, the execution