Examples Of Conformity In The Crucible

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller argues that conformity and fear can cause human nature to make a mess of things very quickly. The characters of his play live in an unchecked Puritanical theocracy that is very strict and the courts cannot be challenged or questioned. This and the power of fear causes all the townsfolk to act in a vindictive way that they normally wouldn’t have. The Salem Witch Trials are far from the only example in history of human’s pack nature causing chaos. Many prominent conformity events in history have been during times of war and confusion. Perhaps the strongest example is during the 1940’s when both sides of the World War had soldiers going along with atrocities that they knew were wrong but were being ordered to do

Arthur’s theory that humans will overreact during times like this is very apparent in our culture. In the last year many people have been accused of corruption, sexual harassment, and just for being evil people. The difference between the Witch Trials and these examples is whether the innocence of the accused is valid. For the most part, the townsfolk were innocent and the accused of today are most likely guilty. However there is still a fear of not going along with the persecution of these politicians and celebrities. Those who have publicly voiced their questions, for example Liam Neeson, have been attacked themselves for not accepting the societal assumed truth. Many politicians like Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have been accused of corruption with little proof in an attempt to stain their reputations. Society had accepted this as truth as it was pushed down their throats by the media and neighbors and as a result they have unresistingly gone along with the persecutions. Whether they are innocent or guilty is irrelevant to the fact that both groups were attacked without thought by the