“The Crucible” By Arthur Miller: An Analysis Of The Ideological And Political Similarities

“The Crucible” By Arthur Miller: An Analysis Of The Ideological And Political Similarities Between Seventeenth-Century Salem And 1950s American Society

Anisha Chakrabarti, BA LLB, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad, Symbiosis International Deemed University

ABSTRACT

Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” is a depiction of a historical event in American history, the Salem witch trials, released during a period of time that would soon have a marked historical and political influence as well.

This research paper analyses the correlation between seventeenth-century Salem and society during Arthur Miller’s time. The analysis was achieved by drawing upon various sources, including journal articles, newspaper articles, interviews, books, and so on. The paper focuses on specific historical events depicted in the play and how they mimic contemporary elements the people of 1950s America would have been familiar with. The concept of dominant ideologies and “hysteria” or fanatic “man-hunts” and “witch-hunts” is prevalent throughout both societies, despite their different time frames. The Puritan and Theocratic ideologies of seventeenth-century Salem persecuted anything “anti-Christian” or supposedly associated with the supernatural (“the Devil” and “witchcraft”). Similarly, the dominant ideology of Capitalism established in America after the second world war persecuted anyone associated with “anti-American” and Communism sentiments.

The spectacular or theatrical characteristics of the Salem witch trials and the Congressional hearings allowed the audience to perceive the repetitive aspects of the history of society and the behaviour of man. Due to the environment created by the “McCarthyism” of the time, the Marxist elements of Miller and his work, and the mirroring of historic and modern (to the time) episodes, it is unlikely that a well-versed audience would not acknowledge the political and ideological similarities between seventeenth-century Salem and 1950s America. This research paper enumerates this thought.

Keywords: Puritan and puritanism, theocratic state, capitalism, communism, Marxism, McCarthyism, witchcraft, hunts, hysteria or mania, society, correlation, seventeenth-century Salem, and 1950s America.