Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

The Crucible by Arthur Miller can often be misunderstood as just a play written to show the mass hysteria of the 17th century caused by the lack of good judgement made by the puritans. However, Miller was only using the past to show America the path they were following if they continued to persecute communist and also as a warning for the future generations of Americans, through the use of an allegory. If the reader does not see what Miller is trying to accomplish from writing this play then there is a potential danger of repeating the mistakes made by both Salem and the entire country. In order to avoid this it is important for the reader to understand the motivations behind the false accusations made and the unjust court proceedings that

The hysteria would spread all throughout the Salem village leading to the deaths of many innocent women who were all victims of false accusations made over vengeance leading to their deaths. Many people took advantage of the hysteria the people of Salem where in and used it for their own gain they saw it as their one chance to get revenge in a “christian” manner. The puritans were only trying to avoid their own sinful thoughts by taking out their revenge in the only way that would please the church. In The Crucible Miller shows this about the Salem Witch Trials, he shows the people making accusation out of pure envy and hate sometimes even just fear, but also for vengeance. The hysteria all started over a single person’s vengeance and then everything led up to irrational accusations that all derived from that one original person’s desire for vengeance. When reading about the Red Scare a connection can be seen by how the irrational fears of the people turned into mass

Accusations of witchcraft were not taken lightly by the Puritans. The accused were imprisoned and taken to court where public hearings would take place and questions would be asked that would leave the accused with no right answer. No matter what the accused would say in their defence the Puritan courts would use the accused’s words against them to make them appear to be guilty. Even though the Puritans had no evidence that this was without a doubt true the accused were still determined to be guilty because they would simply look over the lack of evidence because of their fear of of