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."