Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The crucible and fear
Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.
Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by someone or something as likely to be dangerous, painful and threatening. A character that shows an example of such fear in the crucible was a man well known throughout Salem. He is the father of Betty and the Uncle to Abigail Williams. Reverend Parris. Reverend Parris displays an example of great fear After the assumption of his niece dancing in the woods naked and accused of witchcraft.
One of the themes used in “The Crucible” is the use of fear/paranoia. Throughout the story, from the beginning, when Betty Parris is “bewitched”, this story shows a concept of irrational fear. For example, the conversation between Rev. Parris and Abigail when Abigail admits: “Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it – and I’ll be whipped if I must be” (Miller 10) shows a huge amount of fear because Abigail, who is the reverend’s niece, admits to dancing, naked, in the forest allows for all of the people to open their imaginations to suspect that
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt. This inspirational quote by Franklin D. Roosevelt can be related to the power of fear, which can be seen within the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The intensity of the feeling of fear is very much based on personal opinions towards certain things.
What is fear? Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief of someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or threat. In my own words fear is a feeling people get when someone is going to kill them. But not all fear is bad because some people feel fear differently How is fear used in “The Crucible” ?
Fear is definitely not always a harmful emotion. Fear influences people to take extreme measures as well as act irrationally to emotion. While fear is one of the main emotions people face, this emotion pushes people to do what they desire. It drives people to madness, and throughout history, caused people to commit extreme acts. In Arthur Miller’s play, fear drives characters to extreme actions in order to save the reputation or their lives.
The Crucible Fear has effected much of history. Many of these events in history are very similar. One of the biggest examples in history would be The Holocaust. An example would be the Salem witch trails which were depicted in the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible and The Holocaust are related because one person was to blame for the mass hysteria, there was one person in power, fear was used to control the people and many people were wrongly punished.
Fear is seen in everyone’s daily life. Many different fears affect different people but when those fears are used to manipulate people’s lives, it can cause destruction and hurt many. When fear is used as a tool of manipulation, it can control others actions through fear of death, betrayal, and abandonment. This can be seen through the sources the Crucible, 1984, and in today’s society with toxic relationships. One of the ways fear is used to manipulate is using the fear of death against others.
The Crucible: How Fear Changes People During his first Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt once announced, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Fear manipulates a persons rationality resulting in them behaving in ways they normally would not, especially in the story The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The characters in The Crucible allow fear to manipulate their beliefs and actions. They all know what is right, but fear alters their mindset causing them to act differently.
Humans have been referred to as some of the most psychologically complex beings. In “The Crucible” Arthur Miller ventures into a highly studied subject, how do humans and societies react in times of crisis and panic? Miller bases his story off of the Salem witch trials, in his dramatized version, A small puritan village is struck with mass hysteria after a girl accuses someone of witchcraft. The story of witch trials is added for entertainment, below the surface Miller gradually explores Human Vulnerability, hypocrisy, and vengeance as his story unfolds, using Humans for relatability and understanding. Creating a great example of how humans and societies can crumble, collapse and bottom out under pressure.
How does society’s influence control fear and emotion when responsibilities are lost? In Salem, a horde of girls accuses witchcraft against fellow residents which generates fear. Reverend Hale, a witchcraft specialist investigates the Proctors and declares there is no witchcraft, yet the town proceeds with the prosecution of them. John Proctor and two other well-respected residents are hung in front of the city, and the town's fear halts to an end. After World War II, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy accused people of communism as the origin of the fear of the U.S.S.R. expansion.
Fear is not always a harmful emotion. Through fear, we have learned life-long lessons that not everything will work in our favor. We have grown around the definition that fear is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or be a threat” but never that the emotion is a natural and a helpful response. The Crucible, Farewell to Manzanar, and a George Takei interview all provide examples of how fear can be both harmful and beneficial.
As Arthur Miller similarly portrays in the play The Crucible, fear of many
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” - Franklin D Roosevelt. Fear plays a major role for the tragic ending of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, because fear is upon the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts, it leads to unanticipated accusations, power, and hatred. This feeling, has occurred in everyone’s life at some point, which is more overpowering than some might think. Once hysteria arose about the girls dancing in the woods, due to all the fear it leads to unanticipated accusations, being a slave, Tituba was accused by Abigail to avoid any punishment.
The play, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller demonstrates the implications of a society in complete chaos over an irrational fear of witchcraft in the town of Salem, Massachusetts. Fear plays an immense role in the way people make their decisions, such as when the characters of Danforth and Mary Warren resort to hypocrisy when no other options remain. Danforth and Mary Warren both embody hypocrisy, as seen when Mary says she cannot lie anymore and then lies when she becomes scared for her life, and Danforth when saying lying will send a person to Hell, but then forcing people to choose between lying and death. Mary Warren exemplifies hypocrisy extraordinarily well in the scene when she and Proctor travel to the courthouse so she can confess that the girls have pretended everything and they never actually saw spirits.