Crucible introduction extra credit by Mikhaila Pehrson

McCarthyism

99054183 — 2023-11-09 20:03:37 UTC

McCarthyism, also known as the Second Red Scare, was a movement made by a junior senator from Wisconsin. It was a movement that preyed on people's paranoia and hatred of communism during the late 1940s through the 1950s. It was characterized by the prosecution of anyone accused of being a communist, mainly focusing on Hollywood and actors. It caused many actors to end up on a thing called a "blacklist," where people refused to work or associate with anyone who landed on this list. It was a campaign or practice that endorsed the use of unfair allegations and investigations.

Mass Hysteria

99054183 — 2023-11-09 20:07:30 UTC

Mass Hysteria, also known as epidemic hysteria, is an event where a group of people experience hysteria at the same time due to collective anxiety. It often shows up in an isolated community. Some examples of mass hysteria is The Dancing Plague of 1518, which took place in Strasbourg, Alsace, in the Holy Roman Empire from July 1518 to September 1518, when a whole village experienced dancing nonstop for weeks, another example is The Salem Witch Trials that took place in Salem, Massachusetts. When a whole city experienced fear and anxiety about witchcraft after a group of girls started accusing others of being witches. Nowadays, it's defined as a contagious dissociative phenomenon that takes place in large groups of people or institutions under conditions of anxiety.

Puritanism

99054183 — 2023-11-09 20:08:08 UTC

Puritanism is a Calvinist movement that values strict religious practices and purity. Puritans sailed to America to escape religious prosecution in England. They wanted a different reformed Church of England to be more protestant. They believed in witches and the supernatural. Their core beliefs were that some people were destined by God to receive grace and salvation while others were destined for Hell, but no one knew who was meant for hell and who wasn't.

Arthur Miller

99054183 — 2023-11-09 20:08:18 UTC

An essayist and screenwriter, he wrote the Crucible and married Marilyn Monroe (and had an affair with her before marriage). He was brought for an investigation regarding being a communist and refused to give names and so he was blacklisted. Arthur Miller created The Crucible as a allegory for the false accusations and the hysteria around the Red Scare, along with projecting some of his own personal struggles in there as well. He saw the similarities to the witch trials in what was happening and wanted to point it out.

City Upon a Hill

99054183 — 2023-11-09 20:09:15 UTC

City upon a hill is a phrase derived from the teaching of salt and light in Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. Its was a declaration of American exceptionalism to refer to America acting as a beacon of hope. Basically, they wanted to create a utopia. The Puritans believed in this idea heavily and it shaped a lot of their beliefs.