The Crucible Mob Mentality

Keely Fisher

Ms. Nikolai

ELA English 10 Sophomore Academy

4-19-23

The Crucible and Today

Witch Trials are an event that has captured people’s attention in history for being unreasonable and frightening. They represent a time in history when people were prone to being unreasonable, and many people would like to believe that these times are behind us. But times of hysteria are not behind us. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller, who was inspired by the Red Scare, that covers the infamous Salem Witch Trials. The play depicts what would have happened during this time and covers real events while adding fictional drama for entertainment purposes. The Crucible is considered classical literature because it represents problems we still

In The Crucible, many of the most prominent characters are being blamed and called to witchcraft by girls who are much younger and some are even servants. Since the whole town believes in witchcraft and is going along with accusing, people in the village are going along with it as well. Rebecca Nurse was one of the most prominent members of the church, but with a mob mentality, even she was not safe from being accused of witchcraft. Once her husband finds out that she has been accused he is outranged, “ My wife [Rebecca Nurse] is the very brick and mortar of the church,”(71). Here Mr. Nurse is truly shocked that people would believe that she was capable of witchcraft. Other members of the Church are equally surprised when they find out that another upstander in their Church has been accused, Martha Corey. Martha is another devoted woman of the church and many cannot she has as well been accused. When Mr. Nurse hears that she has been accused with his wife; he is as equally horrified, “ And Martha Corey, there cannot be a woman closer yet to God than Martha,”(71). Here two women who have a close relationship with God are being accused of witchcraft and most people in the village are agreeing because of the mob mentality. This is the

In The Crucible many of the village girls have been trying to fall in love with the village boys, by recruiting a slave Tituba to make them spells. With these spells, they would have to dance, and one girl, Abigail, would drink the blood of a chicken. When they are accused of this Abigail and the others blame it all on Tituba. Abigail tries to warn the others about telling the truth, “ Now look at you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured… And that is all… Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things… I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you,”(20). Then, once suspicions grow higher it would be Abigail who would start accusing others of witchcraft, showing how hypocritical these girls were acting. This is an issue in society, with abortion rights and mask mandates. Typically, republicans will believe that the country should have laws based on the state to state, and the larger government should stay out of day-to-day affairs. Also, when mask mandates they believed that each person should have a choice over their body and whether they wear a mask. The Republican party will believe this until it comes to abortion rights. Suddenly, the republican party voted for a government-wide ban on abortion and believes that not one person should have a choice in their body,(Tina Rulli 1, Stephen Campbell 2). Therefore, The Crucible experiences