Who Is The Antagonist In The Crucible

"Because of your political views, you will be completely stripped of your civil liberties." If you lived in America during the period that has come to be known as the "red scare", then you were constantly in danger of hearing fatal words such as these that could completely destroy your life. Arthur Miller wrote a story about this dreadful time, titled The Crucible. Since the subject was controversial at the time, Miller had to subliminally write about it through the story of the Salem witch trials. Basic human rights were violated by HUAC, who was symbolized by the court system in Miller's story. To anyone who didn't confess to their supposed crime, there were severe repercussions, such as death or blacklisting. Senator McCarthy, a corrupt
Abigail Williams, the antagonist from The Crucible, had originally made accusations of witchcraft to save her own reputation in the town. After being caught dancing in the woods with the rest of the teenage girls in the village, Abigail had mentioned witchcraft to get the blame off of her and onto villagers with low social standing, such as the homeless woman Sarah Good and the slave Tituba. In my opinion, Senator McCarthy may have originally believed that his victims were honestly involved in the communist party, therefore a threat to democracy. Once Abigail and McCarthy realized what power they had, they used it to their advantage. Such was the case of Elizabeth Proctor, who was falsely accused so that Abigail could try to win over the heart of Elizabeth's husband, John Proctor. Once certain people realized what was going on, however, they tried to bring this obstruction of justice out into the open, knowing full well that they might be brought into the matter themselves. An example of this would be the case of John Proctor who, to save his wife, exposed his darkest secret and tried to overthrow the power that was Abigail Williams. Another would be Edward R. Murrow, who