Examples Of Fear In The Crucible

In the book, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, some examples of fear are, Abigail is scared of losing John Proctor so she starts accusing Elizabeth Proctor so she is taken to jail. Abigail thought by accusing someone as in Elizabeth, that she could get John to love her again. But little did she know that he was going to stick by his wife, because he has put her through enough.

Fear causes people to act irrationally and lash out at others, causing harm to not only the individual, but others. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, portrays this well. A Crucible is a vessel in which metallic elements are melted to be cast into new objects or to create a new alloy, and can withstand very high temperatures. In the play The Crucible, fear is. Abigail, Tituba, Elizabeth, etc.

Inside us all there is a deep dark fear this is what grabs us by the thresh hold of life. It controls the most important aspects of our lives. This is found within the deepest and darkest chasms of our souls. The very creature that wreaks havoc in our minds we cage and never confront we lock this beast away to afraid to overcome it. If the beast is not confronted it begins to contort and change who we are as a person and how we interact with others. Even the very decisions we make as a person to affect those around us and are loved ones to also suffer the consequences of our actions. Such as the crucible and how each person was warped into their own monster by greed.

Fear usually influences you to make poorly thought out decisions, “The Crucible” claims that fear appears to lead the characters to act without thinking. A moment when this occurs is when the fear of the consequences leads Abigail and Betty to accuse others. In 1692, in Salem, seemingly paranormal events, like Putnam’s babies dying, increased and disturbed the inhabitants, who attributed these events to witchcraft. Due to local sightings of Abigail and Betty in the forest at midnight, they were interrogated since they thought it could be a possibility that they were involved in witchcraft. Being interrogated, the girls felt afraid because they knew the penalty was whipping, which led them to lie: “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil” Abigail said, in that way she started accusing others and Betty did

“There is no passion so contagious as that of fear,” is a saying by the renowned French Renaissance scholar Michel de Montaigne. This theme is clearly displayed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Fear is an ever present notion in day to day existence. It motivates and influences the actions that lead people to decide in which course to move their lives forward. This driving force can be seen within the motivations of the average individual, to political leaders, and characters within literary works.

The witch hunt formula, being fear + a trigger falling onto a scapegoat, is a great example of how fear holds power over Americans. Americans are afraid of anything that is different, and when they do not know what to do about a situation, they will shun or cast out those who are different, locking them out of normal society. For the Salem Witch trials, anybody that was accused was shunned, and forced into trial, and if found guilty, hanged and removed from society. Those who were accused of becoming a witch were usually an outcast from society, or those who stood in the way of people with power. For example, in the crucible, we are shown an old man waving and saying hello.

Throughout history, mass hysterias have occurred as the result of psychological stress and the irrational fear of the unknown. In fact, the Salem Witch trial was the result of the irrational fear from the town that the devil was present in their everyday lives. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller presents the consequences of the fear of witchcraft spreading through the community of Salem. Laura Dimon furthers Gladwell’s argument in “What Witchcraft is Facebook” by arguing that hysterias occur because of preexisting tensions and psychological stress. Thus, as long as the fear of the unknown is present in a society, oppression and psychological abuse will endure, resulting in individuals to feeling vulnerable and succumbing to the pressures of their disordered and dysfunctional environment.

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.

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 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.

At times, fear motivates people to behave unscrupulously. Personal fears instigate some characters in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible to cry witch. Reverend Parris fears losing his job, Abigail fears prosecution and losing John Proctor, and Tituba fears physical retribution. Fear induces people to defend their personal whims and use their power to harm others.

Fear and faith can drive a person to death or a divine life. The Crucible takes place in Salem during the Salem witch trials. The Crucible makes a point to include that the population’s main religion is puritan. The puritan religion has many distinct rules. People that are puritan have extremely strong faith and guidelines. Fear is another extremely strong force. The Crucible makes a point to include that the people accused of witchcraft are very fearful of death and this element drives the entire play. People get ear in their heads and start to lose their faith. The people want to live so when they are accused of dancing with the devil, they disobey their faith and lie and confess until they are set free. They all do this to save themselves

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

As represented in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, fear played an important role and is exploited by the characters in the play. The Crucible beings with a group of girls accusing people of witchcraft for their selfish benefit.Fear is an emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to inflict pain , or a threat. Fear is an emotion that is capable of overtaking and controlling one’s state of mind and well being. However , fear can be used as a motivation factor. Fear influenced these people to take extreme measures and act irrationally. Additionally, fear is a master of suffering capable of haunting those who patronize it Moreover, in The Crucible this erratic emotion causes people to fear being labeled

If Abigail was not worried about the hysteria that will start because of the accusations she will later receive she would not have told herself and others to lie about it, showing that people will lie in face in hysteria.