The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play about the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. It opened on Broadway in 1953 and is also an allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare of the 1950s. Miller drew parallels between the ritualistic hearings of the historical witch trials and those held by the House Un-American Activities Committee. He used the Salem trials as an allegory to shed light on the "hysteria" occurring in his own times.