Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

Hysteria: Exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. In the Crucible, there are a lot of themes being shown which are very noticeable, one main theme is Hysteria. In 1692, in Salem Massachusetts, the superstition of witches existed in a society of strong Christian beliefs. From the very beginning of the play, Rev Parris demonstrated selfishness, he was concerned more of his personal status in the town than his own daughter. Anybody who acted out of the ordinary was accused of being a witch and then the accuse would be forgiven if the blamed their accusations on another individual. This was the main idea of the play. In this play a group of young girls act up and are then accused of being witches.

Hysteria plays an important role of ripping apart the community of Salem by creating an environment where people act on their grudges which symbolizes the many characters throughout the play like Abigail, John Proctor, and Danforth, who eventually turns on each other. Most of it caused trouble around Abigail which was the one who practiced witchcraft. Arthur believes that Hysteria could ruin any society & someone’s life just like it ruined John Proctors life & eventually caused him to get hanged. The main message he’s trying to get across is that people should be aware of how much we can get caught up in hysteria and what bad things can occur when we do, we tend to lose our heads when we are afraid of something. It can change into unimaginable horror, fear causes people to do things completely out of character like lying, do things they’ve never done before like Elizabeth Proctor lying to try to save John but it ended up backfiring on them both. A scene in the courthouse when Abigail & the girls pretend to see a yellow bird & confess the judge that Mary is sending her spirits to them is a big part of Hysteria being used.