Examples Of Allegory In The Crucible

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The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is an allegory, meaning it can be interpreted to reveal hidden meanings, usually political or moral ones. This all happened during the Salem Witch trials, where people were initially scared of the idea and spread of Communism. This made people believe that anyone could be a communist, and this ended up making people believe others were witches. The people of Salem went around pointing fingers at others to take the blame off of them that they could be witches. They knew that if they accused someone of being a witch, they then would be in the clear because they just exposed someone. Abigail Williams is the main character in The Crucible that works her mischievous ways to trick others into thinking that some of …show more content…
This moral issue can link back to McCarthyism because there was such hatred for the communists, people were pointing fingers and saying other people were communists and in league with the devil, and this is what happened in the McCarthy era, people were making assumptions or false accusations against one another. The moral meaning is an allegory to the play because, morals are the distinctions between good and bad, in The Crucible, village people start to distance themselves from each other as if they were separating the good from the bad in the village. Some believe others may be corrupt in the village so they are distancing themselves from their bad behavior which would be being in league with the devil. The people of Salem know their morals to stay away from evil, and distinguish between good and …show more content…
In The Crucible, there is tremendous fear and paranoia because of the Second Red Scare. People were afraid of communism spreading, they didn 't want there to be no social classes. People were opposed to the idea of it, and started becoming paranoid of people who might be pro-communism, or american traitors, the village people ultimately started pointing fingers at anyone they can because it was easy to blame someone for something and then you be considered safe, because you uncovered them as a traitor. This theme also relates to todays time. After the attacks on 9/11, people still live in fear that it may happen again, they might be paranoid when around certain people. This paranoia may also connect to prejudice against a race, ethnicity, or religion. 9/11 and the ongoing Isis attacks are major events that changed peoples outlooks. Some Muslims are shunned in society based on their religion, this is paranoia, because some people are so shallow to just assume a whole religion can be categorized as evil because of an event happened containing those people in that religion. The Crucible fits the definition of an allegory because it uses themes that are relevant today, themes being fear and paranoia, like what happened on 9/11 and the Isis

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