Fear And Opinion In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Has anyone in your life ever wrongly accused you of something with no evidence? Have you ever wrongly accused someone? Accusations like these is something everyone experiences in their lives. The Salem witch hunts and The Crucible are perfect examples of people showing those characteristics. Arthur Miller wanted to make connections in this story to what was going on during the Red Scare of the 1950s. Three of those connections are fear and suspicion, hysteria, and reputation.

Fear and suspicion is a concept everyone is probably familiar with especially after reading The Crucible. This is an important concept in the story because that is what caused everyone to believe that witchcraft was alive in Salem and the deaths of many innocent people.

Hysteria is when there is uncontrollable excitement or exaggeration. This is relevant to The Crucible in the way that when witchcraft was first “confirmed” to be in Salem everybody went into hysteria and mass panic and accused people of witchcraft left and right. This is also what occurred when communism was found in America. In Act Two we find out from Mary Warren just how many people have been arrested because of the mass hysteria. Proctor: “Mary. Is it true? There be fourteen women arrested?” Mary Warren: “No, sir. There be thirty-nine now-” The beginning of the mass hysteria was when Abigail Williams first accused Tituba of witchcraft. “She made me do it! She made Abby do it! She makes me drink blood! She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes me laugh at prayer! She comes to me while I sleep; she’s always making me dream corruptions!” Because of the mass hysteria there have been thirty-nine innocent people arrested for witchcraft and it was all sparked by one person’s false accusation. Hysteria is a dangerous issue because when hysteria hits that is when a Hell will break

Many respected people in the Crucible lost their good reputation. If the accused confessed, they lost any ounce of respect from everybody in Salem. This is most easily compared to the Hollywood Blacklist in the 1950s. If an actor or actress were blacklisted for suspected communism it became almost impossible to find another job in Hollywood. That blacklist tarnished many actor’s careers because of it. Rebecca Nurse at the beginning of the story was one of the most respected women in Salem and it was a major shock to the town and a blow to her reputation when she was arrested for witchcraft. “You cannot be Rebecca Nurse? It’s strange how I knew you, but I suppose you look as such a good soul should. We have all heard of your great charities in Beverly.” At the end of the story John Proctor chose not to confess and keep his good name and respect even if it meant dying. “Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on my feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” Reputation is something that can almost never be rebuilt, but some people, like John Proctor, would rather die with their good name than live and watch it be torn