John Flannery

Ms. Flattery

Am. Lit.: Analysis Essay

7 May 2019

Vengeance in Society

Vengeance, or revenge, is a staple of society, no matter the community or time period.

Vengeance holds a powerful place in a society, whether through the power of hysteria or through

massive uproar or through a toxic political leader. In the era of the Puritans, there are many

examples of vengeance, shown in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. For example, John Proctor

defies Abigail Williams, who had publicly declared witchcraft on his wife who had separated the

two of them from having an affair and had kicked her out on the street, “We are what we always

were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and

common vengeance writes the law! This warrant’s vengeance! I’ll not give my wife to

vengeance!” (Miller, 81) Throughout the rest of the play, Abigail and a group of young women

accuse and spread vengeance throughout the community, leading to the death of many innocent

people and the death of a community. Abigail could be considered an innovator of vengeance,

along with many people during the McCarthy era. Joseph McCarthy, a Wisconsin Senator,

claimed to have a list of 205 people who were working in the state department to be

Communists, which led to the loss of over 2,000 government jobs. He ran his election with

vengeance towards his opponent Edgar Verner, then attacked with a vengeance against any actor,

screenwriter, or political figure that tried to oppose him and his ideas. In the eras of the Crucible

and McCarthy, vengeance, or punishment inflicted in revenge, was spread through the escalation
of retaliation, which will lead to a community unwilling to trust each other, effectively ceasing

progress.

Vengeance, or punishment inflicted for revenge or for a wrong, is prevalent in both the

eras of the Puritans and McCarthyism. In The Crucible, Abigail Williams and the girls who

accuse different members in the town of witchcraft commit vengeance on Mary Warren, who

tried to uncover the truth of their lies. “Oh, Mary, this is a black art to change your shape. No, I

cannot, I cannot stop my mouth; it’s God’s work I do,” said Abigail, to which John Proctor

responded, “They’re pretending, Mr. Danforth!” (Miller, 120) These girls latched onto Mary

Warren and forced her to not only back down her position against them but also to accuse John

Proctor, who would ultimately be hanged. This example of vengeance shows the aggression of

the accusers to the people that have wronged them or dared to defy against them.

Abigail, an innovator of vengeance, started in the community as an outsider. She was

originally accused of witchcraft, and she expected to be ostracized from the community. She

began to accuse people to divert the attention from her, which led to many girls joining in,

bringing the ‘trend’ of vengeance to this community.

In the era of McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy began to spread vengeance throughout the

United States. McCarthy began a scorched-earth campaign of vengeance towards his opponent,

and eventually led to him accusing then-Attorney General James F. Byrnes… “He has lighted the

spark which is resulting in a moral uprising and will end only when the whole sorry mess of

twisted, warped thinkers are swept from the national scene so that we may have a new birth of

honesty and decency in government.” (McCarthy, 2) Eventually, in the Army-McCarthy

hearings, where Joseph Welch challenged McCarthy, Welch demanded a list of all of the
supposed ‘communists’ in the state department, which McCarthy did not have. His defiance

could definitely be labeled as vengeance, as an act of revenge to all of the innocent people that

McCarthy had framed.

In conclusion, vengeance is prevalent in these societies and is spread by trendsetters

obsessed with revenge and those defending themselves from retaliation.

In a society, vengeance is started by an authoritative figure who retaliates and is then

spread by ineffective consequences and escalation of the retaliation. In The Crucible, Abigail

says to Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft that arrived to investigate the supposed witchcraft

in Salem, “I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I

danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand.” (Miller,

50) Later in the play, Ezekiel Cheever comes with an arrest warrant for Elizabeth Proctor. When

questioned by John Proctor, he responds: “...he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the

flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out. And demandin’ of her how she come to be so stabbed,

she - to Proctor now - testify it -were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in.” (Miller, 78-79)

Abigail, in an act of vengeance against Goody Proctor for separating the affair between her and

John Proctor, accused her of witchcraft, stabbing herself in the stomach to prove that Goody

Proctor was using a voodoo doll. Abigail went to an extreme to frame Goody Proctor of

witchcraft and was believed outright from the authority figures, who furthered the vengeance by

arresting her. Similar to the Crucible, the era of McCarthy furthered and escalated vengeance

propagated by people like Joseph McCarthy.

McCarthy began to perpetrate vengeance towards supposed Communists after his attack

on James F. Byrnes. He began the massive witch hunt that is infamous to this day, in which he
took down many innocent government employees, writers, and actors. A specific person affected

was Lillian Hellman, who was a prolific screenwriter and playwright at the time. She wrote a

public letter to the House Committee on Un-American Activities’ chairman, in which she stated

“...I am advised by counsel that if I answer the committee’s questions about myself, I must also

answer questions about other people and that if I refuse to do so, I can be cited for contempt.”

(Hellmann, 1) In those hearings, if a name was mentioned, their history and reputation were

tarnished and would be blacklisted. Hellman tried to deny the HUAC of another their demands

for another name, but in the process, she was blacklisted. When McCarthy said that “a list of

names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist

Party, and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department,”

(McCarthy, 1) McCarthy could’ve taken vengeance on anyone that defied him or his order by

saying that they, or a close confidant, was a member of the Communist Party and tarnish their

reputation. One example of this was in the Army-McCarthy trials.

McCarthy, trying to divert the attention from Welch’s demand of the list of 205 names to

be released, began to target Fred Fisher, a young lawyer who had once belonged to the National

Lawyers Guild, which was referred to as ‘the legal mouthpiece of the communist party.’ “...He

has in his law firm a young man named Fisher whom he recommended, incidentally, to do the

work on this Committee, who has been, for a number of years, a member of an organization

which is named, oh, years and years ago, as the legal bulwark of the Communist Party…”

(McCarthy-Welch Exchange, 1) Unfortunately for McCarthy, his attempt to change the direction

of the hearing and regain power, Joseph Welch staunchly defended Fisher, saying that he was “a

young man who went to the Harvard Law School and...is starting what looks to be a brilliant
career with us.” (McCarthy-Welch Exchange, 1). The accusations made by McCarthy lost a lot

of credibility after the Army-McCarthy hearings and led to the ending of the witchhunt that he

had propagated. McCarthy received no real punishment for what had happened. He did receive a

censure, and while it is still a form a punishment, it is not justice compared to the damage that

McCarthy did to the people affected.

Vengeance ran rampant in these communities due to a lack of authority and discipline to

those who spread it. With a form of authority, or with a just figure that would call out and report

unethical conduct or accusations, the spread of vengeance would diminish immensely.

Society, when fueled by vengeance, leads to the destruction of both sides and a society

unwilling to trust each other, in fear of retaliation, which will cease progress and lead to the

demise of that community. At the end of The Crucible, it’s stated that the community of Salem

began to fall apart after the hangings of the accused. Abigail had run away from the community

to Boston, leaving everyone who was tried and sentenced to death to be hanged. “To all intents

and purposes, the power of theocracy in Massachusetts was broken.” (Miler, 153) The religious

community that had been formed by the Puritans was broken, along with the trust towards any of

the accusers during the Witch Trials. The ending of the community is comparable to the

‘laggards’ of the trend cycle. The only people who might have attested that the witch hunt was

legitimate would have been Reverend Parris or Thomas Putnam, whose reputations would be

tarnished if the witch hunt wasn’t legitimate. These few laggards brought the horrific ‘trend’ of

accusing people of witchcraft to its termination. Unfortunately, this cycle of trends began to

repeat once again during the McCarthy era.

 During the HUAC hearings, Joseph McCarthy began to lose all credibility in the public

arena and fell into a pit of alcoholism, which led him to die in office. The people who had been

silenced and blacklisted stayed that way after his death. Unlike in the Crucible, where the

government had attempted to comfort the victim’s family by awarding compensation and

rescinding the excommunications given to them before execution, the U.S. government did very

little to un-tarnish their names. The blacklist ended in the ’60s, but very little was done otherwise

to clear their names. In Monica Lewinsky’s TED Talk on the topic of shame, she says “in 1998, I

lost my reputation and my dignity. I lost almost everything, and I almost lost my life.”

(Lewinsky, 3) Much like Monica Lewinsky, the Hollywood Ten, and the others who were

blacklisted, lost their reputations and dignities and never truly got them back. All of them are

now associated as Communists, or whores, or witches because of what happened. Society

basically forgot the people accused, forgetting the truth behind who they truly were and only

believing the lies and propaganda.

In the eras of The Crucible and McCarthyism, both communities fractured after the

realization of their wrongdoing. However, nothing was done to change or repair the reputations

and lives of the people who were influenced. These communities effectively ceased progress and

were forced to move on and ‘forget’ about these situations and the people who were affected by

them.

Both the eras of The Crucible and McCarthy were horrible. Many innocent lives and

reputations were lost. Both periods ended horrifically, with the demise of communities. The

driving factor behind these eras, however, was the uncontrolled use of vengeance from people in

areas of high power. As shown in the eras of The Crucible and McCarthy, vengeance is spread
through the escalation of retaliation, which leads to a community unwilling to trust each other,

and progress being ceased.

 Works Cited

Hellman. Lillian. “Letter to Senator Wood.” ​The House Committee on Un-American Activities

Hearings.​ United States Archives. 19 May 1952. Print.

Lewinsky, Monica. ​TED​, TEDTalks, 2015, www.ted.com/talks/monica_lewinsky_the_price

_of_shame.

McCarthy, Joseph R. “Speech at Wheeling West, Virginia.” United States Archives. 9 February

1950. Print.

McCarthy-Welch Exchange. ​Army-McCarthy Hearings. ​United States Archives. 9 June 1954.

Print.

Miller, Arthur. “The Crucible.” ​McDougal Little.​ Evanston, IL. 1952. Print.

Openshaw, Jonathon. “How Do Trends Happen?” ​The Daily Mr. Porter,​ Mr. Porter, 2019,

www.mrporter.com/en-gb/journal/the-read/how-do-trends-happen/527.