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Examples Of Panic In The Crucible

Decent Essays

In the words of Chuck Palahnniuk, “Hysteria is impossible without an audience”. Throughout history, there are many examples of hysteria and panic throughout the public. Arthur Miller brilliantly depicts an example of this in his play, The Crucible. Another example of panic quickly spreading throughout a community, is Sen McCarthy and red scare, which is also referred to as McCarthyism. People take advatage of hysteria to further personal vendettas, or to gain more power within a community. Hysteria is described as, “a state in which your emotions (such as fear) are so strong that you behave in an uncontrolled way”(Merriam). When an entire community falls prey to this, it gets dangerous. There are problems when people make decisions based entirely off of fear. They forget about simple logic and start making rash decisions. This allows smart people to stir up more chaos, and use it to their asvantage. The most obvious example of someone, in the Crucible, using this to their advantage, is Abigail. Abigail has unresolved issues from her childhood, so readers do not know exactly what is wrong with her, but from the start it is very clear that she is exceptionally smart and manipulative. This is shown at the very start of the play. …show more content…

Danforth is the presiding judge during the witch trials. He is viewed, by the town, and by himself, as a holy man of God. Because he has more power during witch trials, he allows witchcraft rumors to continue. Throughout the play, there are many times when Danforth is put in a situation to stop madness, but he never does. In Act IV Danforth says, “You have most certainly seen some person with the Devil. Mister Proctor, a score of people have already testified they saw this woman with the devil”. Danforth is using the girls' testimonies as solid evidence. By doing so, he is allowing witchcraft rumors to spread, putting him in a greater position of

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