All you need to know about the ending of Crucible

Have you ever been so into a book, so captivated, that when you are close to finishing, you are anticipating the most glorious, most riveting conclusion ever! Well, let me tell you, Arthur Miller did just that when writing The Crucible, but the ending may not be the one we hoped for. The play was famous for discussing many important topics like the extent of power for any individual and conformity to social norms. During that time period, America was also in a turmoil,  the red scare and McCarthyism were prominent, and many African Americans were speaking out against discrimination as the civil rights movement progressed. The Red Scare can be described as a period of time where widespread fear and hysteria among Americans were caused by the idea that communism might spread. McCarthyism was a result of the increasing hysteria in America. Joseph McCarthy, a politician used this fear to elevate his status by accusing people of being communist based on their beliefs. As a result of these accusations, many that were accused were out of jobs and shunned from society (hint hint, does this remind you of something, maybe a certain play). The Crucible similarly discusses the power of fear and the ability it has to make people conform to society.  Going back to the play and its ending, the most frustrating part about the whole ordeal, is not Abigail, or the uselessness of Mary Warren(you had one job Mary, one job), but the strangely didactic, and completely infuriating ending.

(spoiler alert ahead, warning! ) The events leading up to the endings consists of Abigail accusing people and stating she “saw Sarah Good with the devil” and many others ( 904-905 Miller). This leads to the creation of the court, whose main purpose is to try and cleanse the community of any witches with the help of Abigail and her friends. Towards the end, Proctor is called in for questioning, he tells the truth about Abigail and his affair, and her confession that she was lying about seeing the devil. What is expected is that the court would holds Proctor to his word, and realize the absurdity of their wrong actions, however that is very much not what happens. Proctor ends up dying and this begs the question, what was the purpose behind his death, and why couldn't Miller give us the ending we wanted! The Crucible was based on a real life event, which made the ending even more lamentable. In many ways, Miller’s ending of The Crucible reflects the position of the accused back in the 1960s. More so, the death of John Proctor signifies the importance of the truth, and the power of social conformity and peer pressure. Even after many decades our society still faces the issue of conformity. It is human nature to follow the population, the herd if you will, because we use these norms to guide and direct our decisions in life. On the other hand, it is our nature to be independent, and want our own voices to be heard within the crowd. There are two sides to the coin, should we conform and be accepted into a society where maybe the wrong answer is considered right, or should we speak out and address the wrong, knowing it will only outcast us from the community. This complex relation of individualism versus conformity are the building blocks to decisions humans make. These decisions were what all the characters in The Crucible had to face at one point when decided to be the accused or the accuser. John Proctor's death signifies the winning decision in the end, Proctor chose to speak out and not conform to society. Do you think it was wise of Proctor to have a martyr's death, or should he have lived and helped his family, who he left behind? 

Salem Witch Trail, and Could it Happen Again

For better or worse, America has been through the trend of paranoia and throwing accusations left and right. Our history has had some dark times regarding hysteria and it may be because of the lack of knowledge from the general people. Blaming and accusing is one of the ways we tend to deal with issues that we do not understand. The Salem Witch trails will go down in history as an event that has the most baseless accusations. Bear in mind, Puritans considered an individual a witch if one floats in water, the notion now is very amusing, but at the time it was life or death for an individual.

As hard as it is to understand how the Salem witch trials happened, it is not the first time it has occurred, and there is no doubt it will be the last. In the few decades after the Salem Witch Trials, there have been countless historic events that are very similar, relating to mass fear. The anti-German sentiment, which was the fear of Germany, and the general German culture and language was brought about by the notion that "Germans were bad because America is fighting them". Americans tend to see things through a bais lense, and like many other countries, we have pride in our own people and nation. However, there is a degree to which this pride becomes our Achilles' heel. For instances, the onslaught of discrimination for Germans and their culture was mainly because of World War 1. At the time of World War 1, America’s opposing team was the Germans, the fear and hysteria was an added factor to the tension growing for the war. When the Zimmerman Telegram was discovered there was even more hysteria, new propaganda was created by news outlets to discredit and scare the people into fearing Germans. Many of the German-Americans living in America were outcasted, humiliated and thrown to jail. Alongside that, there was McCarthyism, Red Scare, Anti-Japanese champagne, and more. What all these events have in common is the fact that there was a lot of blaming and false accusations, however, there was no need for it. McCarthyism by definition is “a vociferous campaign against alleged communists in the US government and other institutions carried out under Senator Joseph McCarthy ”, this rise of hysteria was caused by the fear of communism through postwar. Joseph McCarthy used the hysteria during the time period for his own benefit. He was viewed as a respectable man trying to better the community, but in reality, he was hunting people who either opposed him or wronged him. It spread quickly when there were many other individuals who also started to accuse others of believing in communism or being a spy.

What I find striking is the similarities between McCarthyism, Anti-German Sentiment, and the Salem Witch Trials regarding mass fear. It is hard to think that The Salem Witch Trail could happen again because the faults and wrongdoings are clear within the text, but maybe it really could. The only real cause of all these mass paranoia was the fact that people were afraid of the unknown. McCarthyism was led by the belief of communism spreading towards America, this was unnecessary considering the reprisal it was receiving. There was no need for the fear of communism spreading with all the hatred it was received by the masses. The same thing goes for Anti-German sentiment and the Red Scare era, these events were the snowball effect of a person or a group of individuals who were influencing the public opinion. So, back to the Salem Witch trial, could it really happen again? The events after prove that the Salem Witch Trail can happen, and have happened. There are many possibilities that our community will look at something different and consider it a threat because of the lack of knowledge for the topic. This is essentially what occurred during the Witch Trails, the individuals who were thought to be unique and different from the rest were outcasted and named a witch. Individuals who valued certain morals and ideologies were compared to the general public and ostracized for their differences. In many ways, society is still viewing differences as a threat, the first instinct is to scrutinize those unique aspects of an individual or group rather than understand it.