Theme Of Hysteria In The Crucible

In the 1950s the United States was went through a period in which Communism was viewed as a threat to society. It all started off with when Senator Joseph McCarthy was voted by the capitol press corps as the worst Senator in the Washington, as vengeance he dropped a bombshell and stated that “The State Department is infested with Communist.” As a result of McCarthy’s accusation it has caused chaos in the United States, also known as McCarthyism, defined as “the political practice of publicizing accusation of disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence”(The American Heritage Dictionary). In comparison to the book The Crucible written by Arthur Miller the characters in the play make similar accusations however instead of Communism,

Abigail and her group of friends around found in the forest doing witchcraft to get their love interest to fall for the however they are caught by her uncle Parris and instead of confessing and telling the truth she lies to her uncle Parris by claiming she was just dancing. Due to her act Abigail’s sister Betty is unconscious and the whole town is convinced it’s witchcraft, causing mayhem throughout the community also known as mass hysteria. In the book The Tipping point it states “... convinced that he is being contaminated by some unseen evil- in the past it was demons and spirits; nowadays it tends to be toxings and gases.” This is how mass hysteria is starts, a collective illusion which if clearly shown in the play. In the play Abigail proclaims, “She lies! She sends her spirit into me, and makes me laugh at prayer! She comes into me when I sleep, she makes me dream corruptions!” (Miller). This is Abigail putting the blame on someone else for her deed, creating panic in her community. Further along in the book Abigail uses this power of mass hysteria to get her love interest John Proctor to be with her by accusing his wife of witchcraft so she would be killed and her wish would come