Fear drives action. The main reason people continue to progress and change are due to the fear of the unknown. Humans have and will continue to fear the unknown since the beginning of the world. In the town of Salem circa 1692, fear ran a rampage and cased dozens of innocent people to be accused of witchcraft and hanged. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, this mass hysteria led to the death of many innocent citizens. When fear takes over and becomes widespread, it leads to mass hysteria. Miller wrote this play to tell people not to get caught up in the mass hysteria of the trials because it can turn into an unimaginable horror. Fear causes people to do things out of character. People should be aware of how easily they can be swept up into these mass hysterias and what bad things happen when we do. Sometimes, people tend to make poor judgments when they are afraid of something. Miller wants everyone to know that people can and will use mass hysteria as a tool, or even a weapon for personal advantage.
In the play, Thomas Putnam takes advantage of the fear of others for personal gain. He is a wealthy person who believes that accusing others of witchcraft can make him wealthier. The accused
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Abigail Williams, the girl that started this trial, used the fear of others to get revenge against John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth. Abigail used to serve Proctor. They had an affair. Elizabeth found out and fired Abigail. Abigail wanted to get rid of Elizabeth. In Act 1, Abigail says “...let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a point reckoning that will shudder you…” (20) This quote shows how evil and psychotic Abigail really is. To get Proctor back, she gets his wife convicted of witchcraft. But, after all she went through; she did not get Proctor because he was hanged. She managed to use the fear of others as