Arthur Miller was inspired to write The Crucible because of what happened in America in the 1950's.

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Arthur Miller was inspired to write The Crucible because of what happened in America in the 1950’s. Suspicion of witchcraft and an association with the Devil had arisen in the 1600s in Salem, Massachsetts. The  allegations and apprehension is comparable with the period of McCarthyism in the United States of America. Joseph McCarthy ( the senator of West Virginia) focused on Democrats in general with baseless and sweeping accusations  of communist involvement, giving way for the Republicans to take over Congress and the Presidency. Miller was also taken into investigation, and was asked to name the people who he thought were communists’. He refused to, because he believed people should be given the right to believe in whatever they wanted to believe in. The Political witch-hunt and the Salem trials were quite similar because people that were  accused were  immediately seen as a communist or a witch, without a trial or any other form of a court In the fifties, the fear of McCarthyism was physical; the communist threat was an actual threat, from a group of people. The hysteria developed from the overreaction of the fear of the communist threat, and was soon taken out of proportion similar to the Salem trials where a large number of people were accused, of being witches who they thought served the devil.

I think Arthur Miller created Abigail to show how just one person can cause havoc and mass hysteria to a whole community.In addition Miller wanted to point out that  that those who were blamed (justly or unjustly) of having Communist/Satanic links blamed others, therefore saving themselves. These people were victims too, although they caused there to be other victims in the process.

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While every conflict may have more than one person to blame, after examining the play throughly I felt that in The Crucible, Abigail was the one I had to point my finger at. My reasons for taking this view were because she contributed to the deaths of many innocent individuals. I could not fathom why the need for love had led her to be deceitful and a killer. Her uncle Rev. Parris was responsible for her upbringing so I was shocked  at her self-importance and ill-mannered ways. The stage directions points out that Abigail was “an orphan with an ...

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