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Causes Of Hysteria In The Crucible

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Elia Kazan a Greek-American director once said, “Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy” In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the town of Salem gets warped into a loop of lies and false accusations. A group of girls claim to be able to see spirits to avoid being called witches, and accuse others of being witches, starting a chain reaction. Now others accuse people of being witches in order to get rid of those they don‘t like, and so they be hanged. Hysteria and conformity cause an uproar of lies that kill innocent people in Salem. Hysteria makes people become irrational , and innocent people die because of false accusations. We see this in act 2 when Elizabeth is accused by Abigail for stabbing her through a poppet. …show more content…

We see conformity in the beginning of the book where Abigail blames Tituba for making her dance in the woods. Tituba starts getting whipped until she finally decides to confess and is spared from punishment, seeing this Abigail confesses as well. “Abigail: I saw Sarah Good with the devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the devil! ...Betty: George Jacobs with the devil! I saw Goody Howe with the devil! (pg 45)” Seeing Tituba confess and not punished, made Abigail confess as well so she wouldn’t be accused. Abigail's confession leads Betty to confess and the other girls starting a big chain reaction. In addition we see another example when Proctor Brought Mary Warren to the court, so she’ll confess that the girls were pretending. Abigail pretended that Mary sent her spirit after her in a form of a bird, and the other girls followed her lead. “Abigail: Mary please don’t hurt me! Mary: Abby you mustn’t! Abigail and the girl: Abby you mustn’t. (pg. 107)” This shows how the rest of the girls still go along with what Abby says. Conformity in this case can result in Mary Warren being jailed or hanged for trying to tell the truth. People will conform to avoid being the center of an attack, or being called a

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Stopping Panic One of America’s greatest plays is “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is based off of the true events of the Salem Witch Trials, which caused mass hysteria all throughout Salem; However, it was a satire that explained the hysteria during Arthur Miller’s time known as the “Red Scare”. During this satire, he uses characters that had real-life counterparts to explain how mass hysteria, which is exaggerated and uncontrollable emotions of fear, to show how people of his day were doing the same things and how they needed to stop it before it got worse. In the play, two characters who could have stopped the hysteria that plagued Salem were Abigail Williams and Reverend Hale. One character that could have stopped the hysteria was Abigail Williams.

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During court, Mary said she heard “the other girls screaming” and that Danforth “seemed to believe them” so she followed suit (Miller 107). Abigail and her friends saw the court believing their act, so they continued with their theatrics. This same display of emotion from Proctor also works at convincing Danforth Abigail’s words are not to be trusted, and her accusations against his wife have no

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Abigail and the other girls started to act out in the court accusing Proctor of sending his spirit out on them which is what they claimed caused Mary Warren to faint as she could not do it outside of the courtroom.they also pretended to see a yellow bird that Abigail yelled to " be gone with you"(Miller, The Crucible pg ) these acts further discredited john proctor's case as it convinced the jury the Children were innocent and that John Proctor was lying. Although all the girls played a part in the accusations, the trials would not have been set in motion without Abigail William's unbeatable tactics of manipulation. At first, Abigail manipulates Tituba into doing the sinful work of witchcraft for her and tuned on Tituba, accusing her of forcing her to do witchcraft. Abigail also was obsessed with Proctor and had an affair with him until he ended it which sparked jealousy in Abigail and motivated her to act out and accuse Elizabeth Proctor of

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Like Abigail utterly told liars about how Elizabeth spirit had stabbed her at the dinner table but actually Abigail framed Goody Proctor with the doll Mary Warren had made as evidence to stable herself. Also Abigail accused Mary Warren for working with the devil in the setting of act three in the courtroom. The girls in courtroom acted as if Mary spirit was attacking them ,to scare her back to their side. Giles Corey also accused Thomas Putnam for being gluttonous for more land and therefore accusing his neighbors for it.

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a dramatic play that expresses a very important message and that is how far people would go to save themselves from the hands of death. There are many characters in the Crucible who are guilty of taking innocent lives, but there are three major characters who, without a doubt, are the most at blame. The play takes place in the city of Salem, a city filled with people that would do anything to keep their reputation clean. Throughout the play, Miller is introducing multiple characters that experience changes in their decisions and negatively influence more people eventually leading up to the witch trials. The main point that the story revolves around is that people would rather lie and blame someone else instead of confessing and accepting the punishment.

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Abigail meets up with John Proctor, a farmer she has history with. He tells her to end everything happening with the rest of the girls. After Betty wakes up, Abigail starts pointing her finger at Tituba. Tituba admits to seeing the devil, and calls out multiple other villagers,

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In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the play conveys the hysteria that took place in Salem in 1692. Although the play is fiction, Miller based the plot of his play on historical events and his characters show how paranoia and fear can escalate. There are many references to chronicle how the setting, Salem, is like a crucible. A crucible as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a pot in which metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature or melted, a difficult test or challenge and a place or as a situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions. Appears akin to an authentically decent illustration for the bellicose hysteria that the little village of Salem contained amid the witch trials.

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In The Crucible there were many forms of hysteria within the people of Salem. In the overture of The Crucible Arthur Miller states, “The witch hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among

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(I.465-472). Seeing Abigail cry, it suggests that Abigail’s affair with John Proctor has influenced her behavior in jealousy and lust as she strives for nothing more than her love for John Proctor. By only being heartbroken, Abigail is not to be fully blamed for the hysteria within the town as her actions are only based on desperate attempts to win John Proctor over, and no intentional harm whatsoever. However, on the other hand, Abigail cannot be excused with outside forces making her the way she is due to the fact that she has clearly had a choice in most of her decisions and actions throughout the witchcraft crisis. When Mary Warren, another girl involved in the forest incident, enters the court, she explains to Danforth, the judge, that the girls are lying and are only pretending to see spirits.

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Abigail made the wrong decision to want to execute Elizabeth and then accused her for witchcraft to be with John Proctor. Her accusing Elizabeth was the start of everything before it got even worse. For instance Elizabeth says, “I am accused?” “John with so many in jail, more than Cheever’s help is needed now, I think. Would you favor me with this?

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Abigail is extremely concerned with her well-being and reputation. In Act One, Reverend Parris confronts Abigail about dancing in the forest, and, instead of confessing, she begins denouncing others. This illustrates how she is willing to allow others to be harmed because of her extreme fear. One example of this is when Abigail states, “Not I sir—Tituba and Ruth” (Miller 15). The character of the residents of Salem is not exceptional.

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Brook Mills Mrs. Brown English 10 11/03/15 Many individuals of Salem have to deal with everyday hysteria with many people accused of being a witch and being executed. Other than Abigail, three characters who are to blame for the hysteria in The Crucible are Judge Danforth, John Proctor, and Mary Warren. A character that contributed to the hysteria in The Crucible was Judge Danforth. He contributed to the hysteria because he sent men and women to be executed for no reason.

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I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” The strict rules of Puritan society does not allow individuality to thrive. Abigail decides to “confess” because she does not want to suffer the consequences of society. Abigail is seemingly innocent. However, she is one of the masterminds behind the hysteria of the Witch Trials.

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Fear that spread among a group of people in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials, that event in history is a prime example of Mass Hysteria. In Salem the reason why so many women were killed was because of Mass Hysteria. It caused many people, in Salem during this event to think fast, rash and jump to conclusions. “The Crucible”, a short play dedicated to these events in Salem shows us how hysteria was such a leading cause of why the Witch Trials had even occurred. Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams and Judge Danforth.

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After continuous pressuring Mary Warren replies with ‘I cannot, they’ll turn on me— “showing us the mob has driven fear into people and how Marry is afraid to tell the truth in the case everyone will turn on her and blame her. Mary’s feeble attempt to recompense backfires, so when Abigail uses the poppet to blame it on Elizabeth, making Mary feel even worse thus she agrees to go with proctor to testify against Abigail in court. Later after agreeing to go to court to support Proctor Mary is asked who is at fault and in fear replies pointing to proctor “You’re the devil’s man!” (act three, page 119). This demonstrates how the fear of the mob and the overwhelming pressure from the Abigail makes her turn from the truth.

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