Hysteria In The Crucible

Pointing fingers at someone can do a lot of damage to someone's reputation. Sometimes we point fingers at innocent people in fear the unknown or what may hurt us.. Fearing something or fearing the unknown can cause an uprising or reaction throughout a society or community. Throughout the story “The Crucible” and during the time of McCarthyism many people feared of what may happen to them, as known hysteria. Hysteria is an outburst of fear that spreads through society leaving consequences for blameless people, although with hysteria no one would know what to fear or believe in the society.

The way people reacted when someone tried to be good and tell the truth wasn't expected. Marry Warren knew the girls were lying and wanted them to tell the truth. She told Abigail, "Abby, we've got to tell. Witchery's a hangin' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two years ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things" (18). Even though she wanted to tell the truth, she couldn't. Abigail won't let her confess. Later in the book, she finds out that they're using the poppet she gave to Elizabeth against her. Marry never wanted Elizabeth to be accused of trying to kill Abigail. Proctor wanted Marry to tell the truth to the court. But Mary is afraid of what Abigail might do to her and Proctor. Mary is also afraid of the court. "I cannot, they'll turn on me" (80), she said. You would expect that the court would want you to tell the truth. In this case, if she told the truth the court members' reputation will be ruined. It shows that they react in a way that it will be beneficial to them.

In The Crucible, many are tested with regards to their faith and put on trial for witchcraft. In this play, nineteen are hanged and one is pressed to death for the crime of being a witch, for that being John Proctor. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses McCarthyism to show how important mass hysteria is, mass hysteria involving Abigail, and the breaking of Mary Warren's will leads to mass hysteria.

In the beginning of the play, Mary Warren’s character is well known as being wimpy and afraid. She is under Abigail’s control and will do everything she says. According to Sara Constantakis in Literature Resource Center, “she is weak and easily influenced. She is one of the girls who took part in the voodoo ritual and is terrified when the talk of witchcraft begins, as she knows people who are convicted of being witches are hanged.” This opinion of Mary is further proven by her action of not telling the truth about what happened in the woods because she knows Abigail would kill her. Abigail even screams “I say shut it, Mary Warren!” (Miller, Act I). Mary is always listening to Abigail’s demands, even when she knows the right thing to do. Mary Warren is seen as a poor little mouse who is too quiet to ever stand up for herself. In addition to this, Mary wants to confess about what happened in the woods, but Abigail won’t let her. Mary cries, "Abby, we've got to tell. Witchery's a hangin' error, a hangin' like they done in Boston two year ago! We must tell the truth, Abby! You'll only be whipped for dancin', and the other things!" (Miller, Act I). Mary knows she is innocent and for that reason, she is ready to own up to her sins, however Abby knows that she

1. Throughout The Crucible, the theme of mass hysteria is presented. For example, after Tituba “confessed” to have been working under pressure, Abigail screams “I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (54) The reason why Abigail suddenly “confesses” starts with Tituba. Tituba was under extreme pressure when Reverend Hale and many others were screaming at her; therefore she decided to just give them what they want – a confession – so they would stop. Seeing this, Abigail joins in that she will not be interrogated later, thus adding to the overall hysteria and madness of a witch hunt. In addition, the theme of vengeance is also displayed when John Proctor blatantly states “I'll tell you what's walking Salem - vengeance is walking Salem… now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom,

Within Arthur Miller’s award-winning play, The Crucible, there is a constant trend that flows through time. As the tale persists, Salem, Massachusetts gets wound up in the witch hunt of 1692, creating an infectious hysteria on all the villagers. City-wide fear overtakes individual thought and reasoning as well as it can today in America’s “trivial” matters.

Mass hysteria is a phenomenon that has occurred throughout history In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the hysteria and irrational overreaction during the Salem Witch trials as an allegory to address the current issues the U.S. faced while dealing with communism in the 1950’s, and the hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists became known as the Red Scare. All three events vary in the intensity of hysteria as well as the size of the population, although similarities regarding the hysteria in both The Crucible and The Red Scare can also be applied to the current hysteria surrounding the Ebola virus. Examples of these similarities are the use of scapegoats by the individual people or parties responsible for the initial hysteria, wrongfully accusing or discriminating people due to a belief based solely on trepidation and lack of substantial evidence.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows us that misinformation and lack of leadership can drive masses to hysteria and he shows how important an appearance is in a community. Hysteria can drive people to do horrific things that they normally wouldn’t do. It could also push people to accuse others that they might not like for personal gains. The story features characters that are lower on the social ladder at the time rise to importance. For example Abigail and other girls were given more importance than the average woman at the time. People in Salem also use this hysteria to rid themselves of beggars and homeless citizens. In my opinion there were two types people in this book, those who wanted to follow religion blindly and kill heretics and, those who wanted to gain from the panic within the town.

A countless number of elements can be accounted for when analyzing someone's behavior and thoughts. Hysteria, uncontrollable emotion among groups, is a major leader in past and present day society when it comes to how people act and think in different situations. The Crucible provides great examples with how hysteria can affect a group of people. Back in Salem, Massachusetts 1692, hysterics swept the town, creating a storm of emotions. Everyone wondering, what to do? What to think? In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the effects of mass hysteria to reveal his purpose of using it in his writing, how society at that time reacts to hysterics, and the consequences of these incoherences, which still appear in present-day.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the characterization of Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam, and Governor Danforth, to show how people protect themselves during times of hysteria, which helps to continue the chaos that broke throughout Salem. Miller shows the importance of maintaining values and principles in order help end the chaos. Miller connects The Crucible with the events of the witch hunts from the 1690s where citizens were accused of using witchcraft, and the McCarthy trials of the 1950s. It leads to the significance of hysteria of manipulation, power, and personal gains in which leads to a downfall in the society in Salem.

In the 18th century, Salem had witness one of the most appalling, unforgivable and unjust executions that would leave a forever lasting stain on the human history. The crucible, by Arthur Miller depicts how hysteria, political injustice and prejudice began the historical ‘witch hunt’ which resulted 19 innocents killed. Two centuries later hysteria, political injustice and prejudice have again affected the lives of three innocent teenagers, Damien Echols (18), Jessie Misskelly (17), and Jason Baldwin (16), who were wrongly accused, convicted and sentenced for the homicide of three 8-year-old boy; this case was dubbed the West Memphis Three (WM3). Within both historical events hysteria, political injustice/bias and prejudice has distorted

The play titled The Crucible by Arthur Miller takes place in the town Salem, Massachusetts, in 1693. The hysteria begins when Betty falls into a coma-like state after dancing in the woods with others and being caught by her father, Reverend Parris. The town is startled as the witchcraft rumors spread, causing Reverend Parris to send for an expert, Reverend Hale. Both reverends begin to question the participants including Abigail, Tituba, and Betty. Although they denied it earlier they begin listing off names of townspeople, Tituba confessing it herself. Meanwhile in the Proctor house a glimpse of the problematic marriage between John and Elizabeth Proctor, that has been ruined by John and Abigail's affair. The reverend appears at the house

“More weight.” These were Giles Corey’s last words before he was crushed to death for refusing to make a plea in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Such a horror seems limited to plays or distant times. Right? This is not the case. While no one was physically crushed to death with stones in the era of McCarthyism, the damage was done. In both The Crucible and the McCarthy Era people, innocent and guilty alike, were held accountable for giving names, endured hysteria, and had reputations tarnished. Those that whispered their own, “more weight” were placed under their own set of stones.

In Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” there is hysteria in Salem.Everybody was so stressed and worried about witchcraft. But it’s all a lie, witchcraft isn’t real, It was all made up by Abigail Williams because she wanted John Proctor, but John Proctor didn’t want her. Hysteria is deadly because it’s like a vicious rumor it spreads like wildfire.They were accusing each other and no one believed anybody. Overall this book shows how even the most loyal person can give you up when they are on the line.

The supernatural and mass hysteria was influenced in “The crucible “. He says on page 10 in the book, "I saw Tituba is waving her arms over the fire when I proceeded you". He saw everything that happened in the forested territories that day. After that day Betty would not wake, or she would have her eyes open yet would not talk or walk. Many individuals assume that it's witchcraft, Mrs. Putnam assumes that Tituba slaughtered her seven considered children and that Tituba can in like manner address the dead. Mrs. Putnam is a to a great degree strong enthusiast of witchcraft. Her daughter, Ruth Putnam is also especially incapacitated she has an unclear appearance from Betty. Mrs. Putnam thinks Ruth was close tending to her dead sisters. Abby reprimands Tituba for affecting the young women to drink chicken blood, Tituba lets it be known. She moreover pointed the finger at Tituba for making her laugh at petitions. Tituba points the finger at Abby for affecting her to conjure and flabbergast. Hearty incapacitates Tituba if she doesn't concede witchcraft or calling the evil spirit. Tituba concedes and says that she sees Sarah Awesome go with the reprobate" revolving around and continuing". She also says that the devil charges her to butcher Parris and he will make her free and send her back to Barbados. Abby not long in the wake of conceding her moving for the fallen heavenly attendant, writing in his book. Betty wakes and starts naming people she seen with the beast. John Delegate