ipl-logo

Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

1030 Words5 Pages

Keylian Ortiz-Tirado

Mrs. Gardner

English II Hnrs

24 February 2023

Mass Hysteria in The Crucible

What is mass hysteria? Mass hysteria is defined as “an outbreak of unusual and uncharacteristic behaviors, thoughts and feelings, or health symptoms shared among a group of people” (Raypole). In the play there are multiple ways that mass hysteria is shown throughout the different acts. The events in The Crucible by Arthur Miller were deeply rooted in mass hysteria such as when Abigail was in the courtroom, when Betty woke up and started shouting names, and when there were poppets found in Proctor’s house.

In Act Three, pages 108 to 109 of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, mass hysteria is shown when Abigail was in the courtroom. Abigail …show more content…

Cheever found Mary Warren’s poppet in the Proctor’s house. Even when Marry Warren admitted that that poppet was hers, Abigail charged murder on Elizabeth. It is stated that, that night Abigail was stabbed and that there was a needle in the belly of the poppet. The reason why Abigail charged Elizabeth and not Warren is because Abigail does not like Elizabeth as she is Proctor’s wife. In Act Three, pages 103 to 104, in The Crucible, Judge Danforth brought up the topic of the poppet found in the Proctor’s house. Mary Warren stated that she was making the poppet beside Abigail and put the needle in the poppet for safe keeping. Abigail said, “It is a lie, sir.” Then she proceeded to state that she always saw poppets in the Proctor’s house when no one else saw them. While trying to bring out the truth there is a lot of anger and frustration with each other, which causes Proctor to bring out that Abigail and the other girls were dancing in the woods naked. This created mass hysteria because throughout this act Abigail has been telling lies and others are trying to bring out the truth. When bringing out the truth, more confessions came up because they want the judge to forget what the others supposedly

Show More
Related
275 Words | 2 Pages

Mary Warren's discreet selfishness led to Elizabeth Proctor being jailed and John Proctor being hanged. In Act Two, Mary came home from the courthouse and gifted Elizabeth with a poppet she spent all day sewing because it symbolizes something out of the ordinary, perhaps witchcraft (Miller 56). She is trying to frame Elizabeth for having something strange in her home that she should not have. Mary does this because her friend Abigail wants Elizabeth Proctor gone so Abigail can be with her husband, John Proctor. Mary wants Abigail to approve of her and will do whatever it takes to get that approval; however, Mary does.

Read More
453 Words | 2 Pages

Abigail encouraged a group of girls to pretend to be sick, Including Mary Warren, Elizabeth’s servant. Abigail stated that she saw a ghost of Elizabeth, basically that Elizabeth had done witchcraft on her. Elizabeth was given a poppet by Mary, and that poppet had a needle in the stomach under the dress. Abigail stabbed herself in order to make believe that Elizabeth was bewitching her. When they went to search the proctor’s house they found the poppet and they took Elizabeth.

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Warren not going against Abigail and confessing the truth shows that Mary Warren will do things even if she does not want to, to please Abigail. Second, Marry Warren makes a poppet in court and gives it to Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of stabbing her through the poppet with a needle. Then Elizabeth Proctor gets taken to jail and John Proctor tells Mary Warren she must confess that she made the poppet. Mary Warren shows herself being scared of turning against Abigail by saying, “She’ll kill me for sayin’ that!...”

Read More
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.

Read More
299 Words | 2 Pages

In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, and in today's world, there are examples of mass hysteria. In The Crucible it tells the story of the times during the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts. Now people worry about Muslims and Islamics. They both have their catalysts, and motivation. In the crucible, the story starts of with girls in the forest doing a ritual, in which on girl drank blood, they were seen by a family member and that is when all the accusations began.

Read More
956 Words | 4 Pages

Through their reactions to the witch trials, characters in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible portray two major themes of self-preservation and mass hysteria. The play is set in Puritan Society in the late 1600’s in Salem, where most people are devout Christians and hold a strong belief of both God and the Devil. Through Abigail’s and Tituba’s actions of self-protection at the expense of others, Miller reveals the dangers of mass hysteria and its motivation towards self-preservation and false accusations. Abigail essentially begins the hysteria in Salem when she verifies the false suspicions of witchcraft, she then tells Reverend Hale that Tituba made her drink blood in order to draw the attention away from herself. Abigail points her finger at

Read More
539 Words | 3 Pages

The amount of hysteria that Aruther Miller expresses through his characters in the crucible is more than relevant to what was going on at the time. Aruther Miller shows hysteria through many characters throughout the story. The characters I choose to focus on are Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor. The ways that he includes hysteria helped show the public how they were treating people at that given time. One of the characters Miller chooses to cause hysteria is Abigail Williams.

Read More
1219 Words | 5 Pages

Mary Warren put a needle inside of the poppet, later on Abigail fell to the floor screaming with a needle in her stomach. Cheever finds the poppet in Elizabeth's possession and she is convicted of witchcraft. John Proctor knows the truth and speaks up to receive justice for his wife. In act II, Cheever arrives at John Proctor's house with a warrant for the arrest of his wife, Elizebeth was accused for the needle being found in Abigail's stomach. John Proctor rips the warrant out of Cheevers hand for Elizabeth's arrest and tears it in half.

Read More
1608 Words | 7 Pages

(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.

Read More
735 Words | 3 Pages

In “The Crucible” (1953) Arthur Miller asserts that mass hysteria leads to high tensions and heated relationships between people that once were great friends. these tensions begin in the town of salem Massachusetts in 1692 where witch hysteria was beginning to run rampant. A rampancy that caused the unjust deaths of nineteen of the town's residents. Nineteen people who had nothing to do with the theorised witchcraft that was spawned by people’s fear of the unknown. A fear that manifested due to untrustworthy people.

Read More
2985 Words | 12 Pages

What is hysteria? Hysteria refers to a psychological condition characterized by a state of intense emotional distress, often including symptoms such as anxiety, depression, and uncontrollable outbursts of emotion. In the context of The Crucible, hysteria refers to the mass panic and fear that swept through Salem, leading to the persecution and execution of innocent people accused of witchcraft. Similarly to the mass panic and anxiety that swept through Salem during the witch trials, the 1950s in America was also marked by widespread fear and paranoia. This period was denoted with a deep-seated anxiety about the perceived threat of communist infiltration in the United States, which was fueled by Senator Joseph McCarthy and his supporters through

Read More
1404 Words | 6 Pages

(90). All of the proof Judge Danforth listed can be easily faked, like the choking, or is something that someone could do to themselves, like slashing themselves with daggers and sticking pins in themselves if they wanted to. Judge Danforth is so convinced that Abigail is telling the truth, that not even testimony from an ex-accuser stating the falsehood of the accusations would satisfy him. Mary Warren, who works at the Proctor home, was one of the girls found dancing in the woods and was one of the girls who was on Abigail’s side, was forced to testify against Abigail in court when she returned to the Proctor house one night, informing John Proctor that his wife, Elizabeth Proctor had been accused of witchcraft. Mary Warren said to Danforth that she and the other girls were faking everything and

Read More
788 Words | 4 Pages

Mary warren contributed to the hysteria because she gave Elizabeth a doll with a needle in it. This doll Abigail gave Mary to give to Elizabeth because Abigail wanted to frame Elizabeth. Abigail then stabbed a needle into herself and showed it to Reverend Parris. Reverend Hale and Cheever were sent to investigate the Proctors house, where they searched for the doll with a needle in it. Elizabeth said, “I never kept no poppets, not since I were a girl” (Miller 73).

Read More
1451 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More
751 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

Related Topics

Open Document