The Crucible

In the play, The Crucible, the symbolism of the characters play a very important role that go along with the time era of McCarthyism. Arthur Miller’s purpose of the characters in The Crucible was to show what people were like during the 1940s and 1950s. Symbolism is the use of an object, person, or event to represent something. In this case, Miller uses symbolism to signify the characters as people during the time of McCarthyism. In works like these, symbolism makes the story seem like every character is important and gives meaning to the story. Miller uses The Crucible as a way to vent out his feelings about the political issues and problems going on during this time. As he states, “The Crucible was an act of desperation. Much of my desperation branched out, I suppose, from a typical Depression, the blow struck on the mind by the European Fascism and the brutal anti-Semitism it had brought to power” (Miller). He wrote the play as a way to show how he felt about the way of politics and its injustice. Miller’s fear of communism encouraged him to write this play about the struggle to hold on to pride and a sense of character in a world seen as being full of false values. He compared the Salem witch trials to the McCarthy hearings. The McCarthy era was seen to be the making of accusations of disloyalty, rebellion or treason without evidence. Many took this as an advantage. Abigail Williams is one of the many girls involved in the witch trials. Throughout the play, Abigail is seen to be very manipulative and represents the girls who cannot be trusted. Miller portrays Abigail to be a conniving young girl who always gets her way. This goes to show what Miller thought of the women during the McCarthy era. Abigail lies about being involved with the devil and gets other girls to help up start a riot and cause havoc that lead to the trials. Many of the teenage girls involved were convinced that they were cursed by the devil. The punishment for the accused witches was