The Crucible And Salem Witch Trials Essay

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In the late 1600’s, more than 200 people were accused of witchcraft. Similarly in the mid 1900’s, hundreds of people were accused of being a member of the Communist party or being a Communist sympathizer. In both the The Crucible and the HUAC Trials, the events began because of one person: Abigail in The Crucible and McCarthy in the HUAC trials. According to The Tipping Point, it is human nature to be largely influenced by peers, and to adopt certain behaviors because of it. Mass hysteria rose in both cases as the general population felt anxious about the accusations, which allowed for the paranoia to spread. The real events portrayed in The Crucible and the HUAC Trials were plagued by fear, the results of fear, and the social epidemic that took place during the events. In both the Salem Witch Trials and the HUAC trials 250 years later, fear and paranoia played a large role in the duration of the events. Senator McCarthy feared not being elected and went to extreme measures to gain support and exploited the public’s fear of communism. The majority of Americans in this time period were fearful not only of communists, but of a nuclear war. When the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb in 1949, …show more content…
Furthermore, the events also shared similar outcomes. In 1954, McCarthy’s unethical tactics were revealed to the public, and the accusations and the HUAC organization itself lost significance. Roughly a year after the Salem Witch Trials began, the hysteria started to diminish. In 1693, the governor put an end to the trials. In both situations, the aftermath is marked by most people thinking back about how ridiculous and silly the trials were, and how it even happened to begin with. The phenomenon of social epidemics driven by fear and paranoia are strong powers, and it is not unlikely that the same hysteria could happen
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