Mass Hysterias In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Fear—“a darkroom where negatives develop”(Asif). People in history are bound by fear, so great that it causes mass hysterias. As portrayed in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, the Salem Witch Trials brought fear to everyone of being accused of being a witch. Everyone is afraid of being accused of being a witch, so people started to accuse each other. Just like the hysteria in the Salem Witch Trials, the September Eleventh event occurred when a plane crashed into the Twin Towers by Muslim hijackers. Soon after, many people feared the Muslims and accused Muslims of crimes. As it was in the play, a great fear awakened in colonial Massachusetts which caused the Salem Witch Trials to falsely accuse people of witchcraft and causing a mass hysteria which

Being discriminated by the public, the girls were thought to be witches at first and the accusation of witchcraft spread throughout the village of Salem. In the beginning of Act I, Reverend Parris accused the girls of witchcraft with only a mere vision and said to Abigail, "I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came to you" (Miller 11). This quote shows that Just like what the article had said, Abigail “can produce a convincing performance and induce the same kind of hysteria in children” (Porter, The Long Shadow of the Law: The Crucible). The quote in fact shows that even though Abigail caused the Salem Witch Trials, it was so severe that it caused the townspeople of Salem to be concerned about witchcraft including children. This shows that villagers in The Crucible uses discrimination by accusing innocent people of crimes or witchcraft that Abigail and the other girls and other villagers did not commit. Through discrimination, the girls and other villagers were accused of being a witch while they were all totally innocent. This shows how discriminating the potential witches are similar to the discrimination of the Muslims during and after the September Eleventh