Human Nature Causing Mass Hysteria in The Crucible

In literature and in life, the opportunity of personal and corporate gain allows for easy manipulation of vulnerable circumstances, as seen primarily by the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Based upon the accusations of multiple vindictive Salem residents, the lack of empirical evidence, the lack of division in the church and state, and the lack of proper leadership in Salem allowed for certain members of society to claim revenge, manipulate citizens, and gain unprecedented religious influence. The continuation of these incentives caused the Trials to rapidly turn into hysteria, with dozens killed, and hundreds more convicted of faulty acts. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller and “‘Homo Economicus’ and the Salem Witch Trials” by Franklin G. Mixon, Jr., the nature of Salem residents is exposed, explaining how greed and selfishness led to the conviction of multiple men and women in the fall of 1692. Although religion and the Puritan ideology played a major role in these shocking figures, without the motivation of personal and corporate profit, the Salem Witch Trials would not have had the same devastating effects.

Jealousy and betrayal are two of the most important fundamental human qualities that lead to the Salem Witch Trials in the book The Crucible.

In The Crucible, people suddenly turn on each other and accuse people they have known for a long time of practicing witchcraft and worshiping the devil. The town of Salem falls into hysteria, a condition where the whole town can not trust anyone anymore. In order to explain why so many people are afraid, the community begins to believe that the fear must have a definite origin(s). Miller demonstrates persecution and grudges in a tense manner. He grabs the readers attention by these fast paced accusations and the emotions that the characters feel. Grudges and dissatisfaction lead to many hysterias of accusations and bewitching and they all are chaotic and crazy. Some lead to deaths and others lead to arguments and dissatisfaction. Either way nothing good has come from the grudges and accusations in this book.

There is no such thing as an honest person. Everybody has lied at least once in their lifetime. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, several girls in a highly religious and Puritan Salem, Massachusetts get caught dancing in the woods. In order to avoid punishment, these girls lie and accuse others of witchcraft. Eventually, it is revealed that the people in the town accused each other of witchcraft for ulterior motives. Regardless of their motives, these accusations created mass hysteria in Salem. The three people that were responsible for creating mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts were Parris, Abigail, and Hale.

Mob hysteria can strike at any given time. It has played a role in U.S. history from being as detrimental as lynching to as ridiculous as the fear of the 2012 apocalypse. The Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Era are another two examples in history that demonstrate just how influential the mob hysteria phenomenon can be. The accusations during the McCarthy Era and the events of The Salem Witch Trials made an impact on The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which portrays how mob hysteria can spread a sense of paranoia, demolish reputations, produce unfair trials, and create a bandwagon to stay out of trouble.

This Mob Hysteria can endanger lives of the innocent, create conspiracy within societies, and cause people to ignore evidence and reason. When people are influenced by mob hysteria, they tend to accuse others of doing things without proper evidence, much like the accusations made by the people of Salem in Miller’s The

In the play, The Crucible [New York: Penguin Group. 2003] by Arthur Miller, the mass hysteria of the witch trials begins with a game in the woods and quickly grows to unbelievable proportion in an atmosphere of ignorance and superstition. In this small, closed community, the hysteria is fed by hidden personal motives including self-preservation, fear, jealousy, envy, and revenge which when unchecked and unquestioned, bring tragic consequences.

While reading the Crucible people may believe that witch trials are a thing of the past, but the truth is that witch hysteria is a conflict people even face today. Witch hysteria was first felt in 1692 when a group of young girls said they were possessed. This started to spread and everyone would accuse others of being witches. Lot of people were tried, and if they denied being a witch they would be hung. 20 people were put to death as a result of the trials. Looking at the Salem trials, as well as more recent events we can tell that human nature wants an explanation for the unexplainable.

Throughout history, many horrific incidents based on an act of violence or disagreement have resulted in panic and mass hysteria. These historical events include but are not limited to, The Holocaust, mass shootings, and 9/11. Many of these tragic events have led to people being immensely afraid. These events often create fear for those who participate in everyday activities. A healthy community consists of a support system, peace, trust, and adhering to societal laws. Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, illustrates parallels between the Salem 17th century witch trials and the Communist Red Scare in the 1950’s to exemplify how destructive irrational fear and mass hysteria can become. When a community is overcome with fear it creates an insalubrious system of mistrust, corruption, hypocrisy, and the defiance of laws. Conflict relating to witchcraft in The Crucible, led to tension and struggle for the people of Salem. In his allegory, Arthur Miller illustrates the devastating impact of irrational fear on a community through the actions of the characters of Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne.

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.

For generations, the foundation of societies have ultimately stayed the same, with only ideas changing. To this day the voice of many remains unheard and unspoken as people are expected to conform to the standards of society. The idea of “Group Think” requires an exact mold for the members to shape to, but in reality Developed in 1972 by Irving Janis, “Group Think”, a psychological phenomenon, affects the choices of thousands of people unknowingly and deleteriously. The fallout of a group and its tragic aftermath due to the effects of “Group Think” is shown in The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller in which chaos has risen across Salem, Massachusetts with the appearance of witch trials. Tangled up in the trials, the characters are forced to undertake actions against their own will power. Key driving symptoms of Groupthink contributing to the Salem witch trial include, but are not limited to pressure, an in illusion morality and self-censorship.

The human race is a very calamitous, worrisome species; their nature creates judgment along with foolishness. Once placed in an unexpected situation they all turn on each other. This kind of tomfoolery has happened many times; such as, The Crucible, “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and The Cold War. In the Crucible, the people of Salem believe that there are witches cursing residents. They slowly raise suspicion of each other consequently creating a dilemma on their own; ultimately, they accuse each other so they can become uncharged. The tension caused them to turn on one another creating their own darkness.

“It is a providence the thing is out now! It is a providence” (Miller 19). At the beginning of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, Thomas Putnam, a greedy farmer incites the outset of mass hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts by convincing the villagers that witchcraft is being practiced by those in their midst. Mass hysteria is defined in Witchcraft and Mass Hysteria in Terms of Current Psychological Theories as “a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear” (Wolf 23-28). As written by Gary Small M.D. in “Mass Hysteria Can Strike Anywhere, Anytime”, “Most often, the outbreaks afflict children and teenagers, girls more than boys, and fainting

Fear can lead to a lot of things, but unfortunately, in humans it usually leads to something bad. Throughout history, fear has lead to some of the most violent actions by man, and some of the biggest collapses of organized society. In early American history, the people of Salem experienced this for themselves. Arthur Miller shows this in his book. The society of Salem that Miller creates in The Crucible shows how fear can slowly cause rational thought to deteriorate, leading to mass hysteria and eventually the breakdown of civilized behavior.

Remember those Disney movies where the witch had a huge wart on her face? Well that idea came from the Salem Witch Trials. To prove that a person was a witch, people would check for big freckles or moles on their body. This was supposedly a place where evil spirits could stay. During the spring of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls were caught dancing in the woods, which was considered illegal in the Puritan times. When confronted about it, Abigail and Betty start to scream out the names of the witches in the village that made them commit the crime. This started up the accusations of the Salem Witch Trials. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, Abigail Williams is to blame for the mass hysteria in Salem because she wants to be with John Proctor, she tries to kill Elizabeth, and she tries to save her name.