Everybody in the town feared her, they were all paranoid about being hanged or having to confess to witchcraft. That is why all the girls follow behind her, because if they do what Abigail wants them to, their sense of paranoia is lessened. Another time when fear took over a person in The Crucible, is when John is threatening Mary. “She’ll kill me for sayin’ that”(Miller 38)! This is a quote from Mary that exposes the threats that Abigail is using to make the girls hysterical.
“The only thing to fear is fear itself.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt). Fear is a commonly confused emotion. Everyone’s response to fear varies. People may pass off fear as other things such as stress, anxiety, and in some cases laughter.
In the Crucible many characters are jaded, rude, or just plain evil. Arthur Miller uses fear to make this clear. Whether they run from, hide from, or fight against what is happening in Salem, it all boils down to each character's response to fear. The reason this play feels so real is in one part due to the fact the characters are real, and two how real fear is depicted in the play. Although Fear is just an emotion.
Fear In the novel, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the concept of fear is brought up throughout the book. Fear is very powerful and can ,make you have total control if you are the one causing the fear. The Salem Witch trials was a very fearful time in the late 1600’s, and people did things they would not normally do, but they did it because they were scared. In this book, a 17 year old girl named Abigail Williams (who you know is up to no good) is found dancing in the forest with her friends.
Fear drives people to lose their judgement. Usually the fear is induced by an outside source such as a threat. In many cases throughout history most of the choices made were blindly made because of fear and with no validity and affects the public negatively. The Crucible exemplifies leaders and important figures that make a decision based off of fear.
Terror is normally caused by a threat of danger and can cause people to do things they may later regret. To start, Arthur Miller wrote the allegory tragedy, “The Crucible”, with the storyline of the Salem Witch Trials with the underlying story of the Red Scare. Each one brought horror into citizens’ lives, which influenced their actions. In the play, the town of Salem broke out in a hysteria of witchcraft. This caused people to accuse one another in spite of internal or external problems.
All over the world fear is controlled by many different factors. Whether it is social media, literature, or power. In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, fear is used to control others as it is today. Social Media is a great example of controlling others using their fear. Embarrassment and exposure can come from social media.
What is fear? Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief of someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or threat. In my own words fear is a feeling people get when someone is going to kill them. But not all fear is bad because some people feel fear differently How is fear used in “The Crucible” ?
Fear is definitely not always a harmful emotion. Fear influences people to take extreme measures as well as act irrationally to emotion. While fear is one of the main emotions people face, this emotion pushes people to do what they desire. It drives people to madness, and throughout history, caused people to commit extreme acts. In Arthur Miller’s play, fear drives characters to extreme actions in order to save the reputation or their lives.
The Crucible Fear has effected much of history. Many of these events in history are very similar. One of the biggest examples in history would be The Holocaust. An example would be the Salem witch trails which were depicted in the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible and The Holocaust are related because one person was to blame for the mass hysteria, there was one person in power, fear was used to control the people and many people were wrongly punished.
The Fear of Reality Fear dominates various aspects of life. It can elicit physiological and emotional responses that greatly influence an individual’s reaction. For example, fear can cause an individual to experience an adrenaline rush that gives someone an extra burst of energy to lift a car or quickly flee from a situation. Fear can also cripple an individual by producing intense feelings of anxiety and nervousness.
In The Crucible Abigail only tried to save her reputation by telling all the lies and accusing others. In Lord of the Flies since Jack was afraid of losing his reputation as an authoritarian, he did not mind hurting others. However, in The Crucible, the society seems to also be the reason causing fear, whereas, fear in The Lord of the Flies is mainly caused by a dictator. The reason why Abigail is so afraid of people finding out about her affair with John is because of the pressure from the society around her. She grew up in a society where people are very religious and strict.
The Crucible: How Fear Changes People During his first Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt once announced, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Fear manipulates a persons rationality resulting in them behaving in ways they normally would not, especially in the story The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The characters in The Crucible allow fear to manipulate their beliefs and actions. They all know what is right, but fear alters their mindset causing them to act differently.
In The Crucible, fear is used as a tool to take control and override the power of the townspeople. The fear of being accused of witchcraft leads many characters such as John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, and Elizabeth Proctor to be falsely accused in order to protect themselves. In the long run, this fear causes the lives of innocent people to be taken. With fear, John Proctor uses this as a motivator to stand against his accusations. This leads him to confess his adultery and ultimately sacrifice himself for the truth.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” - Franklin D Roosevelt. Fear plays a major role for the tragic ending of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, because fear is upon the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts, it leads to unanticipated accusations, power, and hatred. This feeling, has occurred in everyone’s life at some point, which is more overpowering than some might think. Once hysteria arose about the girls dancing in the woods, due to all the fear it leads to unanticipated accusations, being a slave, Tituba was accused by Abigail to avoid any punishment.
