The Crucible And The Red Scare
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“Because of your political views, you will be completely stripped of your civil liberties.” If you lived in America during the period that has come to be known as the “red scare”, then you were constantly in danger of hearing fatal words such as these that could completely destroy your life. Arthur Miller wrote a story about this dreadful time, titled The Crucible. Since the subject was controversial at the time, Miller had to subliminally write about it through the story of the Salem witch trials. Basic human rights were violated by HUAC, who was symbolized by the court system in Millers story. To anyone who didnt confess to their supposed crime, there were severe repercussions, such as death or blacklisting. Senator McCarthy, a corrupt senator who rose to power in the American legal system, was signified by Abigail Williams, a local teenager.
HUAC, which stands for the House of Un-American Activities Committee, was solely possessed with the notion of putting away supposed communists and keeping them from corrupting the good, legal standing citizens. Human rights, however, was never considered in their verdicts. In The Crucible, the local court system had no way of judging who was innocent or guilty other than the testimony of the “victim.” As an effect of this unintentional bias, the accused were never acquitted, but were given the opportunity to confess to the crime of witchcraft to lessen their sentence. With the red scare, the accused were given a chance to give up names of other suspected communists to lessen their sentence as well. In both situations, there were people who confessed even though they had no relation to the crime at all. The majority, however, valued their morals and refused to give into political pressure by lying. This often resulted in either death, or something just as bad (i.e., “blacklisting”).
A “blacklist”, by definition, means “a list or register of entities who, for one reason or another, are being denied a particular privilege, service, or mobility.” To be blacklisted in the time of the red scare meant basically that you were declared a communist and denied of civil liberties and jobs, not to mention that anyone associated with you was in danger of being declared a communist as well. In The Crucible, however, the penalty for the crime of witchcraft is death by hanging. Of course, these were the extreme penalties, given if you did not confess to the crime at hand. Even though it could lessen their sentence, however, most people wouldnt confess to a crime they didnt commit. The principle of the matter is what counted in the hearts of many at the time, like in the quote made by John Proctor, the protagonist
from The Crucible: “My name is all I have left”.
In the beginning, the antagonists from both instances had the exact same ideal as was portrayed by the previous quote. Abigail Williams, the antagonist from The Crucible, had originally made accusations of witchcraft to save