Historical and Cultural Connections - History of the Salem Witch Trials, McCarthyism, and Allegory

The Puritan Way of Life

Salem is a city located on the eastern seaboard of Massachusetts that was settled by Europeans in 1626. Most of the Europeans who settled in the Massachusetts Bay area were Puritans, or people who fled England to escape religious persecution. However, the Puritans were not a tolerant group and lived a very strict and pious lifestyle.

The Puritans, so named because they wanted to "purify" the Church of England, believed that the government should not interfere with the church or religious practices. This belief was not supported by the Church of England, which was controlled by the English government. Therefore, many Puritans were jailed or punished harshly for their beliefs. By the early 1600s, the Puritans were ready to leave the harsh persecution they faced in England and set out for the New World. In America, the Puritans hoped to build a new society where they would be free to worship as they chose.

Many of the core beliefs and ideals of the Puritans had a lasting impact upon the establishment of the new American government. Their beliefs in self-reliance and hard work became key elements in American culture in such areas as law and government, education, and behavior and morality. In this interactivity, click on each of the tabs to explore key values and beliefs of the New England Puritans. Click the player button to begin.

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Puritans believed that evil and the Devil were always present in the world, and they were constantly looking for signs of the Devil and his work. It is perhaps because of this fear of the Devil and evil that the Puritans' beliefs led them to create very strict laws and harsh punishments for wrongdoing. By the late 1600s, this fear of evil and the Devil got out of control in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. The mass hysteria reached epic proportions around the settlement of Salem between February 1692 to May 1693 when more than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and nineteen were executed.

 

McCarthyism and the Red Scare

During the hysteria of Salem in 1692, if a girl suddenly fell ill with fits, the people could only find witchcraft to be a plausible explanation. Innocent people were falsely accused of being witches, but even more alarming was the fact that people were persecuted for questioning the actions of their government officials. The Puritans were motivated by fear and possible threat to their society. As a result, they emotionally reacted to threats and could not think logically through the fog of hysteria.

Similar to the trials, the time after World War II in the United States fostered the same fear and hysteria. This was the beginning of the Cold War. As communism spread across Asia and Eastern Europe, Americans were fearful of its potential influence in the United States. This fear came to be known as the Red Scare. Many people, including military personnel, Hollywood directors, professors, and librarians, were accused of being communists by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Individuals were put on trial and refused due process.

 

Arthur Miller, the Playwright

Arthur Miller experienced firsthand the terror and hysteria of accusations of being a communist by Senator McCarthy. He watched as the McCarthy era's anti-communist trials destroyed lives and friendships. It was this experience and the parallels he saw with the Salem Witch Trials which led him to write his allegorical play The Crucible.

An allegory is a metaphor, a comparison, or a parallel story that reveals a political or social situation. An allegory allows a writer to make a statement about current political and social strife by showing the themes in a parallel story. Usually many, if not all, aspects of an allegory represent something or someone else. For example, Animal Farm by George Orwell seems like a novel about a bunch of talking animals on the surface. When digging deeper, however, readers see that the novel is actually an allegory. Every talking animal represents a real person or group involved with the Russian Revolution of 1917. By doing so, a seemingly simple story gains complexity and cultural connections. With his play on the trials and hysteria of the Puritans in Salem in 1692, Arthur Miller was able to shine a light on the same unfounded mass hysteria of McCarthyism and the trials of alleged communists in the United States at the time.

 

Puritan History and McCarthyism Review

Now that you have explored the background of the story in The Crucible and the context during which the play was written, review your knowledge in this non-graded activity. Read each statement, then select the appropriate answer. Click the player button to get started.