Sarah Clay
Ms. Hans
Amstud English 10H
23 April 2018
The Crucible Essay One connection that is often overlooked is that Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in the late nineteen forties and early nineteen fifties at a time when America had developed a newfound fear of communism and politicians were investigating people, accusing them of being communists and wrongly prosecuting them. It has been said that Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible because he was fascinated with the Salem Witch Trials and because he wanted to remind people who had forgotten about the fear and shame that resulted from so many innocent people who were found guilty of being witches and hanged. Arthur Miller used his writings in the Crucible to tell the world that a community …show more content…
This is best exemplified by the case of Giles Corey a man who chose to mention that his wife might be a witch. After Corey realized his actions had led to his wife being sentenced to a hanging death, he immediately is overcome with grief and begs for his wife to be released. Corey suggests to Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne that he heard from a man that Thomas Putnam had accused another man of being a witch purely because he wanted his land after the man was executed. Danforth and Hathorne interrogate Corey for the name of the man who heard Putnam’s conversation as evidence. Corey replies, “ I will not give you no name. I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute.” (Act 3 pg. 97). The people of Salem respect Corey for his courage in not giving up the names of others and for acknowledging that he was wrong to mention that his wife may have been a witch. Judge Danforth sentences Corey to be pressed death for his actions. The people of Salem begin to doubt the fairness of the court’s ruling to press him to death. The uncertainty of the intentions of the court among the people in Salem was enough to create a lack of support for the legal system. When the people of a community begin to question their system of government and the Court’s fairness, the community begins to …show more content…
Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible at a time where his society in America was experiencing similar hysteria around communism to Salem during the Witch Trials. When reading about such madness in Salem, Miller drew connections to the hunt for communists in America. Miller used his writing capabilities in The Crucible as a caution to readers of the possible collapse in the community if the events of the hunt for communists continued. His writing underscored the importance of institutions like churches and governments and the value of honest leaders who are not selfish and put the people’s interests first before their own, unlike Reverend Parris or Judge Danforth. He was also sending an important message to Americans that people needed to have the courage to take action if they saw signs that their society was collapsing. Furthermore, Miller connected the similarities of the events between these different time periods to tell people that history has a tendency to repeat