"The Witches of Salem", Arthur Miller (1953) - allusions to McCarthyism

Résumé du document

Arthur Miller, in 1953, wrote 'The Crucible' which recounts the puritan trials and alludes to McCarthyism, by the same process that had been used by George Orwell with his 'Animal Farm'; denouncing a political issue by writing a similar story to avoid censorship. Raymond Rouleau directed a movie from Miller's work in 1956. How could a person manipulate others and create a general terror to gain personal benefits? How suspicion could become paranoia and create a vicious circle where people are killed?

Extraits

[...] Not to be killed, he had to confess his relationship with the Devil but refused it because it would have been admitting that Abigail was right and was rational. And since John was one the most respectable men in town, his relationship with the Devil sounded completely false. His resistance towards Abigail's accusation, his vigour to struggle against her and the fact that he is not self-interested and preferred being hung than agreeing with Abigail. His resistance made her flee to avoid humiliation and punishment and that proved to everybody that he was right. [...]

[...] Arthur Miller, in 1953, wrote The Crucible which recounts those puritan trials and alludes to McCarthyism, by the same process that had been used by George Orwell with his Animal Farm; denouncing a political issue by writing a similar story to avoid censorship. Raymond Rouleau directed a movie from Miller's work in 1956. How could a person manipulate others and create a general terror to gain personal benefits? How suspicion could become paranoia and create a vicious circle where people were killed? [...]

[...] We should remember of the Rosenberg couple, Jewish and communist scientists accused of High Treason, in 1950, without any evidence. But McCarthy's struggle went against democracy and freedom of thinking; political views shouldn't be ruled by the government in a democratic country. Further on in the process, people accused of witchcraft in Salem and of sympathizing with communists in the USA had to denounce others not to be punished. And this massive denouncement caused a chain reaction that couldn't be stopped. But we can wonder why people entered into this vicious circle of denouncement and suspicion. [...]

[...] Thus, both those movies denounce the way fear can be used to cause a mass hysteria to fulfil personal profits. They represent well how the system reached its climax by creating a terror and a collective fear and how it was broken down by some men who helped others to realize the real causes of this hunt and persecution. We underlined the three big phases which composed this process and the qualities required to escape from it, through the examples of John Proctor and Edward R. [...]

[...] But we can wonder why someone would want to spread panic over his entourage. Abigail Williams first denounced someone to save herself from being put on trial or being accused of her sister's health. Then, we understand that honour and reputation are really important in the seventeenth-century society since Abigail didn't hesitate to throw the blame on someone else to avoid her name from being blackened (another example of the importance of being well-seen is that John's wife preferred not to admit that her husband cheated on her with Abigail which would have saved him, than dishonour him. [...]