Joshua Lindsey

Ms. Nero

1st period

10 30 23

Arthur Miller used his work The Crucible as an allegory for the fear caused by The Red

Scare and how he wanted people to react civil disobedience refusing to obey certain laws as a

form of peaceful protest. Miller goes in to this further in “Why I wrote “The Crucible”,”

elucidating the connection between the witch trials and McCarthyism. This essay will address the

connection Miller made and how he wanted other to respond to being accused.

Reverend Hale wanted to end the witch trials, then tried to save as many as he could.

First, he attempted to end the trials but, with people already confessing it was too late for that.

So, he began trying to get people confess but was mostly unsuccessful (Miller). Hale is the only

one who fails in his goals. Hale only could have succeeded if he tried to stop the trials sooner.

Giles Corey wanted to save his wife from the false accusations levied against her. When

Corey testified, he refused to name the people who vouched for his wife. Then when he was

accused of witchcraft remained silence so his sons would get his land. While Corey died his sons

did get his land and the one thing, he fails to do was save his wife.

John Proctor tried to point out how were being used by people to meet their own ends.

First, Proctor wanted Mary Warren to confess that the girls were only pretending but she

crumbled to Abby Then he ended up accused and was willing to confess without implicating

anyone else or having his name used to exacerbate the trials. However, Proctor was hanged
 Your Last Name Only 2

because of his convictions. If Mary got her confession out and Abby said nothing it might of

worked.

When Miller visited Salem for the first time, he began to connect the witch trials to the

McCarthy trials. How the accusation itself was the evidence, how the only real way out of being

accused was to accuse others (Miller). In The Crucible characters either cannot satisfied the court

and is hanged, confess and accuse others or say nothing and is hanged. But Miller believed it

better not to accuse other as he did at his huac trial like John Proctor (Miller). Miller was willing

the talk about what he did but not about others.

One of our most important civil duties is to speak out against injustice. This is because it

is the only way for large systemic changes. The witch trials were the result of a system reliant on

faith and fear to control the people the biggest difference would be body count