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Mob Mentality In The Crucible

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How many times has one action by one person influenced crowds of people to follow? This is known as “mob mentality”: when a group of people is influenced by a person’s actions to change their behavior and think as a group. In both The Crucible by Arthur Miller and “Half-Hanged Mary” by Margaret Atwood, groups of people who share the same beliefs can conform to a certain idea, whether it is correct or not. No matter how one views the story, it is evident that both communities in the play and poem were determined to band together and to bring these “witches” to extinction. The reasons for having the accused executed seemed unlawful, and it is presumed that with the acceptance of the community, unjustifiable actions become acceptable. This is …show more content…

I saw Goody Howe with the devil! Parris: She speaks! He rushes to embrace Betty. She speaks! Hale: Glory to God! It is broken, they are free!” (Miller 45) Now, one may notice that the men are blindly following the girls’ accusations as they seize power. The girls, or Abigail more specifically, now have decision-making power in the town, they possess the power to convince the townspeople that they are bewitched and that witches do exist. Due to the circumstances, it is likely that the girls will be influencing a hysterical breakdown so that these “witches” put will be on trial. Abigail is exploiting the power of Puritan Christian beliefs to gain credibility for her accusations, causing the community to gather in a panic in a form of mob mentality. In “Half-Hanged Mary”, the community accuses Mary Webster of witchcraft and hangs her in an act of vigilantism. Mary is victimized, as she is different in the face of a mob of people who were taught to believe that she is not normal. According to some, Mary’s behavior was deemed unpleasant, and she was examined for any evidence of her doing witchcraft or bewitching by the Northampton court (Marshall). “In a gathering like this

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Abigail was the one that started all of this because she was accused of witchery but instead of accepting the fact, she ends up accusing other people of witchcraft. She blackmailed the girls to not say a word or they will die. She wanted all of them to pretend to be summoned by the demon so they can accuse other people of witchery. In the book on page 19, “Let either of you breathe a word, or edge of a word. About the other things, and i will come to you in the black of some terrible nights and i will bring a pointy reckoning that will shatter you”.

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Everybody in the town feared her, they were all paranoid about being hanged or having to confess to witchcraft. That is why all the girls follow behind her, because if they do what Abigail wants them to, their sense of paranoia is lessened. Another time when fear took over a person in The Crucible, is when John is threatening Mary. “She’ll kill me for sayin’ that”(Miller 38)! This is a quote from Mary that exposes the threats that Abigail is using to make the girls hysterical.

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I think Abigail is to blame for the hysteria at the end of Act 1, because she accuses other people, lies, and tries to get what she wants. First, when Abigail says, “If they be questioning us tell them we danced- I told him as much already.”(18). Abigail is telling the other girls to lie to Reverend Parris about what happened in the woods that night he saw them. Fear is used to scare the girls into lying even though what they did was wrong, Abigail doesn’t want to lose the power of controlling and “witchcraft”. Secondly, Abigail is speaking to John Proctor saying, “Oh, I marvel how such a strong man may let such a sickly wife be-.”(24).

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The Puritans have an extremely strict and religious way of life. They do not accept any forms nor signs of witchery. Although Puritans, John Proctor, and Abigail commit a sin in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible; Thus, leading to the Salem witch trials. Abigail is responsible for the deaths of innocent puritans in Salem during the witch trials, in which 20 people were accused and executed for being a witch. She is the first to cry out witchcraft, which give her complete control over the situation, Yet, John Proctor only plays a small role in this nonsense.

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1324 Words | 6 Pages

I cannot think he will listen to another. (Miller, pg. 132) This quote shows that he doesn’t care if John Proctor has to lie in order to not get hanged, showing once again that he doesn’t care that he sins as long as it saves him and the rest of the accused from getting hanged. All of this goes to show that Reverend Hale’s morals have slightly changed since the beginning of the

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Nineteen people were killed in the Salem witch trials; however, most were innocent. This was the effect of groupthink, groupthink is “the tendency of decision making to suppress opposing opinions in the interests of group harmony” (Hill,“Groupthink”) . Arthur Miller writes the play, The Crucible, when he realizes groupthink is happening in his modern day. The Crucible dramatizes the Salem Witch Trials, which were a series of prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller depicts Giles Corey as someone who stands up against the group by defending what he loves, in order to show that people should fight for what they believe in.

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In the first Act, Abigail manipulates the girls into helping her lie about the forest “incident” in the beginning of the play. "Now look you, all of you we danced and Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam 's dead sisters, and that is all. Mark this let either of you breathe a word and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you." (Miller I, 20). In this quote, Abigail becomes aware of what she did in the forest along with the girl and threatens them to keep silence if they want to keep their lives.

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I love God, I love God.” (Miller 110). She does this by accusing others of witchcraft. “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody

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This implies that the town scare was continuing because people were afraid of Abigail. This can be seen when Alter wrote ,“ There is no question that the girls--Betty Parris, Ruth Putnam, Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren, and, most especially, Abigail Williams--are suspect and possibly dangerous" (Alter). This implies how the females took leadership and ruled mostly in the play. Also, this shows that Abigail had a team or a pact to back her up. To elaborate most of the girls stayed with Abigail because they knew the consequences.

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Hale who had once believed in witchcraft had turned sides to do what’s right. Francis Nurse battled with the court to save his wife from being hung and although they weren’t able to break through the court they still had the courage to fight for what they believed

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1425 Words | 6 Pages

Camryn Sharpe Mrs. Wenshau English 11 Block 4 3/10/23 The Consequences of Herd Mentality in The Crucible and in Modern Society The knowledge that one’s actions are their own is something that most desire and feel comforted by. Everyone wants to be able to think for themselves and form opinions based on their personal experiences and values, but that is not always the case. Many who find themselves caught in the snare of groupthink are blissfully unaware of their position. They believe that they are genuinely doing what is right, which can lead to loads of social issues caused by the adherence to ‘bad’ perceived opinions by ‘good’ people.

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1082 Words | 5 Pages

This shows how ever since the girls got such power, they start to abuse it and in this scene, use it to accuse people they don't like of doing witchcraft. In this case, Abigail is abusing her power in court by pretending and making Mary Warren seem like she is doing witchcraft, which is not the case. This also impacts society because people will believe in the impact of witchcraft which leads to mass hysteria and hivemind. Another example that relates to this thesis statement is on page 108, Miller states, “I”ll not be ordered to bed no more, Mr. Proctor! I am eighteen and a

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In a small village called Salem, witchcraft and sorcery exist, however everyone is pointing fingers but not a single soul knows who is actually to blame for this nonsense. During this time period of hysteria, there are multiple scenes that are very questionable due to one person and one person only. Abigail is the one most responsible for the hysteria and witchcraft in Salem. She threatens the group of girls that accompanied her in the woods while they all danced. She has also lied about many things on multiple occasions in which causes an extreme amount of suspicion.

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She wants to get rid of Proctor’s wife Elizabeth, shown when Betty said, accusing her, “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctors wife!

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Thus this shows us how mob mentality is evident in the crucible and encompasses characters to turn from the truth and ends in the demise of the Salem Community. It is clear that mob mentality in “The Crucible” resulted in the

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