Fear has become part of humanity as humans evolve over time. Since the beginning of time humans had always been afraid of the unknown and this fear has given humans a drive to progress to be better. In the past, there have been societies that take wrongful advantage of this fear by creating mass hysteria by religious, political, and social activities. The article Mass Delusions and Hysterias: Highlights from the Past Millennium by Robert Bartholomew and Erich Goode, talks about Salem’s situation in 1692. “Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) was the scene of a moral panic that spread throughout the region and involved witchcraft accusations which led to trials, torture, imprisonment, and executions” (Bartholomew and Goode). The famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller demonstrates the similar act as the article which led to a mass hysteria between people of Salem for wrongful accusations and death of twelve individuals of Salem for witchcraft. According to the play, the delusions of fear in Salem turned into a mass hysteria. “Mass hysteria is characterized by the rapid spread of conversion disorder, a condition involving the appearance of bodily complaints for which there is no organic basis” (Bartholomew and Goode). In The Crucible, this mass hysteria has been used as a tool by Putnam for personal gain to acquire land of other citizens, Danforth for his political gain, and Abigail for her revenge against John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth. In the play, Thomas Putnam
In the story/play mass hysteria plays an important role in Salem in the late 1600s. For instance Abigail Williams one of the girls in the crucible that uses mass hysteria to exploit the people of Salem around her. Mass hysteria means a group of people who over exaggerate something and becomes a fear. According to a quote from Abigail Williams says ”She is blackening my name in the village! She is telling lies about me! She is a cold sniveling woman! And you bend to her! Let her turn you like a-” which means she only accuses people because she wants
The mass hysteria between today’s society and the Salem witch hunt can be compared through Freedom , Religion ,and the killing of innocent victims. Mass hysteria has caused a lot of destruction in society throughout the years. It has brought about a lot of chaos in both Salem as well as the present society. Mass hysteria has brought out a lot of fear in people in both Salem and present society.
Fear can lead to a lot of things, but unfortunately, in humans it usually leads to something bad. Throughout history, fear has lead to some of the most violent actions by man, and some of the biggest collapses of organized society. In early American history, the people of Salem experienced this for themselves. Arthur Miller shows this in his book. The society of Salem that Miller creates in The Crucible shows how fear can slowly cause rational thought to deteriorate, leading to mass hysteria and eventually the breakdown of civilized behavior.
Mass hysteria can strike anywhere, anytime. Mass hysteria is an illusion or condition that affects a group of people, and is caused by anxiety, fear or stress. It can sometimes put people at risk because in most cases, it makes people sick. Mass hysteria has a negative impact on people like it did on the people of Salem who were killed and locked away. The Crucible was one of many examples of how fear can cause mass hysteria and unfortunately there are many more. Fear causes mass hysteria and has many cases that can prove that this is true.
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is wonderful example of how mass hysteria can spread throughout a small community. The setting of the play is Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 during the infamous Witch Trials. Miller uses these trials and the way they impacted the Salem community as a parallel to the Red Scare of the 1950s. Both time periods show the effect corrupt authorities can have on the lives of others. The author’s most striking commentary is on the role
Fear is definitely not always a harmful emotion. Fear influences people to take extreme measures and act irrationally emotion. While fear is one of the main emotions people face, fear is not a always harmful emotion. In the Crucible, Arthur Miller shows us how fear and suspicion can destroy a community. As the play develops, Miller shows us how fear and suspicion increase and destroy the community. Throughout the play it becomes apparent that the community gets more and more divided as time goes on. In the beginning there were arguments about ownership of land between some of the villagers. As the story progresses people fear for their own safety and begin accusing their neighbours of witchcraft in order to escape being hanged. Salem became overrun by the hysteria of witchcraft. Mere suspicion itself was accepted as evidence. As a Satan-fearing community, they could not think of denying the evidence, because to deny the existence of evil was to deny the existence of goodness; which was God. In the 17th century a group of Puritans migrated from England to America - the land of dreams - to escape persecution for their religious beliefs. As Arthur Miller tells us in the introduction to Act 1 'no one can really know what their lives were like.' We would never be able to imagine a life with 'no novelists' and 'their creed forbade anything resembling a theatre or vain entertainment.' 'They didn't celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate
Fear: a simple word with an abundance of meanings. To one, fear can be losing a loved one and to another it can be being alone for their entire life. Ghandi once claimed that the enemy of every soul is not hate, but fear itself. This enemy, however, can be derived from hate, for everything you loathe is the reason for your distress. Taking the Salem Witch Trial as an example, fear portrayed an enormous role in the lives of many. During the time period of 1692 to 1693, fear controlled an entire village by manipulation and hatred. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible perfectly captures how fear is exploited by characters in the play because these characters used their hatred towards others to build up horror in the sacred town of Salem. Although this classic novel was written over fifty years ago, Miller touched on timeless societal fears that still apply to the existing world today. As seen through Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, fear can prompt people to denounce their beliefs in order to save their own lives, prevent their reputation from being tarnished, and it can make one take extreme measures in order to protect the ones they love.
In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, he writes, “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!” (Miller 77). This partially fictionalized tale of the Salem Witch Trials points to one of the causes of the trials, vengeance, but the over dramatized tale 's early stages were quiet. The Salem Witch Episode had humble beginnings in the town of Salem Village, Massachusetts, but evolved into one of the most widely known witch trials in American History. The gallows in Salem claimed the lives of nineteen men and woman during the spring and summer of 1692 due to the accusations of witchcraft with over a hundred people who were accused. After all the terror and the uproar of the trials occurred, everything came to a screeching halt (Linder 1). Due to the unique circumstances of this particular set of witch trials, from the rampant accusations to the discontinuation of the trials mass hysteria does not seem to be fault as with other witch trials, but a variety of factors. The Salem witch trials were not just a simple case of mass hysteria, but a combination of factors ranging from poisons to superstitions to scapegoats, resulting in the outbreak of the Salem Witch episode.
Fear in itself is something to be feared. Fear is the primary source of insanity and chaos. Fear alone sent the Puritan society of Salem, Massachusetts into a state of utter hysteria in the year 1692, when one of the world's most infamous witch hunts occurred. Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, is a historical fiction depicting the events of the Salem Witch Trials. A witch hunt is a political campaign launched on the pretext of investigating activities subversive to the state. Every witch hunt is identifiable by the five key elements; the use of a scapegoat, a struggle to maintain moral order, a subversive character or group, an outbreak of hysteria and panic, and ulterior motives that provide
Both Salem, Massachusetts in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, and post 9/11 America are societies that dread witches or terrorists and tries to identify and eliminate them. When people find something that they are afraid of, they will do everything in their power to get rid of that fear. It will not matter to them what they have to do in order to eliminate their unease. Any fear that is great enough can take over people and make them do horrible, unjust things.
Fear and hysteria leads people to act out in certain ways that aren't plausible to people affected by this in their conventional state of mind. Fear and suspicion lead to hysteria in Salem because fear places emotional and physical distress onto those inflicted causing people to act out. You can find an example of this in the 1940s during World War II, the American government was on a “witch hunt” for suspected communist. Illustrated in the drama The Crucible, Puritan teens accused each other in result of being caught breaking the commandments of their religion while turning on each other just to save themselves. This ended in fifteen executions of innocent lives.
Throughout history, many horrific incidents based on an act of violence or disagreement have resulted in panic and mass hysteria. These historical events include but are not limited to, The Holocaust, mass shootings, and 9/11. Many of these tragic events have led to people being immensely afraid. These events often create fear for those who participate in everyday activities. A healthy community consists of a support system, peace, trust, and adhering to societal laws. Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, illustrates parallels between the Salem 17th century witch trials and the Communist Red Scare in the 1950’s to exemplify how destructive irrational fear and mass hysteria can become. When a community is overcome with fear it creates an insalubrious system of mistrust, corruption, hypocrisy, and the defiance of laws. Conflict relating to witchcraft in The Crucible, led to tension and struggle for the people of Salem. In his allegory, Arthur Miller illustrates the devastating impact of irrational fear on a community through the actions of the characters of Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne.
In Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, we see that whenever fear conquers human minds, the fear forces people back to their natural instincts to survive. In 1692 the Puritans allowed fear to lead them to feelings of envy and anger and even to murder. We see the effects of fear in characters such as Tituba, Mary Warren, and Abigail Williams.
In addition, mass hysteria is also seen in the actual judging of the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible. The judge, Danforth, arrests every person accused and threatens to hang them unless they confess. Danforth and the court warn the incriminated that if they don’t confess to witchcraft they will be hanged. This intentionally makes all accused guilty to witchcraft either way. The court interrogates the accused by saying, “ you have seen the Devil, you have compact with Lucifer, have you not” as an effort to convince the accused to confess voluntarily (III.225). Mass hysteria is shown here because of the idea that every one of the accused must be guilty, and they only can either confess and live or have honor and die. There is also no solid evidence to prove that witchcraft is being performed. Many cases came from rivaling families or feuding friends. One enemy to another accuse one of witchcraft by a claim of, “ that from that day to this he cannot keep a pig alive for more than four weeks because my Martha bewitch them with her books” (II.201). There is no more evidence other than the one claim and yet the accused is still arrested. This shows mass hysteria from the court by allowing that near to no proof that witchcraft is being practiced to be given, and an arrest to still be made. The court does this out of fear that the
Fear can affect societies by causing mass hysteria and the breeding of panic among them. Fear can cause people to think in a way that they normally would not, and imagine thing that could be out of proportion, such as being punished severely for prying in the world of witchcraft. It seems that the whole town has been diagnosed with this condition called the conversion reaction. This is where one might be terrified of the punishments that come with the discovery of a wrongdoing. This is often overly exaggerated by the terrified person. However, chances are something similar may have happened in the town of Salem. People were so worried because they were doing things that they were afraid would be classified at being involved with witchcraft.