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The theme of fear in the crucible
How fear affects characters in the crucible
The theme of fear in the crucible
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As they spoke, Betty awoke for a moment, screaming and calling for her mother; trying to fly out the window to her. This caught the attention of those in the church meeting, causing a run of the people to where Betty is. As the people held in the building, questioning was done for if the girls have done witchcraft. The girls lied, accusing Tituba for the reason Betty stays asleep. People then began to use this lie to blame Tituba for things she may have not done.
When the girls were questioned about almost all said Tituba, Reverend Parris’s servant made them perform witchcraft and dance in the forest. Betty gets flue, one of the girls that was part of the girls group that were dancing. The town supposed that she is overcome with evil spirits and the town forces Tituba to tell why she has compressed with the devil. All of the girls remain to blame Tituba for this and she gets accused of being a witch and Performing witchcraft. Due to this Tituba would be hanged to death or she has to confess to being a witch.
The novel demonstrates the paranoia and fear that occurred in Salem during the Witch Trials, leading to Mccarthyism. Throughout Act I, social classes play a big part in the novel because of the differencs in status between Tituba and Abigail. The relationship between Abigail and Tituba was fine but became tainted when the witch allegations arose due to a incident that was witnessed in the forest between Abigail and the other girls. The fear
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.
The best example of this “wrong response” to fear in literature is in the crucible. Although there are many characters who respond poorly to fear in the crucible Abigail Williams is the worst one. “I am but God’s finger, John. If he would condemn Elizabeth, she will be condemned” Throughout the story of The Crucible Abigail fears a lot, when she fears she will get caught she runs away, when she fears she will be shunned at the forest she blames Tituba. But everytime Abigail is faced with fear she responds by being even more nasty by choosing the most evil possible option.
Is the death of seven children justification enough to take part in the murders of more than a dozen innocent people? When Ann Putnam, one of the main antagonists in The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, accuses Rebecca Nurse of practicing witchcraft, is this an act of pure insanity or calculated revenge fueled by jealousy? Throughout the play, it is evident that Ann Putnam, who has mysteriously lost seven children, is in denial about her babies’ death and desperate to hold anyone accountable other than herself. She cannot handle the death of her several children being a case of god's will, and so has to something to fill the void. Therefore, she turns to Rebecca Nurse because she helped birth all of Mrs. Putmans babies, who all but one,
What is fear you might ask? Fear is that unpleasant feeling you get when you believe something or someone is dangerous. Many people have different fears. For example, I have a fear of needles and a fear of forgetting. Today you will read about how fear is shown and why it is in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible.
This thought leads onto the idea of flight or fight. Fear is a strong emotion which leads to the fight or flight response is when your mind need to save yourself or runaway. Fear is apparent in people’s choice to their extreme actions, it may cause some to confess something they didn’t do, or accuse others to save their own lives or name or keep silent. In act one Miller shows a repeated cycle of flight responses, in this act Abigail is being questioned for what the girls have been caught doing in the forest, as pressure starts to build Abigail
The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller. One of the major themes of “The Crucible” is hysteria because people are exaggerating things like they saw people dancing in fires and the girls pretending that they are being attacked by a demon or a an evil spirit. In act III Abigail is pretending that she sees a bird in the beam. Abigail said “ Why--? Why do you come yellow bird?”
Hysteria is defined as an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, usually among a group of people. The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller is a prime example of hysteria, portrayed in the town of Salem through a series of witchcraft trials. The witchcraft trial caused disorder within the town of Salem and resulted in many unreasonable deaths. Throughout the course of the trial, many characters play a role in expanding chaos in Salem such as Abigail Williams and Reverend Parris. Specific characters that considerably aggravated this dilemma could have theoretically also ended the hysteria in Salem such as Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams, and Betty Parris.
Fear is a common theme in Act 2 of The Crucible, where everyone fears each other because of wild accusations and punishment. Two people in particular deal with their fears in very different ways. John and Elizabeth Proctor are a couple that experienced issues after John slept with one of their servants, Abigail Williams. Abigail Williams and another group of girls who "fell ill" were accusing people in their town of performing witchcraft on them. When Elizabeth finds out that Abigail is one of the most prominent victims, she fears for her life and her relationship because she knows that Abigail wishes her dead.
What is fear? Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief of someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or threat. In my own words fear is a feeling people get when someone is going to kill them. But not all fear is bad because some people feel fear differently How is fear used in “The Crucible” ?
Throughout the town of Salem, Massachusetts fear has spread. It has affected everyone in the town and has brought nothing but chaos. The people of Salem are becoming more scared and determined to hunt down every witch they can find. In The Crucible, fear is appeared as a negative trait since it makes the people act differently during this period of time. Abigail showed fear when she said that Tituba was a witch and was performing witchcraft.
Imagine living in a town where everyone was running amok, hysterical and paranoid, because of accused witches. This is the reality for the townspeople in Salem featured in The Crucible by Arthur Miller. For this reason, hysteria and paranoia had the biggest impact on Salem in The Crucible. This is shown through the multitude of accusations and the impact Abigail had on townspeople. Many would argue that jealously and greed had the biggest impact.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” - Franklin D Roosevelt. Fear plays a major role for the tragic ending of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, because fear is upon the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts, it leads to unanticipated accusations, power, and hatred. This feeling, has occurred in everyone’s life at some point, which is more overpowering than some might think. Once hysteria arose about the girls dancing in the woods, due to all the fear it leads to unanticipated accusations, being a slave, Tituba was accused by Abigail to avoid any punishment.
