It bears repeating that history repeats itself. Although Arthur Miller’s The Crucible deals with the Salem witch trials in 17th century New England, it is also a scathing satire of McCarthyism in the 1950s. Just as the colonists tried to save their own skins by accusing members of the In the witchcraft community, American citizens, who were blacklisted as communists in the late 1940s and 1950s, indicted others to save their own reputations.
This ugly pattern is the result of a human defense mechanism known as projection, or the attribution of undesirable thoughts or emotions to another, which is often expressed in the form of jealousy or prejudice. In simple terms, this is known as hypocrisy. And extended to sex and gender, it can take the form of castration anxiety. Also set in 17th century Puritan New England, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter examines the story of another unfortunate scapegoat. The novel explicitly encapsulates the alleged threat of a powerful woman to the paternalistic society, which encourages that the political or religious order resides in domestic control, making adultery an exaggerated sin. Since these two classics cover a wide range of topics, including history, psychology, and literature, they are the primary study material for AP exams.
When paranoia strikes, it spreads like wildfire throughout the community. In The Crucible, a small rumor turns into a gigantic web of witchcraft accusations, in which individuals who want to hide their indiscretions blame others. Rigid religious and social laws do not allow any kind of spontaneity; We can take our freedoms for granted, but then a simple act of joy like dancing in the woods could turn into sin. What is the main reason for all this rumor? The most powerful impulse in human nature: sex. Abigail’s romance with John Proctor fuels the flame. No matter what the social climate is, human desire is hard to suppress; it is the reason for the perpetuation of the human race. Despite its simple origins, the complexity of desire is a double-edged sword; It can fuel an epic love story or be the source of destructive manipulation.
In Hester’s case in The Scarlet Letter, it’s the latter. Hester is also a strong woman who is a force to be reckoned with in an age when the Puritan religion was so pure it was evil. The rigidity of society, hypocritically, makes cruelty towards Hester acceptable. Although forced to wear a letter A and embarrassed by the community, Hester remains unconditional and does not reveal to her lover, who is the ultimate hypocrite: a reverend who committed adultery. Men are cowards and women blame themselves for maintaining parental order.
As has been shown time and again throughout history, paranoia often extends to all facets of society, which in the 1950s included what to wear and what to cook for dinner. More than anyone at that time, the housewife was the emblem of anti-communism. This may seem strange, but let’s examine a term that was coined in the 1950s: bomb. It indicates that women were an explosive sexual threat and raises a tricky point: a woman’s sexuality was contained within an ideal domestic sphere as a means of quelling anxieties about nuclear war, creating a set of national principles connecting virtue civic with domesticity, and conversely, atomic energy with promiscuity. As the strong connotations of adulterous and bombshell demonstrate, sex is a powerful force, and in earlier times, but even now, it is seen as a danger to socio-political stability. Just look at how much of a commotion President Clinton’s sexual indiscretions caused. All the chaotic emotions surrounding sexual desire are a threat to order and therefore transgressions can lead to unjust punishment and, in extreme cases, to war.