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Tara Sullivan

Michko, Ragoza, Matthews

C Block

3/17/23

Tone and Characterization In The Crucible

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the date is set to the early 1800’s, just prior to

the witch hunt that would take over Salem. Miller sets a tone of paranoia and suspicion from the

minute the book starts, he uses the witch hunts as a comparison to McCarthyism he also uses the

nature of the characters lack of empathy and critical thinking to add to the hysteria and fear in

each scene.

The play begins when the character Susanna says the doctor believes Betty is sick of

unnatural causes, to which Parris becomes angry and scared and yells that there are no unnatural

causes, he sends her home and tells her not to tell anyone anything. (Miller 9) Miller creates a

serious and tense atmosphere from the first dialogue by having Betty sick in bed and the doctor

doesn’t know why, suggesting she has been bewitched. He also depicts Parris as panicked and

short tempered, adding onto the anxiety of the characters around him.

This tense tone becomes panicked later in the scene when Abigail's story begins to

unwind, Abigail accuses Tituba of being a witch after being accused herself and Tituba then

accuses other women in town and Parris and the reverend believe them. (Miller 43)

This scene depicts Abigail and Tituba accusing random people of witchcraft in order to save

themselves. This is similar to McCarthyism as Abigail and Tituba did not provide any evidence

of the people they accused being witches yet everyone believed them. This illustrates the panic
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everyone had and how desperate people were to save themselves during the witch trials and the

red scare.

Overall, Miller sets a tone of paranoia and hysteria throughout the play in order to accurately

depict how people acted and felt during the Salem witch trials and compare them to the red scare

going on at the time Miller wrote this play.

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Skill NY Foundational Proficient Advanced

Claim Addresses the Effectively

prompt addresses the
prompt –
specifically notes
some aspect of tone
and characterization

Evidence Includes some Includes 2 or more Also includes evidence

evidence pieces of textual from additional research
evidence on McCarthyism

Analysis/ Makes some Explains how Effectively explains

Synthesis mention of tone tone/characteriza how
tone/characterization
or tion contribute to
contribute to the
characterization the plot. development of plot.

Makes nuanced and

specific connections to
the context of the
McCarthyism

MLA Some elements Heading is correctly No errors in MLA

missing or some formatted format
errors in MLA
format Pages are numbered

In-text citations are

correctly formatted

Works Cited format:

hanging indent,
double-spaced,
alphabetized, starts
on a new page

Conventions Shows evidence of Most quotes are All quotes are correctly
basic proofreading correctly integrated integrated

Follows Fluid organization,

organization: including smooth
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topic/thesis transitions between

sentence, evidence
integration of
evidence, analysis, Shows evidence of
and concluding careful proofreading
sentence

Shows evidence of
proofreading

- Great job fully explaining yourself and answering all the questions

- Make sure you quotes are quoted