Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible (1953), he shows us how hysteria took over the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. In The Crucible, the townspeople were led to believe that the devil had settled in their town and witches were responsible for it. In the play many people played a part in the hysteria that consumed the town, but some people had bigger effects than others because of their decisions and moral blindness. How did this handful of people cause so much hysteria? How does a town get so easily consumed by lies? When hysteria took over Salem many people were affected, lives were ruined and many innocent people were accused.

“Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion, and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it” (Elia Kazan). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about the story of the Salem witch trials and how people react to the situation during the 1690’s. Miller’s message concerning individual conscience in an atmosphere of fear and mass hysteria in The Crucible is that people can turn on others and suspect each other or tell lies or false accusations in order to save themselves or loved ones.

Miller’s “The Crucible” is less about the details of the witch hunt and subsequent trials, and more about how events of this nature affect the communities in which they take place. It also demonstrates how a mass hysteria can lead to socially justified violence.

Aristotle once said, “All persons ought to endeavor to follow what is right, and not what is established.” According to the site titled History, “McCarthy declared that he had a list of 205 known members of the Communist Party who were “working and shaping policy” in the State Department.” (http://www.history.com). This accusation led to a mob hysteria known as the Red Scare. The Crucible demonstrated the strange phenomenon of Mob Hysteria. As we understand, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible with the influences of the non-fictional events during the Salem Witch Trials, as well as the events that occurred during the McCarthy Era. The Crucible portrays how mass hysteria influenced people to state false accusations, unfair trials in the court

The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller about the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts and the events leading up to it. Salem at the time was a very religious and strict community with very little to do. In 1692, some of the girls in the town fell ill, not being able to find a cure or reason for the sickness the people of the town turned to the explanation of witchcraft. Many people were jailed and hung on the accusation of witchcraft without proper trial. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller portrays the theme that when hysteria sets into a community then that community can be destroyed and free of logic.

Stopping Hysteria Mass hysteria has pledged the planet since the beginning of time. Mass hysteria takes place when a group of a society fears another group with or without reason. For example, the events surrounding the mass hysteria of Y2K or the japanese camps of america during wwII. In both instances, people's fear caused them to do things without real cause. This type of behavior can also be seen in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible; however, in the play, two characters could have stopped the hysteria, John Proctor and Abigail Williams.

Mass hysteria referred to puritan belief that satan was active, present, and walking amongst them in disguise. Irrational fears caused people to accuse others, and those who were accused had no way to defend themselves. Of those people who started accusations, they would do crazy things like pretend that their “spirit” was harming them, and that was enough to have them hung and killed. This falls in in mas hysteria because those “spirits” were considered to be from sent from the devil. Just like in the film where the girls falsely accused innocent people of practicing witchery, they would say those kind of things about sending their spirits, and that's what would get the judges to believe it. The judges then would sent forth and kill them, or sometimes the people who were accused would confess and they would get put in jail instead. Many of them prefered death though, just because they didn't want to agree to such a lie. During the Salem Witch Trials, the girls dancing in the woods, Abigail’s affair with John, and Mary

There were many conflicts and troubles in this play. No one was getting along and there were many arguments. This all started when Abigail and a group of girls went dancing in a forest trying to conjure up spirits. They get caught and to not get in trouble, the girls blame others and somehow get away with it. Many people are taken to jail, and many even hung. All this instead of just telling the truth. Many struggle with telling the truth because they are scared of the consequence. “Keeping everyone happy and telling the truth at the same time is an extraordinarily difficult art.” (Howell). By Abigail blaming others, it causes the judge to come in the picture and many more others. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, a young girl named Abigail, Judge Danforth, and all the townspeople were the reasons why there were so much mass hysteria in Salem.

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.

What is mass hysteria? It is a condition in which a large group of people exhibit similar physical or emotional symptoms, such as anxiety or extreme excitement. In the Crucible, the Salem Witch Trials take place. The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1642 in Salem, Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. The Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials is a notable example of mass hysteria. One example of mass hysteria was in 1994, The Toxic Lady. The Toxic Lady was a woman whose body and blood made the workers at Riverside General Hospital fall ill. But, when doctors and professionals took a closer look in the situation; they found out that mass hysteria has taken

Perhaps as teenagers of the current society our morals have eluted by the ever-so present beliefs portrayed in the media. Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" is broadly applicable as it demonstrates resonance of contemporary events such as the engagement of spreading lies, propaganda and fake news. Whilst, the play certainly is a critique on the McCarthy era it can also be viewed as commentary on the "alternative distorted facts" presented through mainstream medias. Miller suggested the witch-hunt insanity was fueled by a number of complex causes including the dark desires to satisfy hateful urges by the mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is a social phenomenon where imaginary fear and anxiety spread uncontrollably through a community. Throughout the play "The Crucible," hysteria regarding witchcraft spreads through Salem resulting in the numerous deaths of innocent people.

An individual can have a phobia, usually associated with objects or situations. Mass hysteria can be brought about by fear by an individual spreading information to others, causing them to worry and be fearful of the environment around them. In Arthur Miller ‘The Crucible’ the depiction of the Salem witch trials offers a compelling parallel

Silence is just one element of hysteria within Miller’s The Crucible. Belonging is another element to hysteria within this book. Belonging is universal needs of human beings, the connection to another living being. The sense of belonging was a (thing) that many of the Salem citizens feared losing, for example, the servant of John and Elizabeth Proctor, Mary Warren. Being accused would cause her to be exiled from the community because she had no mother or father she had no family, Salem was the closest entity that resembles a family for her.

Have you ever been caught in a time where there was a case of mass hysteria and it had affected many people? Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. This is seen threw out many times in history. As shown in the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s, hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. this became known as the Red Scare.

Human nature is a word describing our reactions to events, our own inner struggles, and our interaction with others, a tendency that every human has in common. (Human Nature in The Crucible) In, The Crucible, several of the characters are constantly feuding, not only among themselves but with the entire community as well. Many citizens spread ridiculous lies and rumors accusing innocent people of being “under the influence” of the devil. The people of Salem fall victim to an eruption of delirium, caused by natural human tendencies. Arthur Miller illustrates blame, majority versus minority, ideology as being natural human tendencies and driving forces to the mass hysteria in the town of Salem.