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Decentralized Decision Making In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Humans are taught that often following the group is safer but this herd mentality may be our greatest mistake. In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller many fall victim to the overwhelming mass hysteria that occurs. The play takes place during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. Several young girls claim to be burdened by witchcraft, starting with Reverend Parris's daughter Betty. The afflicted girls accuse innocent people in the town of witchcraft, choosing victims who they or their families dislike causing an uproar throughout the town. In the twenty first century social media can create this same kind of collective obsessional behavior. Jessica Bennett discusses how a small accusation with little to no proof can cause a sort of group hysteria …show more content…

Once an allegation is made toward someone even with no evidence, a sort of mob mentality will cause the majority to continue to pursue punishment for the accused, this is seen throughout The Crucible. The play is based around the Salem Witch trials, one of history’s most famous examples of decentralized decision making. During this time evidence solely relied on word of mouth which provided anyone the ability to accuse another of committing a crime, and the accused were completely unable to prove otherwise which is the entire plot basis of The Crucible. In act one of the play the main character Abigail Williams begins to accuse community members of practicing witchcraft, this sends the other initially accused girls into a mass hysteria causing them to blame others as a way to keep the eyes off of them. Elizabeth Proctor sees through this madness and describes the …show more content…

In her article titled The Flip Side Of Internet Fame, Jessica Bennett focuses on how social media is a place that’s full of hysteria. Bennett says, “Online there are few checks and hardly any monitoring. Moreover, studies show that the anonymity of the net encourages people to say things they normally wouldn’t.” In an attempt to fit in, many take the side of the most common posted opinion even if extremely vulgar or offensive, which can send a large group of people in the same state of fury. These incidents on the internet can have a more hysteric effect, entire cities, states, and countries have felt endangered over a post on a website. Bennett states that posts are “watched by millions,” and continues with, “sites can make or break a person, in a matter of seconds.” Deindividuation – a person goes along with the crowd and feels less responsible or a loss of self-awareness in groups - is seen everyday on the internet and in historical times like the Salem Witch

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The author combines a serious nature with a sarcastic tone to both prove her argument and demean the underlying story. The serious tone is most noticeable whenever she discusses group polarization. It is easily understood that she believes the internet is causing problems by creating a new form of group polarization known as cyber polarization. However, when the author addresses the story of President Obama, she brings back a sarcastic tone indicating her support of our leader. She intended this sarcasm to subtly say that those who believed the stories about President Obama were uniformed extremist.

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Changing the Salem Hysteria Arthur Miller writes a play called The Crucible. In the play, there is a mass hysteria about witchcraft, all started by a group of girls lying about dancing in the woods. The people accused questioned and hanged if they did not confess. Two people that could have stopped the hysteria are Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Proctor.

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Tyranny of the Mob Rhetorical Analysis In his article “Tyranny of the Mob,” Joel Stein emphasizes how the dynamic of the Internet has drastically changed over the course of a few years. He wants you to look at your normal interactions online and ask questions about what made it get to where it is today. Are you one of the people who has to censor yourself to prevent online trolling and did you even notice you were doing it? Stein wants to shine a light on the people who are making the internet a negative wasteland for hatred to manifest.

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1218 Words | 5 Pages

What Makes Someone a Tragic Hero? What would you do if you were involved in hysteria? How would you try to stop it from hurting the people who are most important to you? Would you let your own secrets stop you from doing the right thing?

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Ebola Virus Epidemic connection with the Crucible Throughout the play of the Crucible, the women of Salem, Massachusetts, of all ages were being falsely accused of witchcraft, which was considered a sin by the Bible. These women would be hung or drowned by the other townspeople. Since the society that the women had lived in were Puritan who believed in an utopian society controlled by God, the townspeople saw the women as satan trying to control them. The use of false accusations had broken down the society to the core, uncovering adultery, greed and false protocols. For instance, two of the main characters had an affair with each other, which was an act of adultery.

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The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, focuses on the town of Salem, Massachusetts, during the deplorable witch trials revolving around the 1600's. Within these trials, there were multiple accusations that were made about who was really involved in the witch trials, many of the characters who were falsely and baselessly accused were innocent. The falsification that were created by the main character of The Crucible, Abigail Williams were only for her own benefit to protect herself from being accused as one of the “witches” or had she had been there in the forest the night there was witchcraft . For example, in (Act 1.Scene 3)ABIGAIL: She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer! ABIGAIL:

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In both The Crucible and Twelve Angry Men the theme of fragility of justice is shown. Fair justice does not exist, when your life is put on the line because of accusations or because of your supposed actions, your faith is not decided by you, but by the decisions of others. Fragility of justice is the most evident theme in The Crucible and Twelve angry men because the faith of others is decided solely by a jury, with no consent to the accused. In the crucible fragility of justice is showed when Abigail Williams starts accusing people of being associated with the devil.

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In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the setting is Salem, Massachusetts during the late 1600s where the town’s pious Puritan beliefs directly influence their government. A 17-year-old girl named Abigail Williams had an affair with John Proctor, a wealthy, married man. Abigail is told by John to move on but instead, Abigail starts accusing the townspeople of witchcraft, including John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. As this hysteria begins to rise, other people such as Thomas Putnam, a rich landowner, start to also allege Salem villagers. In this play, the author illustrates the central idea that people should not allow jealousy to control their actions.

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Society as a whole seeks to satisfy themselves. This may be at the expense of their peers or individuals they are associated with. Arthur Miller brilliantly displays this dark side of humanity’s side in his play The Crucible. This play is based on the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. During the Salem witch trials over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed.

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875 Words | 4 Pages

During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible.

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Adultery, secrets, and witchcraft combine to equal a recipe for disaster. The Crucible is a classic play written by Arthur Miller. The play began in a Puritan settlement in Salem, Massachusetts. A group of girls are found dancing in the woods by the town minister, Reverend Parris. They realized that there will be a hefty punishment because of their actions so they claim that they were being possessed by witchcraft.

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Elizabeth Kolbert brings about an argument about polarization, as well as how information is misleadingly presented and misinterpreted on the internet. Koblert explains about internet misinformation, explaining how different authors and researchers have supported the idea of the World Wide Web being a base for unreasoned ideas. I agree with Kolbert’s idea on current interne situation because, as a result of the internet and the propaganda in it, there have been several political upheavals and social status conflicts. World Wide Web is described to be a platform for rumors, misinformed and unreasoned opinions. Elizabeth Kolbert notes that, the information presented in the websites is enough reasons for someone to sit in a nice restaurant and

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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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517 Words | 3 Pages

In The Crucible why were people blaming one another? The Crucible by Arthur Miller, talks about people blaming each other for using witchcraft. Everyone in the town was getting accused by the people and they would have them in trial and ask them questions. In the Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the characters of Elizabeth Proctor, and Abigail Williams can be compared and contrasted through love, witchcraft, and Family. First of all, love in The Crucible, between Abigail Williams, and Elizabeth Proctor was interesting because John Proctor was married to Elizabeth Proctor.

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1240 Words | 5 Pages

The Salem witch trials were a time period when any individual could be accused of witchcraft for numerous reasons. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller focuses on the deviation of the trials and how the town’s most religious and honest members of the community are tried with witchcraft. John Proctor, the town’s most honest man, is accused of being a witch and must decide if he should confess or not. Proctor’s confession will stop the town from rebelling and uphold the reputations of Deputy Governor Danforth and Reverend Parris. Hale also wishes for Proctor’s confession so he does not have to feel responsible if Proctor were to be hanged for his witchcraft accusations.

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