The Crucible and the Red Scare By Dante Massarini ’25 Fear has often served as the primary instigator
in
the
cruelest
events
throughout human history. The firstborn children of the Israelites were thrown into
This theme of fear also held true in 1690s Salem, Massachusetts, the setting of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, and 1950s America during the reign of Senator Joseph McCarthy, the setting in which Miller wrote the play.
the Nile because the Pharaoh of Egypt feared their growing numbers. What was originally a relatively small attempt by the Catholic Church to preserve the faith in Spain grew into a massive ordeal that affected hundreds of thousands of people because of a growing fear of losing its influence. Adolf Hitler manipulated the masses in Germany by convincing them that the outside forces were all working to bring about their downfall, and he turned their fear into a weapon. This theme of fear also held true in 1690s Salem, Massachusetts, the setting of a weapon. This theme of fear also held true in 1690s Salem, Massachusetts, the setting of the Nile because the Pharaoh of Egypt feared their
growing
numbers.
What
was
originally a relatively small attempt by the Catholic Church to preserve the faith in Spain grew into a massive ordeal that affected hundreds of thousands of people because of a growing fear of losing its influence. Adolf Hitler manipulated the masses in Germany by convincing them that the outside forces were all working to bring about their downfall, and he turned their fear into a weapon.
Miller lived in the United States postWorld War II at a time when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were locked in an ideological battle for supremacy between capitalism and communism. This Cold War created global tension and paranoia, and in the U.S. resulted in the “Red Scare.” This fear of communist sympathizers in the country fueled the efforts of the House Un-American Activities Committee, spearheaded by Senator Joseph McCarthy, to root out anyone with potential connections to the Communist Party. Hollywood became one of the primary targets of the Committee’s attacks because of the influence and fame that was wielded by the movie stars that could be considered dangerous. Miller himself became a target in 1951 when a script of his was shown to the FBI that, according to them, was not “Pro-American.” When Miller began work on The Crucible, he knew that his play would be perceived as a direct affront to the methods of the House Committee; he wrote it to condemn the hysteria that gripped the country.
