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The Spread Of Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller critiques the sociopolitical aspects of the spread of hysteria in both the Salem witch trials and the Red Scare in 20th century America. Set in Salem during the 1600s, the play examines the lives of Salem residents when accusations of witchcraft appear in their village. Reputation, disputes between characters, and religious power further accelerate the building of conflict between the residents of Salem. Characters in The Crucible fret over their reputations because they fear being charged with witchcraft or being looked down upon in the community. The character of Reverend Parris reveals this aspect of fear in Salem. In Act I of the play, Thomas Putnam asks his wife if she has requested Reverend Hale’s presence in Salem. Parris responds with, “Thomas, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know that you—you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house” (Miller 1133). This mentality in Parris triggers an argument between him and John …show more content…

In the dramatic exposition within Act I, for example, Miller explains a land dispute between Francis Nurse and his neighbors, including Thomas Putnam (1141). This explains the heated discussion about who to blame for the children falling ill later in Act I, in which Mrs. Putnam accuses Rebecca Nurse of killing all her newborn children. Abigail Williams’ loathing of Elizabeth Proctor throughout the play aggravates the hysteria created in Act I. During Act II, Abigail recruits Mary Warren to plant a poppet within the Proctor household to frame Elizabeth. This in turn causes Proctor to accuse Mary of framing his wife. Prior conflicts in Proctor’s life give him a fatal flaw that he must defend by turning on the Salem

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“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. ”(Roosevelt). The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a historical fiction about how hysteria and groupthink can have drastic consequences. It follows the Salem witch trials and the events that led to 19 people being convicted of witchcraft and subsequently killed. The most important subject in The Crucible is how fear can affect decisions.

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In Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”, Hale, Danforth, and Parris are three key characters in the play whom have varying personalities, actions, and opinions. At one point in the story they share similar views, yet their motives are vastly different. The three authority figures in the play resemble each other in some aspects yet differ greatly in their attitudes and responses towards the witch trials. Hale begins his journey with a logical outlook, but eventually realizes the mass hysteria occurring. His goal in coming to Salem was to diagnose the town with witchcraft and earn a better reputation.

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Arthur Miller’s work, The Crucible, was written during the “Red Scare” time period, and many themes and ideas regarding both events are presented through a drama based on the Salem witch trials. In this drama, a lack of justice is shown when some jealous, vengeful characters in Salem are willing to use manipulation and deceit, and sacrifice the reputations and integrity of all involved, in order to empower themselves.

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Arthur Miller's The Crucible presents the mass hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials, which can be related to the events following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a once faultless naval base in the United States. Just as in The Crucible Abigail caused the unjust imprisonment of nearly all of the members of the Salem community, Franklin D. Roosevelt also caused a mass hysteria when he used fear to encourage the United States to action following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This marked the beginning of Japanese internment where all Japanese people, including Japanese-Americans, were taken from their homes and relocated to isolated internment camps. Abigail's accusations on the people of Salem and Pres. Roosevelt's

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Leiffer 1 Jake Leiffer Mrs. Faulkner English 11 Honors October 3, 2014 Hysteria In Salem In Salem things are getting crazy. Hysteria is going around like a disease, but not from witchcraft. In The Crucible several accusations have taken place taking the lives of many due to hysteria. Hysteria is being spread through three different things.

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John Proctor is an excellent example of Arthur Miller's utilization of the varying degrees of goodness and evil to propel the story of The Crucible forward. John Proctor is a successful and well-respected farmer who holds himself at a particular distance from the Church, a rarity at the time. This may be related to the guilt he has come to know, as he has sinned, and openly condemns the trials taking place while hiding the secrets of his affair with the accuser, Abigail Williams. Proctor, an outspoken man entirely consumed by his guilt, must take responsibility for his actions, publicly confess his sins, denounce Abigail Williams, and save his soul from eternal damnation. John Proctor has held resentment towards Revered Parris since his appointment

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Demonstrated throughout Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, is the effect mass hysteria had on Salem. The trials held in Salem Massachusetts, in 1692 led to the execution of many innocent beings because of the accusation of taking part in witchcraft. The perturbation of some of the characters in play led to the atrocity that the trials became. In The Crucible, fear became the root reason for the destruction of the misinformed society by being the element that contributes to the mass hysteria. This is depicted through some of the characters including Abigail Williams, Mary Warren and the girls that blindly followed Abigail.

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In The Crucible, the people of Salem had become caught up with everything that others had said, so they believed people were involved in witchcraft. Reverend Hale, for example was the “spiritual doctor” who wanted to make sure that he provided evidence before executing. If he defended anyone for not being bewitched he would be blamed. The people of Salem swamp him with accusations of witchcraft, making him take there side without investigating himself to see if there evidence is accurate. Danforth the deputy of Salem questions Hale, “What more may you ask for me?

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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.

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​Fear drives action. The main reason people continue to progress and change are due to the fear of the unknown. Humans have and will continue to fear the unknown since the beginning of the world. In the town of Salem circa 1692, fear ran a rampage and cased dozens of innocent people to be accused of witchcraft and hanged. In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, this mass hysteria led to the death of many innocent citizens.

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The Crucible Arthur Miller Stephenie Burston 6th Period March 8, 2017 The author of The Crucible is Arthur Miller. The physical setting is Salem, Massachusetts; the temporal setting is 1692. He doesn’t manipulate time the story is in chronological order. The temporal setting is important in 1692 people were just coming over from Europe to start settling the New World that’s now America.

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Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, hysteria plays an important role of tearing apart the community of Salem by creating an environment where people act on their grudges. As a result of these grudges the whole community is turning on each other and blaming people they have known for years on the one thing they believe is true. Members of the community deal with this hysteria in different ways, and some more harsh than others.

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I have seen too many frightful proofs in court - the Devil is alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points!” (Hale, Act 2) Hale proves the mindset of the characters affected by hysteria and fear. In his arguments it's more hysteria than

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“Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem - Vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”

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Hysteria in Salem The Crucible is a play written by American author, Arthur Miller, in 1953. It is a somewhat fictional play about the Salem Witch Trials. Miller wrote it as an allegory to the Red Scare, the promotion of fear of a potential rise of communism. Miller himself was blacklisted for refusing to testify in front of the HUAC, a committee that was created to investigate any person who might be a communist.

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