The McCarthy era was a very drastic time during the 1950s, when ideas about communism spread throughout the United States, particularly in the government. The author of The Crucible, Arthur Miller, was very critical of this period and used characters, plot events, setting, and literary terms and characteristics to convey his message. Miller creates an allegory using witchcraft as a controversial topic similar to how communism was during the McCarthy era, characters like Danforth, Hathorne, and Hale to compare to organizations, and more characters like Abigail and Procter to profile specific people from The Great Fear. Miller's disapproval of McCarthy was blatantly written into the play through the use of the theme of witchcraft. In The Crucible the main topic was the Salem witch trials, similar to communism in The Great Fear. Miller chose this topic to show how ridiculous he believed McCarthy's accusations were. The controversy over witchcraft and communism is similar in that both had numerous opinions from people of all backgrounds. During the Salem witch trials, belief in witchcraft was picked up mostly in New England but still spread to the rest of the colonies and during the McCarthy era the ideas about communism were not believed by everyone, in fact most did not believe in them. Miller made the play in 1953 for viewers during the McCarthy era to find these similarities and relate to them. This solidified some viewers' disapproval of McCarthy and changed the minds of others. It was another layer added to the hysteria of the time and led to Miller's investigation by HUAC and his eventual blacklisting in 1957. These similarities made the Salem witch trials an easy event for Miller to use to represent McC.... .. middle of paper ......act in court as if they were bewitched, went from getting out of trouble to killing people by hanging them. Arthur Miller used many characters to portray real people or represent organizations from when he lived in the 1950s. Miller uses similarities between Abigail and Procter and real people of the McCarthy era, relationships of the characters Danforth, Hathorne, and Hale to McCarthy era organizations, and the method of choosing a controversial topic similar to communism to show the allegory. The strategies Miller used to create this play included the use of literary terms and characteristics, setting, plot events, and characters to convey his overall criticism of the time period. The McCarthy era contributed greatly to Arthur Miller's development of the plot of this play and ability to connect with the audience and have them relate what they saw to their own lives..