Examples Of The Domino Effect On The Crucible

The Domino Effect is the cumulative effect when one event sets off a chain of other events. This effect has happened multiple times throughout history, the two largest examples being The Red Scare of the 1950s and the Salem Witch Trials of the 1600s. The Red Scare, initiated by senator John McCarthy, caused the American people to develop mass suspicion, thinking that communists were roaming America attempting to destroy it. Perhaps one of the largest tragedies in human history, the Salem Witch Trials caused the people of Salem, Massachusetts to go into mass hysteria over accusations of witchcraft, resulting in the accusation of over 200 and execution of 20 innocents. Through examples of biblical allusions and character development, Arthur Miller shows in The Crucible how fear, suspicion, and greed are infectious and have the ability to destroy society because of the hysteria and destruction that it creates. Many examples of greed are presented in the play. Many of the characters, mostly the young girls and the Putnam’s, are controlled in their way by greed and envy. The most girl accusing the most in
¨At a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, on February 9, 1950, McCarthy launched his first salvo. He claimed that he was aware of 205 card-carrying members of the communist party who worked for the United States Department of State.¨ (para. 8). The above quote is what began the Red Scare, a time similar to the Salem Witch Trials shown in The Crucible. Although none were killed in the Scare, fear and suspicion ran rampant in America, with anybody accusing everybody of being a communist. This was such a fear at the time because it was in the middle of the Cold War, and communists were thought to bring the downfall of America. Much of the accusations were just hysteria, similar to the Witch Trials, with the exception of none dying as a