The Spread of Hysteria in Salem In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, multiple factors fueled the hysteria leading up to the Salem witch trials, such as Abigail’s deceiving plots, Reverend Hale not establishing the truth, and citizens’ mindless accusations. Abigail is the most guilty of causing outbreaks of panic starting with dancing in the woods with other girls, then moving to framing Mary Warren with a doll, and fake acting out seeing otherworldly entities. One example of Abigail’s manipulation is when she stabbed herself with a needle to frame Mary Warren: “Stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out” (176). Abigail also has a habit of accusing falsely and gets to girls to gang up during hearings, but everyone believes
The Maze Runner 1. The maze runner is a story of a group of boys and with the main characters being Thomas, Newt, Alby, Teresa, and Minho. One day Thomas wakes up in an elevator and finds himself with no memory but his name as the elevator stops he finds that he is been sent to a place called the glade. As he gets out of the elevator he sees a group of boys, they called themselves Glader’s. He meets two boys that showed him around the glade, there name are Newt and Alby.
The combination of the girls dancing in the woods, which is against the Puritan religion, and the endless amounts of conspiracies pioneered a gossip that filled the town. The town’s ultimate verdict was that the devil had turned the girls into witches, igniting a panic that consumed the villagers until twenty people were tried and
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
In “The Crucible,” rumors spread across Salem and the result is mass hysteria in Salem during the witch trials; this makes us wonder what characters should have done to stop this chaos. Some characters could have stopped this, and I believe a character who could have stopped this is John Proctor. He's a good example because he is honest and respected in his community. In the story, in Act III, John Proctor could have made a big difference.
Brook Mills Mrs. Brown English 10 11/03/15 Many individuals of Salem have to deal with everyday hysteria with many people accused of being a witch and being executed. Other than Abigail, three characters who are to blame for the hysteria in The Crucible are Judge Danforth, John Proctor, and Mary Warren. A character that contributed to the hysteria in The Crucible was Judge Danforth. He contributed to the hysteria because he sent men and women to be executed for no reason.
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
Joseph Romano English CP II H Block Ms. Homem 5/16/23 Salem Witchcraft Hysteria In Salem during the years 1692-1693 a mass hysteria movement called witchcraft began to become popular, witchcraft affected more than 200 individuals and got 20 executed through various methods. It now has been 331 years after those times and historical depictions have been made, for example, Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. In The Crucible the villagers had lost their way of life, the focus to them was the church as it controlled their whole life. Witchcraft had plagued the church and seemingly could not be stopped, who has the ability to end this hysteria?
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.
Imagine having to choose between the murder of others or your death. In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” the depiction of the Salem witch trials offers a compelling parallel to the hysteria and paranoia fueled by the Communist Red Scare of the 1950s. During the Red Scare, fearful Americans would sell out their neighbors, mainly because they themselves did not want to be seen as conspirators. In the context of “The Crucible," the most capable character of putting an end to mass hysteria would be Danforth, as evidenced by the fact that he was the main judge of the town, but was incompetent, and didn’t want to tarnish his reputation. Both historical contexts reveal that mass hysteria can influence a substantial amount of people.
Hysteria makes people become irrational , and innocent people die because of false accusations. We see this in act 2 when Elizabeth is accused by Abigail for stabbing her through a poppet.
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 mass hysteria starts to spread throughout the town when the girls lead by Abigail start to accuse townspeople of witchcraft. This is shown in Act 2 when Mary Warren tells Elizabeth and John Procter, “ No, sir. There be thirty-nine now—(She suddenly breaks off and sobs and sits down, exhausted.)” (Miller 490). The numbers went up rapidly from 14 to 39 in a short amount of time meaning that the fear of witchcraft, which stemmed from false accusations, has now spread and caused mass hysteria.
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.
He believes that children nor women would lie to him, but it somewhat fears him about the fear of witchcraft in a puritan society. In the Crucible, hysteria can engage by tearing up the whole community. This enables people to accuse others for the grudges held between them saying that they would take part in witchcraft or have any actions against the devil. “There is a misty plot afoot so subtle we should be criminal to cling to old respects and ancient friendships.
