The Crucible, A Mini-Project

By L. F

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The Crucible and McCarthyism have connections that strike through both. I am about to write about two that stood out to me.



Abigail would accuse people of witchcraft, whether or not they were innocent. She would plant fake evidence to support her claims and to get her closer to her goal. We can see this with McCarthy as well. Though his goal was not love, and fear of witchcraft was not what he was using as leverage like Abigail had, they both used the mass paranoia and hysteria that plagued the people of their times to manipulate their ways into achieving their respective goals.

Both Abigail and McCarthy had made statements against people that had lacked any evidence, and because of that, the lives of many were ended, both socially, and literally. Elizabeth Proctor and Abigails actions against her, is an example of this.

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My take-away:



I believe that the modern reader can learn many things from these events, including the knowledge that in times of mass fear, hysteria, and paranoia, There will be someone who will try to take advantage of the situation to achieve a goal. Whether that goal is considered good or bad depends on the situation at hand.

The way that person (or the people who would) will take advantage of the situation, can differ, but in Abigail's case, she knew about the terror and paranoia that was afflicting the other villagers and used it to her advantage. She loved John Proctor and wanted to use the hysteria of the time to get rid of Elizabeth Proctor to take her place.



"Elizabeth: She wants me dead. I knew all week it would come to this!

Proctor, without conviction: They dismissed it. You heard her say—

Elizabeth: And what of tomorrow? She will cry me out until they take me!"

("The Crucible" Act II, 609.)



McCarthy parallels this, in a way. He too, used the mass hysteria of the time to achieve his part of his goal of gaining power. He accused innocent people of being communists just as Abigail had accused others of witchcraft. Here is some text evidence to prove my claim.



"-Edmund Walsh, a close fellow Roman Catholic and anti-communist suggested a crusade against so-called communist subversives. McCarthy enthusiastically agreed and took advantage of the nation’s wave of fanatic terror against communism, and emerged on February 9, 1950, claiming he had a list of 205 people in the State Department who were known members of the American Communist Party."

"-Joseph McCarthy then accused several innocent citizens, most notably Owen Lattimore, of being associated with communism."

("Senator Joseph McCarthy" 1.)

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Here are some sources I used for this project:



The Crucible

An article about Joseph McCarthy and the red scare