Fear, ignorance, personal grievances, and an inflexible political and judicial process result in the death of John Proctor, an innocent man, who dies because he refuses to admit to witchcraft and harm other people.
Individuals who named names were cleared by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) while those who did not name names were often blacklisted and lost their livelihoods. Those who refused to turn others in were the true Americans, protecting freedom, just like John is the truest Christian of the play, even though he dies and does not profess a formal belief in the Christianity of the Puritans.
Q3: Summarize Arthur Miller's experiences with HUAC and discuss the consequences of those experiences for Miller.
Miller was pressured, like so many great artists, to name names of suspected communists. He refused but saw his friends either blacklisted or turn against the Hollywood and artistic hands that had 'fed' them like Elia Kazan, who did cooperate with HUAC. Miller was thus both fearful and revolted by this spectacle.
Q4: Bigsby claims...
How so?
The allegations of witchcraft give the girls power -- power they lack in society as young women under normal circumstances to point the fingers at those who are cruel to them (like Abigail hates those women who consider her sexually forward) or people who are superior to them economically, like the poor servant Mary Warren. The justices and leaders of the town gain in power, as they are invested with a protective authority and the power to accuse.
Q5: What conclusion does Bigsby draw about American and world society at the end of the article?
America continues to make the same mistakes as the people of Salem, even today, although it insists it has consistently defended freedom under all circumstances, over the course of its history. McCarthyism and witch hunts threaten our status as a community, built upon trust. The type of fear and mass hysteria, the creation of an ideology and system of accusation that cannot be questioned can occur again today, in America or in any nation (Bigsby xv).
