Use of Power in The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Usage of Power
The play "The Crucible" based on the witchcraft trials of 1692 by Arthur Miller and the era of McCarthyism in the 1950's are similar in the sense of how power was used by characters of each event. The characters in both eras had a similar task in each of their roles. Abigail and Joseph McCarthy represented the evil who wanted fame and power, Hail and Dwight Eisenhower were the ones that didn't use their powers to support evil, they just merely did what was right, and John Proctor and Edward Marrow were the respected who used their power for good. Even though the eras were in different time periods they were both similar because both events showed a decisive appetite for power.
As the evils in both eras, Joseph McCarthy and Abigail played similar roles to gain power and ultimately lose it. Joseph McCarthy was an unknown man through out his life, until his role as a Senator accused people of communism actions lead him to gain power. He struggled his way up to the top ruthlessly and aggressively by criticizing his challengers with lies. When he decided to run again he wanted a secure win so his advisors and him came up with an idea to campaign against communism, which was to bring public support because of the Korean War. His ideas lead to creating a list of people in which to accuse, and for the next several years he made people lose their jobs. Eventually people realized that he was making up his own lies to gain power and gain more popularity. Becoming hypocritical he lost his power, which Dwight Eisenhower, a supporter, took away. In the end he disappeared and later killed himself. Similar to McCarthy was Abigail who lost her power just as she had gained it. As a struggle to gain her love, she began to believe she had met the devil to gain some power of fear over the people. Her love for power tilted her to accuse his loves wife to keep it for herself. Abusing this power and taking it to far led her to make up more and more lies about other people interacting with the devil that in the end when there was to be no devil, she lost her powers by her own allies who believed in her. In both eras the acknowledgement for power...