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Mass Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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Mass hysteria or collective hysteria is a phenomenon when a group experiences real or imaginary illusion of threats through rumors and fear. One book that shows mass hysteria is The Crucible by Arthur Miller. This book is about the salem witch trials. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of hunts and hangings based on a witch scare throughout the town of Salem. Many people accused others and there was widespread panic all throughout Salem. There are also many modern day examples of mass hysteria. An example of a real world event is a recent missile threat in hawaii that turned into a false alarm. An article titled Missile threat alert for Hawaii a false alarm; officials blame employee who pushed 'wrong button' is a good example of hysteria …show more content…

Nineteen were hung, one stoned and four others died in prison. But several months after the trials,jurors and officials were stricken with remorse and contrition about what had occurred. Compensation to the trials' survivors and their families continued until 1957.” the salem witch trials may be the most infomouse record of mass hysteria. It was a big event in american history and how lies and false information can lead to deaths of innocent people and how it can negatively affect a society's life. A good book to represent mass hysteria is “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. The book is about the salem witch trials and what happened during them. From the book during scene one there is a part where one of the girls starts to fake being sick and pretends to be in a coma. *insert quote from scene with girl pretending to be in coma* this shows how during a moment of hysteria there can be people who fake illnesses and such to get away and evade possible accusation Mass hysteria also may have people turn on eachother and cast false blame to others, *quote of abigail accusing John* this quote shows how people can openly blame and step over others to avoid blame for something done wrong. Finally mass hysteria may have groups of people go against and work to go against others. *quote of abby and girls being scared of imaginary

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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.

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The Crucible The term hysteria is defined as: exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion. In Author Miller’s, The Crucible, hysteria is exactly what happens. The Crucible takes place in Salam Massachusetts, in 1692. The plot is centered on the events of the Salam witch trials. The movie opens up with the young girls of Salam dancing around a fire.

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852 Words | 4 Pages

The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a story based off of a lot of main characters and scenes. The story itself is based off the salem witch trials hence the story is in the town of salem. The three categories of this story was mass hysteria where people believe things and all join in. Group think is how people together make decisions based on ideas in the group.

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Through the conflation of the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy trials, Arthur Miller dramatically represents the human experience of mass hysteria throughout the play ‘The Crucible’. The mass hysteria in the Crucible is closely related to the human emotion of fear, it refers to the way in which a large group of people recognise a major threat to themselves and society throughout the fear and baseless rumours that are created. These emotions arise throughout the accusation of witchcraft in Salem, these false accusations lead to a series of convictions and trials, which eventually result in the many deaths of innocent people. In the dystopian novel ‘The Hunger Games’ by James Newton Howard, The theme of Survival versus Humanity is clearly

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Mob Hysteria Mob Hysteria, according to the site titled, The Free Dictionary, is defined as “A condition in which a large group of people exhibit similar physical or emotional symptoms, such as anxiety or extreme excitement” (www.thefreedictionary.com). For example, the Holocaust was all about getting rid of the Jews; most people did not understand why they were doing this, but went along with what was occurring because that’s what Hitler told them to do and believed was the correct solution to pursue. The Salem Witch Trials is also linked to Mob Hysteria, which began in 1699, when a couple of girls began to act strangely and many claimed they impacted with the devil. The McCarthy Era, created by Joseph McCarthy, was when Senator McCarthy

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1608 Words | 7 Pages

Hysteria can be defined as the exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. This definition proves true and exists throughout the course of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In The Crucible, a group of girls go dancing in a forest around a cauldron, some even naked, and along with a black slave named Tituba. Reverend Parris, the local minister, then catches the girls in the act. As a result, Betty, one of the girls and Parris’s daughter, goes into what it seems like a coma.

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1236 Words | 5 Pages

Fear is perhaps the strongest force within humans- something that is an undeniable influence on our decision making process, whether those decisions may be major or minor. Fear comes into play both consciously and subconsciously; both practically and non practically; it is not always 100% apparent but it is the drive behind so much more of our thought process than we actually realize. This is not only human nature but the nature of animals, too. It is a force we cannot escape, whether is comes in reflexes or is something we avidly dwell on, so we’ve instead explored and embraced the wonders of this thing called fear.

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1363 Words | 6 Pages

When a crisis breaks out and a culprit needs to be found, many people tend to group off and work together, in order to stay safe. This is displayed when the word of witchcraft floating around Salem comes out. For the small city that Salem, Massachusetts is, something as big as witchcraft shakes the society. People accuse others to protect themselves and gather members of the community to follow their lead. A herd mentality is seen commonly in Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, with Abigail demanding the girls to do what she says, Thomas Putnam's need for power, and Reverend Parris accusing people because the community believes anything he says, which contributes to the mass hysteria in Salem and leads to the witch trials.

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108 Words | 1 Pages

The witchcraft of Salem, Massachusetts was an example of mass hysteria, it resulted in the hangings and deaths of many people from being charged with relations with the devil. The people who convicted the innocent were actually the ones who themselves had relations with the devil. The reasons the convictions happened were because of the young girls who got caught dancing around a fire in the moonlight and doing other practices, they didn’t want to get accused of the witchcraft so they ended up blaming other people who they were jealous of. Innocent people were accused and convicted on witchcraft making it the most unjustifiable testimonies in Salem.

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People assume that because someone is Islam or Muslim that they must be a terrorist, and they become weary of them to protect themselves. These situations demonstrate how permitting self-preservation to lead to hysteria causes destruction and hurt throughout the community. If not fixed, these situations will lead the destruction of the world. The theme of hysteria and self-preservation is evident throughout The Crucible and in real life.

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1451 Words | 6 Pages

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.

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