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
During the late 1600’s, numerous accusations of witchcraft were spreading throughout the New England colonies, primarily focusing in Salem Village, Massachusetts. Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, paints a very descriptive image of the several different facets of guile and deception that were instituted in “The Crucible.” In contrast, Miller focuses on one utmost theme, hysteria. Clinical mass hysteria describes the spread of a psychologically-manifested illness.
Mass Hysteria Humans have a tendency to want to fit in and belong, causing numerous problems in society. Throughout history, there have been various cases of mass hysteria within groups of individuals. For example, randomly meowing nuns in France and an entire town believing that at night a monkey man watched them. Several specialists believe the behavior has come about due to mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is delusional thoughts, rumors, and fears that spread quickly through a group of people.
Prompt 1: Don Marquis argues that abortion is prima facie wrong because it deprives fetuses of futures of value. What is an objection that one could make against Marquis's argument? How might Marquis respond to that objection? I'd like to say this up front: I am very pro choice. As such, I disagree with many different components of Don Marquis' argument.
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.
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?
“The Crucible” In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the play reflected the “Red Scar” in early 1953 to 1950s which it dedicated the play as against liberalism and socialism. John Proctor and Abigail Williams could potentially end the hysteria by standing against the trial. Americans also became afraid of immigrants during the Red Scar, which created fear. They could have also avoided the affair and admitted their sins during the trial. I also believe they both admitted that the accusations were made about innocent people.
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.
On September 11th, 2001, a terrorist group attacked the United States by crashing commercial jet planes into the twin towers in New York City, and The Pentagon in Virginia. The terrorist group was an islamic extremist group called al-Qaeda. Since 9/11, ¨Anti-Muslim hate crimes are approximately five times more frequent than they were before 2001, according to the FBI¨ (Fruman and Sakuma n.pag.). This profiling has similarities to the Salem Witch Trials in the thought that trauma caused a sense of hysteria. Individuals in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, feared that witches inhabited Salem's deeply religious community.
The definition of “crucible” - in context to the theme of the play - reads, “a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new.” In The Crucible, many people are tested in scenarios they would never have imagined would happen to them. Many different groups and families are drawn together, whether it’s to fight for one another, or against. As well as coming together, or being torn apart in a time of hysteria, every character’s morals are put to a severe test when truths and lies seep to the surface of their daily lives. There are many different variations of ways the great Crucible is able to live up to it’s proud and famous title.
Mass hysteria can be caused by false accusations made without good intent. The drama The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 and the hysteria that spread as false accusations were made for personal benefit. Another event in American history that compares to the Salem Witch Trials is the Scottsboro Boys Trial, false accusations caused unfair treatment of the boys involved due to discrimination and fear, this builds a connection between the Scottsboro Boys Trial and The Salem witch hunts. The events both included false allegations, hysteria, and people contributing to fear.
In the late 1700s, there was mass hysteria over witchcraft that caused the hanging of many innocent people. In the Salem Witch Trials, the first to be convicted of witchcraft was Bridget Bishop and after 200 more people were convicted of this “witchcraft”, twenty were hung("Salem Witch Trials"). In the play The Crucible there is a group of girls that caused all of the hysteria. The girls are the ones who accused the townspeople of being witches and caused many of them to be hung.
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.
As to yet another explanation for the hysteria, Cawthorne points out one of the theories claiming that in Europe and America there spread a kind of fungus whose activity was similar to some hallucinogenic substances. People who ate it, passed into a state of hallucinations, unconsciously giving themselves up to behaviour that awoke suspiciousness among the other villagers (1). Maple states that in 1946 a doctor, Letitia Fairfield, analysed the data from the old witch trials and diagnosed the complaints from which people accused of witchery suffered. The identified diseases, such as cerebral haemorrhage, malaria, rheumatic fever, gangrene, a disease of rye, etc., and the demeanour they brought on, could not be comprehended by primitive medicine and thus was put down to witchcraft (190-191).
In the Crucible, fear, hysteria, and revenge are the most important elements where fear spreads around the whole village. Hysteria involving witchcraft would end up with many innocent people killed. With many false accusations of a long held grudge with another villager would kill others they would have problems with. Revenge would later involve the slaughter of another bad blood of another villager. “God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat.
