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Play Analysis of The Crucible

Play Analysis of "The Crucible"

One of the most awful chapters in human history, timeless oppression. Parallels between The Crucible, and more modern examples of "witch hunting" such as the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's, are appalling. Other such time periods in history, including the 1940's Japanese American Internment era, the Apartheid struggle of South Africa, or Hitlers horrid Holocaust , all exemplify persecution and discrimination similarily. Each in the midst of a poignant theme, societies often trying to suppress individuals' freedom, in order to maintain social order.

Arthur Millers' The Crucible, depicts the Salem witch trials during the end of the seventeenth century. It is a portrayal of young women who are caught practicing witchcraft and dancing, in a strict Puritan community. Essentially, they were merely being teenage girls, in a confined society where they needed to break loose and act the way a teenager should: freely. They made up a tale of being bewitched by local housewives, in order to clear themselves of guilt. The cycle expands with each person accused: the supposed witch must decide whether to plead guilty to a crime she did not commit and name others who are also innocent in order to save her own life, or whether to refuse to incriminate herself or others and face death. The irony is that the accused can save their lives only by admitting guilt; furthermore, any protestation of innocence or criticism of the court is considered proof of guilt. The fervor finally dies down, but the court does not admit its fallibility in any way, although the church does abolish the excommunications of those who have died.

Shifting the pages a few centuries later, an encounter of a world shocked with the news of Hitler’s plan during World War II. Millions of innocent Jewish people were being sent to concentration camps, and then ultimately to their deaths. The Nazis persecuted groups other than Jews; among the earliest victims of Nazi discrimination in Germany were political opponents. In 1933, the Nazis established the first concentration camp, Dachau, as a detention center for political prisoners. The Nazis also persecuted authors and artists whose works they considered subversive or who were Jewish. In order to create his "suuper race," millions of freedoms were suppressed, in order to maintain "social order", much like a time ago.

The United States was no better...

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