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The Growth Of Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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The growth of hysteria in America exemplifies people’s tendency to abuse newly-gained power and is supported by Americans’ intolerance of unpopular ideologies. During times of hysteria, one often show his or her true natures. Therefore, human nature can be most easily observed in such times.
During times of hysteria, people exploited fear among the public to gain more power, which they abused. In Act II of The Crucible, Elizabeth Proctor told her husband that “Abigail [Williams] brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel” (Miller 50). Prior to the Salem Witch Trials, Abigail and her cohorts had very little influence in the society due to their being young women. However, due to their …show more content…

In The Crucible, Reverend Hale tells Proctor that “a rumor…troubles me. It’s said you hold no belief that there may even be witches in the world” (Miller 66). The reason Hale was troubled was that not believing in witches means having a lack of faith. In Puritanical times, one not being a devout Christian means that he or she is an associate of the Devil. John Proctor’s telling the court that the witch trials have no basis on solid evidence was dangerous because challenging the court resulted in prosecution. As he immediately condemned all arguments against the trial as heresy without considering their truth, Deputy Governor Danforth did not realize his mistakes in sentencing more than a hundred people for crimes they did not commit, and continued to persecute more innocent people, which contributed to the further spread of hysteria. Similarly, after writing The Crucible, Arthur Miller was “cited for contempt of Congress, and received a fine and prison sentence” (Bigsby xxiii). Miller was punished simply for writing a play that alludes to McCarthyism, even though he was not involved in any Communist activity. To people at the time, any and all criticism of McCarthyism is considered a sign that the critic was a communist. Such a belief made many afraid to speak against McCarthy’s actions, which allowed McCarthyism to grow due to a lack of opposition. Edward R. Murrow criticized such a belief in Good

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Even with the play’s puritan disguise Miller was still sent on trial for suspicion of communism. If “The Crucible” had been written at another time it probably would not have gained much interest and there would not have been something to bring people to the realization that McCarthy’s accusations and methods were really somewhat uncalled for. Both the Salem Trials and McCarthyism were cause by the spread of something that created fear and paranoia and allowed chaos and revenge to take

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In The Crucible, Arthur Miller develops the characters of John Proctor and Reverend Hale as a pair of motivated, determined, and socially influential individuals in order to show that not all people in Salem are falling for the dirty tricks of Abigail Williams and the court. As Hale is informing the Proctors that Elizabeth has been mentioned in the court as being a witch, John Proctor explains to Hale that the children’s sickness, which started the witch hunt, had “naught to do with witchcraft” (Miller 33). It just came to John that Salem has “gone daft with this nonsense” (33). Due to the witch hunt, Proctor “always wondered if there be witched in the world” (34) and he even tells Hale that he “cannot believe” (34) that they even exist. Since

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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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This demonstrates irony due to the fact that many (if not all) of the accused were convicted of witchcraft with no proof, other than simple testimony and hearsay. The Court became a follower and just went with whatever the accusers were saying, even with the lack of proof, and that was fine with the Court. One would expect that the Court would accept their own witnessing of John Proctor’s confession, but the Court decides that they need proof. This idea can be transferred over to the 1950s in the United States, where instead of witchcraft, it was Communism and Socialism. A person who even somewhat agreed with Communism and used their 1st Amendment rights to convey their idea could be discriminated against and blacklisted from many jobs, and even if they were not a Communist, the same could happen even with little to no proof, just as the supposed witches are in The Crucible.

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In the overture of The Crucible, Arthur Miller characterizes the Puritans as hardworking, yet emphasizes their many negative traits to analyze the type of environment necessary to produce mass hysteria. While no one truly knew what the lives of the Puritans were like, the Puritans were feared greatly because their society was seen as "a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics..." Everyone viewed the Puritans as fanatics because they often minded other people 's business. This, consequently, created suspicion, eventually leading to the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem Witch Trials took place during a period of utter fear and chaos, where many were afraid that individuality was on the rise.

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Hysteria can be defined as the exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. This definition proves true and exists throughout the course of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In The Crucible, a group of girls go dancing in a forest around a cauldron, some even naked, and along with a black slave named Tituba. Reverend Parris, the local minister, then catches the girls in the act. As a result, Betty, one of the girls and Parris’s daughter, goes into what it seems like a coma.

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The definition of hysteria is exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement. The devil came to Salem in 1692, or did it? The Puritans believed that Salem had been conquered by witches. The girls began to name members of the surrounding community. They became hysterical.

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Arthur Miller constructs his play upon the famous Salem witch trails. Miller's Crucible was written in the early 1950s. Miller wrote his drama during the brief reign of the American senator Joseph McCarthy whose bitter criticized anti- communism sparkled the need for the United States to be a dramatic anti- communist society during the early tense years of the cold war. By orders from McCarthy himself, committees of the Congress commenced highly controversial investigations against communists in the U.S similar to the alleged Salem witches situation. Convict communists were ordered to confess their crime and name others to avoid the retribution.

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