Examine The Crucible as an allegory. Review the genre, learn about the Red Scare, and analyze Arthur Miller's play as a political allegory for McCarthyism.
Updated: 11/21/2023
Allegory in The Crucible by A. Miller | McCarthyism & Analysis
Table of Contents
Show
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the allegorical suggestion of The Crucible?
The Crucible is, on the surface, a retelling of the Salem witch trials. In it, young girls, and residents of Salem, begin accusing other people of practicing witchcraft in order to protect themselves from the same accusation or to receive a lighter punishment. McCarthyism in the 1950s was a panic-driven search for communists and communist sympathizers in America. The allegorical suggestion of the The Crucible is that McCarthyism and the Red Scare had only as much validity as a witch hunt.
Is The Crucible an allegory for McCarthyism?
The Crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the early 1950s. In the early 1950s, many Americans were afraid that communists might infiltrate the American government and cause the U.S. government to fall. Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible, wrote about the Salem witch trials, but used that story to illustrate the unsubstantiated fear, panic, hysteria of looking for communist supporters in America.
Table of Contents
ShowIn the early 1950s, Americans became fearful that their friends, neighbors, or co-workers might be communists attempting to undermine American democracy and spread communism throughout the world. Playwright Arthur Miller, in researching the Salem witch trials, saw the similarities between the hysteria and fear of the witch trials and the Red Scare of impending communism. He created The Crucible as an allegory for McCarthyism and unfounded accusations of communist loyalties.
 |
On its surface, The Crucible is a play about the Salem witch trials of 1692. Inspired by reading a detailed account of the events written by Charles W. Upham in 1867, Arthur Miller saw parallels between the hysteria around the Salem witch trials and other public panics in history. Specifically, Miller drew a connection between the unsubstantiated accusations of communist sympathizers under McCarthyism and the accusations thrown around during the Salem witch trials. Miller's use of the Salem witch trials to highlight the panic of the Red Scare is an allegory.
The Crucible and McCarthyism
After World War II, the United States and the Soviet Union became embroiled in the Cold War. This was not a war fought on a battlefield, but rather one fought politically and economically. Both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. had developed nuclear weapons that could devastate each other, not to mention the world as a whole. On top of this fear of mutually assured destruction, certain parties in the U.S. believed that communist spies and sympathizers had infiltrated all aspects of American life. In 1949, China became a communist country led by Mao Zedong, and the U.S. became involved in the Korean War in 1950. This pitted South Korea against the communist forces in North Korea.
This fear, known as the Red Scare (because the Soviet flag was red), led people to believe that communist spies were holding positions of government, working as teachers in public schools, making movies in Hollywood, and infiltrating many other jobs where they could influence Americans and their belief in democracy.
These fears were not entirely unfounded as there had been Soviet spies discovered in the U.S. during WWII and after. Some communist spies were even found infiltrating the Manhattan Project.
These fears came together under the umbrella of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) which had been formed in 1938 to investigate potential communist activity inside the American government. In the early 1950s, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy from Wisconsin began leading the crusade to find any and all communists in America. His investigation, which came to be known as McCarthyism, whipped people into a frenzy, lobbing accusations at anyone who disagreed with his conservative viewpoints. Government officials, actors, professors, scientists, and authors all came under the scrutiny of his "witch hunt" for communist spies in America.
 |
Also in 1950, the McCarren Internal Security Act was passed by Congress even though President Harry Truman vetoed the bill. This act, written by Senator Pat McCarren, one of McCarthy's supporters, required that any organization that was determined to be communist had to register with the Justice Department, made it a felony to try and establish a dictatorship in the United States, and gave the government the ability to arrest anyone whom the president believed to be a spy or a saboteur. Parts of this act have been repealed over the years, and most of it is no longer applicable as of the 1990s.
The Red Scare caused people to suspect their neighbors and friends and report them as communist sympathizers. Many people lost their jobs, were taken in by law enforcement, and their lives were turned upside down.
Eventually, the fear of communism faded, and President Eisenhower shut McCarthy and his communist witch hunt down. Eisenhower explained that the constant pressure and anxiety of being called to testify about false accusations of communist associations prevented the efficient functioning of the executive branch of the U.S. Government.
Impact of McCarthyism on Arthur Miller
In 1951, as playwright Arthur Miller watched these communist "witch hunts" play out in the government and even among his friends in the entertainment industry, he felt compelled to write a play that captured the hysteria of the moment. He was drawn to the story of the Salem witch trials, and the more he learned about the trials, the hysteria, and the unfounded accusations made by the young women in Salem, the more parallels he saw between the contemporary events of the Red Scare and McCarthyism.
Perhaps Miller was particularly sensitive to this modern-day "witch hunt" because he had some fleeting associations with the American Communist Party. Evidence suggests that Miller contributed articles to American Communist Party publications and some of his political beliefs were evident in his plays. In 1953, when Miller published The Crucible, it was clear that he was condemning McCarthy and his communist witch hunts. In 1956, when Miller applied for a new passport, he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee to testify about his activities related to communism. He testified that he had signed pro-communist documents and attended four or five meetings for Communist Party Writers. He refused to say whether he had ever joined the Communist Party and likewise refused to give the names of any other people he had associated with. Miller explained in his hearing that he could speak about his own actions but claimed that naming other people invalidated his First Amendment rights.
Due to his refusal to answer, the committee charged him with contempt of Congress and sentenced him to a $500 fine or a 30-day stint in jail. However, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction.
Your next lesson will play in
10 seconds
As Arthur Miller was reading Charles W. Upham's thousand-page account of the Salem witch trials to understand the historical event, he recognized the similarities between the hysteria surrounding the accusations of the witch trials and the hysteria of the Red Scare that the U.S. was currently experiencing. When he wrote The Crucible, it served as an allegory, simultaneously retelling the story of the Salem witch trials and also presenting social commentary on McCarthyism and the Red Scare. An allegory is an artistic work or piece of writing that tells one story on the surface but represents a different set of events and teaches a moral or political lesson about those events.
Miller's version of the Salem witch trials is not a strictly accurate accounting of the historical record. He took some creative license with the storytelling to make a stronger impact on the audience. One particular element from the historical account caught Miller's attention and led to the conflict between the central characters in the play. Abigail Williams was John Proctor's niece and worked as a servant in John and Elizabeth Proctor's home. After Abigail and John had an affair, she was dismissed from the household, and Abigail and her friend, Ann Putnam, began showing signs of being afflicted by witchcraft and accusing people of practicing witchcraft.
In one account Arthur Miller read, written by the minister Samuel Parris, who was one of the leaders of the witch hunt in Salem, Abigail accuses Elizabeth of witchcraft by gently touching Elizabeth and then screaming that her fingers were burning. In this very public moment, Abigail condemns Elizabeth simply by touching her.
Miller saw with great clarity the similarity between the accusations of witchcraft in 1692 and the accusations of communism in the 1950s. The hysteria induced by the thought that witches were in Salem spread throughout the community like a disease. More and more young women began to accuse townspeople of having dealings with the Devil and practicing witchcraft. Their evidence was, at worst, completely made up, and at best it was vague. Caught up in the frenzy of accusations, judges and ministers believed that the accused must have done something wicked or they would not have been accused at all.
As people in Salem were accused of witchcraft and brought before the tribunal, they were asked to confess their guilt and name the other people in town who also participated with them in dark rituals. The demand to name other collaborators is a direct reference to the Red Scare and McCarthyism. People who were accused of being communist or communist sympathizers were told that they had to name other people who supported the communist movement. In both The Crucible and the Red Scare, false allegations increased fear and led to the detainment of many people on unsubstantiated evidence. Those people who were accused of witchcraft or communism were promised that they would be treated mercifully if they revealed others who were guilty.
Following WWII and the rise of communism in China and Korea, Americans feared the influence of communist spies and sympathizers. This fear, known as the Red Scare, led some Americans to believe that communists would take over America and replace its government with communism. In an effort to find the communist spies who had infiltrated various U.S. institutions, including the government, Senator Joseph McCarthy began a campaign to weed out communists and their sympathizers in the U.S. This push to monitor people accused of communism came to be known as McCarthyism.
People from all walks of life were accused of communist leanings: government workers, teachers, actors, and writers. Arthur Miller, disgusted and inspired by these events, wrote The Crucible as an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare. On the surface, The Crucible is an allegory ,or extended metaphor, using the story of the Salem witch trials to critique Joseph McCarthy and the Red Scare. After The Crucible was published, Arthur Miller himself was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee and was asked about his activities writing for the American Communist Party. He was also asked to provide the names of other people he knew who had communist leanings, but he refused, citing his First Amendment rights.
Video Transcript
A Modern-Day Witch Hunt
Accused of communism by a government committee led by Republican Senator Joseph P. McCarthy, playwright Arthur Miller fired back with The Crucible. This play is an allegory, or metaphor, that compares McCarthyism to the Salem witch trials.
The Red Scare
What do you consider the most frightening occurrence in America of this century? The September 11 attacks? The Ebola crisis? ISIS? How do politicians use their constituents' fear in order to gain support? After World War II, Americans were terrified of communism spreading throughout the world. Communism had taken over Russia, China, and North Korea. By the time the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, America was ripe for a war hero to step into leadership using the Red Scare as a political platform.
Promising to find communist sympathizers in America, Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin was elected after accusing many leading liberals of being communist traitors. Congress passed the McCarran Internal Security Act, which allowed the United States to require those accused of being dissidents to submit to government surveillance. Out of fear of reprisal, many people made false confessions and accused their friends and coworkers, but especially their enemies, of being communists.
Among those whose rights were violated were Hollywood legends like Lloyd Bridges, Harry Belafonte, Charlie Chaplin, and Lena Horne. In the end, none were found guilty of any crimes, although their careers suffered tremendously. McCarthyism came under heavy fire and eventually, Senator McCarthy fell from power. McCarthyism was compared to a witch hunt.
The Salem Witch Trials
After a recent visit to Salem, Arthur Miller returned home to find that his friend and collaborator, Elia Kazan, had provided names in his testimony before the Un-American Activities Committee. While he refused to cooperate with Congress by providing names of communists, Arthur Miller began writing his play that compares the hysteria that resulted in McCarthyism to the hysteria that resulted in the Salem witch trials. The Salem witch trials happened after a group of young ladies claimed to be possessed by Satan, mass hysteria broke out, and accusations of demonic activity led to the hanging of 19 women. Allegations were brought against 150 more men, women, and children. As with the McCarthy trials, fear resulted in false confessions, and old grudges resulted in fabrications of guilt. Eventually, the verdicts were overturned and the families of those who had been sent to the gallows were compensated, but that did not alleviate their grief or anger.
Arthur Miller's Adaptation
The Crucible uses many of the names from the actual Salem witch trials, but uses artistic license in creating the back story. In this allegory, just as in the McCarthy hearings, naming names became a way to get out of trouble. After Abigail had an affair with John Proctor and then drank blood to try to kill his wife, Abigail and her friends started accusing everyone in town of cohorting with the devil, 'I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!'
As with the McCarthy hearings, people are being forced into false confessions to save themselves. Elizabeth explains to John, 'The Deputy Governor promise hangin' if they'll not confess, John. The town's gone wild, I think. She speak of Abigail, and I thought she were a saint, to hear her.' Even though Abigail is the one in the town who is guilty, her willingness to renounce her sins and then lie about others elevated her to 'star' status in Salem.
Lesson Summary
During the Red Scare, Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin was elected to office after promising his constituents that he had found hundreds of Americans who were betraying their country through their associations with the Soviet Union and the Communist party. Without any evidence, McCarthy provided a list, which included many famous people from Hollywood who were required to submit to government surveillance and Congressional inquiry. Out of fear, many admitted to crimes they never committed or falsely outed their friends, coworkers, or enemies as communist spies. Writer Arthur Miller was among those who were accused but refused to cooperate with Congress by providing names of communists. Disappointed that his friend, Elia Kazan, did cooperate and feeling as if McCarthyism was born out of hysteria similar to that of a Salem witch trial, Miller wrote The Crucible as a piece of historical fiction that is an allegory comparing these events.
Register to view this lesson
Are you a student or a teacher?
Unlock Your Education
See for yourself why 30 million people use Study.com
Become a Study.com member and start learning now.
Become a MemberAlready a member? Log In
BackResources created by teachers for teachers
Over 30,000 video lessons
& teaching resources‐all
in one place.
I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. It’s like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. I feel like it’s a lifeline.
Jennifer B.
Teacher
Back
Allegory in The Crucible by A. Miller | McCarthyism & Analysis Related Study Materials
Explore our library of over 88,000 lessons
Browse by subject