How Does Arthur Miller Present Mass Hysteria In The Crucible
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. ”(Roosevelt). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a historical fiction about how hysteria and groupthink can have drastic consequences. It follows the Salem witch trials and the events that led to 19 people being convicted of witchcraft and subsequently killed. The most important subject in The Crucible is how fear can affect decisions.
Mass hysteria in The Crucible exhibits the amplitude to which surroundings affect a person; it may even drive them into a neurotic mindset. Fear among a society of people can disperse quickly and dominate their lives. In the play, the Crucible, the fear of witches took over the lives of scores of town members. The girls involved believed it, the judges believed it, and the townsfolk believed it. Mary Warren had said, "I heard
Mass hysteria was present in both The Crucible and McCarthyism. Mass hysteria is when people went crazy because people were accused of being communists and or witches. Mass hysteria was however started by specific people in both scenarios. In Mccarthyism Joseph Mccarthy a United States Senator and in The Crucible Abigail Williams who was accused of having an affair with John Proctor her employer were the specific ones who accused people of being communists and witches. Even though the Salem witch trials happened in the late 1690s and McCarthyism in the 1950s they paralleled each other.
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.
Throughout history, there have been multiple periods of mass hysteria or extreme actions and reactions due to extreme emotions. Mass hysteria is harmful because it forces others to admit to crimes they did not commit, and it allows people to take advantage of the situation at hand to rise to power. The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a great example of this and it is an allegory for McCarthyism, or the false accusations and investigations made against someone. The Crucible is based on the real events of the late 17th century that the Puritans of Salem, Massachusetts had to deal with. They were paranoid of the supernatural, and because of their strict religious beliefs and the vengeance that plagued the town, mass hysteria spread quickly.
“Mass hysteria is a condition which affects a group of people, it is characterized by excitement, anxiety, irrational behavior, beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness within said group.” The Crucible was written and published on January 22, 1953, as means of pointing out the utter insanity of the Communist Red Scare. In the events which partook in the Red Scare, an organization by the name of the House Un-American Activities Committee was formed in 1938 and led by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, targeted and accused American citizens of being communists, most notably those who were successful. In The Crucible, I argue Mary Warren could have ended the mass hysteria in Salem by sticking to the truth, not taking Abigail’s threats seriously,
This sparks rumors about witchcraft within the town of Salem, as everyone looks toward the girls involved in the forest incident for an answer. Abigail Williams, Parris’s niece and another girl who danced in the forest, begins to take
In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, he shows us four ingredients that create a mass hysteria. Those include fear, personal motives, unfair treatment of the accused, and accusers. These can all be related back to The Crucible, in the way in which each character experienced
Mass hysteria is a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness. Since the beginning of time everyone has dealt with mass hysteria. One mass hysteria that connects to this story is the hysteria about the Ebola virus infecting everyone. The Ebola virus by definition is a usually fatal disease, a type of hemorrhagic fever, caused by the Ebola virus and marked by high fever, severe gastrointestinal distress, and bleeding. We all know how rare the chances are of actually getting infected yet no one cares.
The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne are two stories that are based on mass hysteria and public shaming. Both stories and their topics are what helped to shape America’s early identity. In The Crucible, the townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious piety but also because it gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to act on long-held grudges”. This shows that there is mass hysteria in the story based on the quotation and its explain why people have mass hysteria or why they do it. A group of teenage girls is discovered dancing naked in the woods by the town minister.
The Salem Witch trials took place in Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693 where people were killed if they were thought to be witches. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller writes about the witch trials and what happened during that time. The Crucible has many themes throughout the play. One prominent theme is the theme of mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is shown in many cases throughout the play such as the scenes when the people of the village of Salem are accused, in the court room while the people state their case, and when the townsfolk are about to be hung after failing to call out other witches.
One of the many themes in The Crucible is mass hysteria. The witch trials are occurring because everyone in Salem is alarmed by the thought of Satan being among them. Miller uses mass hysteria in the book to show how simple it is to create disruption among a society. The theme is important because it “warns us of the dangers of reacting blindly because we are afraid of something” (enotes.com). When the judge asks Mary Warren to faint and she can’t, she says, “I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them…
Fear that spread among a group of people in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials, that event in history is a prime example of Mass Hysteria. In Salem the reason why so many women were killed was because of Mass Hysteria. It caused many people, in Salem during this event to think fast, rash and jump to conclusions. “The Crucible”, a short play dedicated to these events in Salem shows us how hysteria was such a leading cause of why the Witch Trials had even occurred. Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams and Judge Danforth.
The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald that highlights the American Experiment, which depicts the power that the individual’s choice over their lives. Gatsby does a good job at showing us a story archetype that reminds one of the ancient Greek tragedies, such as Antigone, or the more recent Romeo and Juliet. Star-crossed mortals, doomed to die. But oh, do they leave such a good story for those with a bit more time left on our clocks. Romance, mystery, death, murder, wealth, power, and more.
Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.
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