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Mass Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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In The Crucible, the young girls in the town lie about their actions in the woods, which cumulates into a witchhunt and the death of innocent people. The girls were only a small portion of the town, but as they continued to condemn their neighbors, the panic grew, and continued to grow as important people in the town pushed it. Arthur Miller reveals that mass hysteria is caused by a small part of the whole in The Crucible, and this concept is still relevant today as shown through the media and the refugee crisis. In The Crucible, Miller indicates that mass hysteria is caused by only a small portion of the whole society, but quickly spreads to encompass the whole of society. In the first act, the Putnams visit Reverend Parris, claiming that …show more content…

During the 2014 Ebola panic, a research group consisting of scholars from Arizona State University, Purdue University, and Oregon State University found that, as each news report relating to the ebola virus was released, an increase in ebola related searches within social media bases, like Twitter, occured (Towers, Afzal, Bernal, Bliss, et al., 1). These searches consisted of the symptoms and spread of the virus. The increase shows that the news, a trusted entity in American society, constantly running articles gives rise to panic of disease in people’s daily life. Even though there were only a few people to contract the Ebola virus, the news played segments on the disease as if a pandemic was inevitable, thus increasing the fear in American citizens. In addition to the Ebola virus panic that swept the nation in 2014, a malfunction with an online epidemic tracker caused widespread hysteria over the influenza virus (Towers, Afzal, Bernal, Bliss, et al., 1). Most likely caused by overcoverage by the news, the disease tracker overestimated the concern of the virus causing the state of New York to call a public health emergency. This overestimation generated fear, thus creating more news coverage which continued the vicious cycle of hysteria caused by the trust in major media companies. The belief in society that the media is always credible and reliable causes mass panic when dangerous conditions

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Another effect the pandemic had on people can be seen in the way they socialize. Some people are still afraid of giving hugs, traveling to see family, and going to crowd places like the mall. These behaviors are examples of the effect of trauma people experienced during the

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“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.

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Arthur Miller's The Crucible presents the mass hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials, which can be related to the events following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a once faultless naval base in the United States. Just as in The Crucible Abigail caused the unjust imprisonment of nearly all of the members of the Salem community, Franklin D. Roosevelt also caused a mass hysteria when he used fear to encourage the United States to action following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This marked the beginning of Japanese internment where all Japanese people, including Japanese-Americans, were taken from their homes and relocated to isolated internment camps. Abigail's accusations on the people of Salem and Pres. Roosevelt's

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The Crucible by Arthur Miller written in the 1950's was an exemplar reason of mass hysteria. " The Crucible" coincides witht eh salem witch trail along with panic of communists. "The Crucible" can also be portayed as a way of explaining the modern world today with ISIS. ISIS is a terrorist group today in the 21st century that has caused a mass hysteria among america and its own country.

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During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible.

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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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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.

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Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible during a time of mass hysteria in the 1950's. During the 50's, a great fear of communism was very real within the United States. He connects this time with another period of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials, by using ideas such as: fear is always based around a grain of truth, groups begin to form in search of the accused, and the best option for survival is to confess and accuse someone else. During the witch trials, it was a near fact in society that witches walked among us.

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The Salem Witch trials were a result of a spiritual/religious movement with the goal of uncovering and eliminating supposed witchcraft, while the Red Scare was a political movement with the goal of uncovering and eliminating communists in the U.S. Ebola is not a spiritual movement, nor a political movement, although in an article, Paul Vallely writes “Ebola is a medical disease and a political disease” (Vallely). The hysteria and stigma surrounding Ebola has created a bubble of fear and paranoia over the U.S. which has prompted Americans to make grandiose and irrational claims, going as far

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Fear can lead to many things. It may lead to you making harsh decision and be very closed minded. But overall, our fear can blind society from the truth and keep them from getting justice. We see most of this in many cases. We mostly saw this occur in the book The crucible by Arthur Miller, the Central Park five and as well with McCarthyism.

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Aiden Sanderson Mrs Ritchey CP English II 16 June 2023 Many different stories share common themes, such as the search for gratification, inescapability of death, meaning of life, sense of curiosity, and inevitability of isolation. Mass hysteria is an outbreak of lots of people at the same time, usually having mental symptoms come along with it, mainly being fear, anxiety, and depression. In The Crucible and Night, everyone is hysterical about World War II and the Salem Witch Trials. The theme of mass hysteria reveals itself through the trials and feelings of the villagers in The Crucible and the reactions and feelings of the inmates in the camps and death marches in Night. Mass hysteria occurred in Salem due to the trials, this made everyone think they were going to be arrested and killed, and

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Fear leads to mass hysteria because people freak out way too much than normal. In The Crucible, everyone started getting way too scared because of a lie that was told. Fear is the leading cause of mass hysteria due to the overreactions of terrified people. In “The Crucible,” the extremely religious lifestyle of the people in Salem led to panic about witchcraft in the village. I believe Abigail could have ended the hysteria.

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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.

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Even though, it was proven that the disease was fake. People still believed that it was real. The narrowmindedness of the people transferred over to the media. The internet increased our choices on what people see. When people have more specific option on what to choose, they often skip over the broader things.

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The Crucible Essay The theme of hysteria is evident throughout Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and in everyday life and society. Driven by self-preservation, hysteria influences many characters’ actions and leads to the devastating witch trials in Salem. For instance, many characters in The Crucible are driven to execute drastic actions to sustain their reputation and protect themselves.

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