During the early 1950s communists were suspected to be within the U.S. government,as a result the they were hunted down by senator Joseph McCarthy. However, do to their fear accusations were made without solid evidence and several innocent people were blacklisted and lost their jobs. This isn't the only situation that this has happened. In Mary Webster’s poem Half Hanged Mary and Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible the authors tell stories about witches in different communities. Each of these texts share the theme of how fear of a certain threat can lead to false accusations and regretful actions.

In Webster’s Half Hanged Mary, Mary became a innocent victim of the fear of witches in her village. Mary states “Rumour was loose in the air;