Written in 1953, The Crucible is a mirror Miller uses to reflect the anticommunist hysteria inspired by Senator Joseph McCarthy´s ´witch-hunts´ in the United States. Within the text itself, Miller contemplates the parallels, writing ´Political opposition ... is given an inhumane overlay, which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized behavior. A political policy is equated with moral right, and opposition to it with diabolical malevolence.´
