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Examples Of Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

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The Crucible, written by playwright Arthur Miller, is an accurate representation of the Communist Red Scare. The play is a metaphor for McCarthyism; the act of falsely accusing without any evidence. It is written based on the Salem Witch Trials, a time during the 1600s when men and women all over Salem, Massachusetts, were being wrongly prosecuted for practicing witchcraft. In both history and the play, many innocent people were proceeded against for a crime they didn’t commit, being communist. Even though the fear of being accused of communism was widely known, and not one person would dare to commit such a crime, many guiltless individuals were charged anyway. U.S. senator, Joseph R. McCarthy, a man who had great influence, had begun accusing people for being communists. Arthur Miller reflects all that had occurred during the Red Scare through his play, The Crucible, by making innocent people accused of witchcraft, demonstrating the great hysteria that the devil had created, and writing about antagonists who had no proof of real witchcraft practices. Overall, these characteristics …show more content…

After this went public, people lived in fear every day; not being sure whom to trust. This made it easy for them to accuse each other which resulted in the ruin of many careers. In everybody’s mind everyone around them was a potential communist spy. This is similar to The Crucible, in which everybody started fearing that the devil was among them when Betty fell ill with no obvious reason. The citizens of Salem automatically assumed she had been touched by the devil, (Miller, 10) when she was actually trying to cheat her way out of getting in trouble for dancing naked in the woods. The entire thing had spiraled out of control and continued to as people who had known each other for years begun to accuse each other of

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Similarities Between Mccarthyism And The Crucible

454 Words | 2 Pages

Arthur miller wrote “The Crucible” which was first performed on Broadway in 1953. Miller’s book “The Crucible” was based on the Salem witch trials because he wanted to show people how similar McCarthyism was to the Salem witch trials. He wrote The Crucible because he didn’t like the idea of McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the use of unjust methods that was used to hunt the communist back around 1950. Communism is a government controlled economy that is run by a dictator.

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Fear Of Corruption In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

807 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.

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Is John Proctor A Dynamic Character In The Crucible

574 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller’s The Crucible was written when Joseph R. McCarthy sprung forward with a list of so-called communists in our government. This was an action that helped create the red scare throughout america, in which many would be accused of communism with little proof. Miller showed that by writing what's seen as a metaphor for a modern day witch hunt. His story gives us a good chance to know the characters with rich text allowing deeper analyzation of them. Many become personally affected in which we can see following each ACT.

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John Proctor As A Tragic Hero In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

590 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible in 1953 several years into the Cold War. Arthur Miller book the Crucible is a not so well hidden allegory for McCarthyism. McCarthyism is named after Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch hunt for communists, during the Cold War. This was done in order for McCarthy to gain political power similarly to what Reverend Parris and the girls did during the Salem Witch Trials. The time of McCarthyism is now called The Red Scare.

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Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

358 Words | 2 Pages

In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, mass hysteria is evident throughout the story. The false accusations caused people to panic and become paranoid. In today's world an example of mass hysteria would be the ISIS problem. This is similar to the Crucible due to the mass hysteria occurring and people accusing each other without evidence of their accusation.

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Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

168 Words | 1 Pages

The last, but not least example of why mass hysteria takes over this town is when at the end of act two John Proctor said, “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” this quote shows that most of the things that are happening are because of vengeance, people are accusing people that no one likes in town in order to become powerful in the town, or to get rid of that people. Mass hysteria conducts people to believe that all people that is being accused are witches without even proving it or listening to what they say in their defense. for this reason hysteria caused the death of many innocent people, just because they were unfairly accused

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Examples Of Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

852 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a story based off of a lot of main characters and scenes. The story itself is based off the salem witch trials hence the story is in the town of salem. The three categories of this story was mass hysteria where people believe things and all join in. Group think is how people together make decisions based on ideas in the group.

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Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

915 Words | 4 Pages

This proved similar to how everyone in Salem feared the accused witches and hated them for it. Goody Putnam especially hated a few of the accused witches because one of them, Goody Good, “midwifed to her three times” and Mrs. Putnam begged her husband not to call her due to the fact that “she feared her, because her babies always shriveled up in Goody Good’s hands.” (Miller, 47) This correlates with the way the people feared the accused communists thanks to McCarthy’s list, even without any proof supporting these claims. These reasons I listed, support why I believe The Crucible stands as an allegory to

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How Does Arthur Miller Use Dramatic Irony In The Crucible

696 Words | 3 Pages

This demonstrates irony due to the fact that many (if not all) of the accused were convicted of witchcraft with no proof, other than simple testimony and hearsay. The Court became a follower and just went with whatever the accusers were saying, even with the lack of proof, and that was fine with the Court. One would expect that the Court would accept their own witnessing of John Proctor’s confession, but the Court decides that they need proof. This idea can be transferred over to the 1950s in the United States, where instead of witchcraft, it was Communism and Socialism. A person who even somewhat agreed with Communism and used their 1st Amendment rights to convey their idea could be discriminated against and blacklisted from many jobs, and even if they were not a Communist, the same could happen even with little to no proof, just as the supposed witches are in The Crucible.

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The Crucible Dbq Essay

608 Words | 3 Pages

The Salem Witch Trials were fueled by fear because no one wanted to be punished or killed. In Document B, Act 1 of The Crucible, Reverend Hale arrives to see who is behind all of the witchcraft. When he asks the girls to give him, the names of the people they saw with the Devil. “Abigail: I want to open myself. I want the light of God; I want the sweet love of Jesus!”

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Examples Of Superstition In The Crucible

1197 Words | 5 Pages

In the 1790s, the French bourgeoisie were responsible for many deaths of powerful political peoples. In the early 20th century, prominent African Americans were targeted for attacks on their homes. The Gestapo hunted “enemies of the state” in Nazi occupied territories. And in 1692 and ‘93, the small town of Salem also followed this same line of conduct. It is a law of nature that those in power who fear or detest others will seek to have those ‘others’ silenced.

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Examples Of Allegory In The Crucible

165 Words | 1 Pages

When Arthur miller wrote the play “The Crucible”, he was coming from a victim position. Author miller was once accused of being a member of the communist party in the McCarthy era. Witch is also known as the Red Scare. The crucible is a story talking about the allegory for McCarthyism and the Red Scare. Miller wrote The Crucible as an allegory for the unfound accusation of communism and witchcraft.

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Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

949 Words | 4 Pages

The spread of mass hysteria is due to the irrational fears ingrained in the minds of the Puritans, which were formed primarily because of Tituba and Mary Warren’s lies. Tituba’s false confession led to the initial belief that Salem was indeed suffering at the hands of witchcraft, and Mary Warren’s sudden breaking off from the Devil and claim that John Proctor was forcing her to work with the Devil further proved that there were people in Salem betraying God. This may seem reasonable, but there was a lack of evidence and proper investigation that took place, which led people to jump to conclusions as a way of getting the matter under control. The Crucible can be connected to the McCarthyism of the 50s, where American Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many government workers (without proof) of being part of the Communist Party, which led them to be put on a blacklist. McCarthy’s accusations caught the attention of Americans since many were afraid of the government being overthrown by communists, and this only worsened the mass hysteria at

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Examples Of Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

970 Words | 4 Pages

I think that the crucible begins some supernatural manifestation, but that is pure mass hysteria. At first They were summoning spirits, but later on, it was just an act. In the first scene, it says that Parris finds Betty, Tituba, Abigail, and other girls dancing in the forest. They all try to summon the devil and try to play it off. Abigail wanted Tituba to ask the devil because she wants Elizabeth, john proctors wife dead, but she doesn’t tell Parris.

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Criticism And Mccarthyism In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

719 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.

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