Conjurers And Communists in Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible Essay

Conjurers and Communists

Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible closely resemble each other even though the time periods and hysteria was caused by different things. They both have similar characters, plot, and theme. In both cases Hysteria wreaked havoc ruining lives, tearing people apart pitting them against one another.

There are many similar characters in Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible. The first pair of characters that stand out are John Proctor and Joe Lesser. They both try to turn the hysteria and madness around and only end up having it turn around and swallow them. Both of them took the honorable path and stood their ground refusing to give out any names for crimes that never happened. That was the only way to save themselves when tried by a court based on beliefs and rumors instead of evidence. In Guilty by Suspicion Joe Lesser says, Id rather die than ruin the lives of the innocent.

In The Crucible Proctor would not even consider lying to the court about himself committing a crime never mind falsely accusing another. Another pair of characters that go hand in hand with each other is Hale and Felix Graff. They play the part of the person with authority that feels guilty and tries to reverse things realizing it is all a chaotic mess but both fail at doing so and must watch the tragedy unfold helpless to stop what they helped start. Hales attempts to make John Proctor confess to dealing with the Devil stating Life is Gods most sacred gift and it may be that those who throw it away for pride are damned more than those who lie.

Judge Danforth and the HUAC were both the ignorant judges who unjustly sentenced people with no evidence. They both left no chance of innocence or proving your innocence and only forced you to drag others into the same mess as you or face the worst. In The crucible Danforth kept repeating Surely you saw so and so with the devil trying to force the accused into giving up names of other witches.

The plot of the two stories unfolded with similar key events. Damaged reputations caused by the fake crimes of the accused witches and communists ruined their lives and careers. Another comparable plot element is the children taken by civil services in Guilty by Suspicion and the orphans running the streets with no one to look after them in The Crucible. Both their childhoods are scarred by being ripped from their parents. The fact that it had no reason to happen makes it even worse. In both stories the court systems were very unjust. Neither of them used hard evidence to prove any of the guilt and based it all on belief and rumors instead. Their ignorance and ineffectiveness failed to uphold justice and prevent the hysteria from spreading like wildfire.

A theme that applies to both Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible is that Fear and Suspicion can easily turn into mass hysteria and cause a mess. All it takes is some false rumors, selfishness, stupidity, and fear. People fear what the rumors hold and also fear being dragged into the mess or suffering the penalties so they take the path of the coward and lie and make things worse. Selfishness comes into play when people start accusing others with bad intentions like greed or revenge. Stupidity is part of the hysteria because the majority of people do not realize what is going on and just play into it like sheep. With all these factors put together it isnt long before fact and fiction cant be separated and it all turns to chaos.

Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible closely resemble each other even though the time periods and hysteria was caused by different things. There are many similar characters in Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible. The plot of the two stories unfolded with similar key events. And the theme that applies to both Guilty by Suspicion and The Crucible is Fear and Suspicion can easily turn into mass hysteria. They both practically mirror each other with their similarities.