Fear And Corruption In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is one of the leading titles in American literature when it comes to the understanding of human motivation. This literature demonstrates what enables the human mind to push itself forward into doing what is set in their mind. As the setting takes place in the 1690s in Salem, a small town in the new colony of Massachusetts Bay, people were living in a Theocracy and were accusing each other of witchcraft and working with the devil. As a result of these accusations, people were getting executed under the court of Salem, which leads to the theme: fear can drive one to the action of the abnormal. This theme reoccurs in The Crucible, and also in literatures outside The Crucible. Fear can definitely drive one

In this literature, animals were used to demonstrate how fear can cause one to turn against another. In the text, it says, “there is a very proper gander.’ An old hen overheard this and told her husband about it that night in the roost. ‘They said something about propaganda… A guinea hen recalled that she had once seen somebody who looked very much like the gander throw something that looked a great deal like a bomb.” This quote demonstrates that when one becomes afraid, it can cause mass hysteria and blame someone else for the problem. In this case, the gander was blamed because one made everyone else afraid because he heard wrong. Their fear was lifted when the gander was forced to move out of the country. Another example to this behavior be in the literature of Guilt, by Clifford Lindsey Alderman. In this piece of literature, it shows the events that happened preceding The Crucible. In the text, it says “Ann Putnam… must have suffered intensely from the guilty knowledge of what she had done. At least, deeply troubled, she went to the Reverend Joseph Green, who had succeeded Mr. Parris as the minister in Salem Village. ‘I do not know why I did those grievous things,’ she told him, ‘but I must confess my sin before all the people.” This quote also demonstrates how fear can drive one to do the action of the abnormal. In this case, Ann Putnam decides to confess after

Ronald Oakley, which explains the Red Scare, or McCarthyism, that happened in America. The Red Scare caused America to be in a mode of panic during the Cold war because Joseph R. McCarthy, a Senator, was trying to find the communists-in-government. In the text, it says “When backed into a corner and confronted with an obvious lie, he responded by attacking his adversary or dropping that line of investigation and going on to another.” This quote explains how the theme applies to Joseph R. McCarthy. When McCarthy was driven to a corner about his lies, he becomes afraid of what the consequences will happen, and directs the issue to another issue, or attacking something else. This example shows the theme of acting upon fear to do something one normally wouldn’t