Fear Of The Unknown In The Crucible

The trouble in Salem began in January, 1692 when Tituba, a slave from the West Indies was talking to Elizabeth Parris, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Parris, and his niece, Abigail Williams about their futures. After telling them their futures, the girls begin to cry hysterically and act strangely as if bewitched. These fits could be brought on by the idea that their futures as Puritan child-bearing women was at risk or also by the girl’s wanted attention that they had no chance at getting regularly in Puritan society. Tituba also is undergoing torments at this time, seeing specters and having the same type of fits that the other girls are having. As the fits begin to happen to other

Many people were accused of being witches in 1692 and hung or pressed to death for their crime, many others were thrown in prison for life. When the Salem Witch Trials Hysteria of 1692 swept Salem Village and surrounding areas, it was not a happy time. Many of the people living in Salem at the time were Protestants seeking religious freedom. Protestants were very religious people and looked to the Bible for help as God’s words were all true. One of the subjects that the Bible addressed was the Devil and how he possessed people to make them witches. When two young girls asked a West Indian slave woman be the name of Tituba to show them their fortunes, they begun to get more curious about her abilities. Tituba showed them the “magic” she knew from her former tribe, but when the young girls started acting strangely, she was accused for being a witch along side two other local white women. Instead of pleading guilty, Tituba confessed that she was a witch and told the audience of her trial that there were 6 more witches amongst them. This lead to a hectic frenzy to find the remaining witches and it turned neighbors onto each other, husbands on wives and entire families were thrown into prison for their crime. The three main reasons for the Salem Witch Trials Hysteria of 1692 were a group of young girls looking for attention, neighbor conflicts and gender/status/age.

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

Sue Miley once said, “When we combine choices with fear, we suddenly become overwhelmed and paralyzed” (Miley). Fear is a powerful emotion that can heavily impact one’s decision whether it be for the good or bad. In The Crucible, many important decisions are made and fear is heavily involved in many of those decisions. A research question to be examined is, to what degree can we attribute the events of the Salem Witch Trials as illustrated in The Crucible to fear?

The Salem Witch Trials were a dark spot in America’s early history. During a time where acts of the unknown were simply considered spiritual signs or supernatural forces with meanings; the early American settlers in Salem, Massachusetts were plagued with what they claimed were acts of the Devil putting witches in their town to disrupt Puritan beliefs and actions. One of the earliest accused witches was the village pastor’s slave Tituba Indian. Tituba was especially vulnerable to accusations to due to her extreme double minority status as well as the fact that she was owned by the village pastor.

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 The Crucible characters would continuously not tell the truth under certain circumstances. Why is that? For example in The Crucible when Tituba was asked, “When did you compact with the Devil” (Miller 41), by Rev. Hale. Then Tituba replied, “I do not compact with no Devil” (Miller 42). After Tituba denied compacting with the Devil she then was threatened to be whipped and hanged. After those threats Tituba then said, “I tell him I don’t desire to work for him, sir” (Miller 42). Is it not a coincidence that Tituba acknowledges that she had communicated with the devil after she was threatened? This is an example of how fear can impact your decision making and can affect a person mentally and physically. There are many other examples of fear based decisions like, in Act 1 when Abigail Williams tries to cover up what her and her friends did in the forest and in Act 3 when Mary Warren cracks under the pressure of what John Proctor wanted her to do. To conclude my question, why do people act certain ways when fear is present?

One innocent man being crushed to death, 141 people being arrested, and 19 being hanged were some of the many gruesome events that took place during the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, some few unnatural events cause mass hysteria to sweep through a small town, placing dozens of innocent people in jail. When rumors sweep through Salem of an unconscious girl who will not wake up, people automatically point to witchcraft. Accusation after accusation, fear of being accused themselves causes people to suspect the worst about the people they associate with. In result, many people turn against themselves and others around them in fear of losing the normal life they have accustomed to. The three characters in the play that acted out of fear and caused an unnecessary hysteria against innocent people are Mary Warren, Judge Danforth, and Abigail Williams.

In Escaping Salem: The Other Witch Hunt of 1692, Richard Godbeer reconstructs a particular witch hunt that is less known than its counterpart, the Salem Witch Trials. This trial, which took place in the Stamford, Connecticut area in the seventeenth century, demonstrated the theologies as well as the natural and supernatural beliefs of early New Englanders. These factors played an important role in how these settlers viewed the world and its peculiar mysteries. The perspectives of key participants, such as Katherine “Kate” Branch, Daniel and Abigail Wescot, Elizabeth Clawson, Mercy Disborough, Sarah Bates, and Jonathan Selleck, displayed the range of reactions and thoughts of early New Englanders regarding the supernatural world. With

Fear, panic, and obsession can drive a person to commit terrible acts. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, many people are accused of witchcraft by a group of girls claiming to be afflicted by the “witches” in their town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Because there was no way to prove that someone was really a witch, those who did not confess were sentenced to hang for their crimes, which ranged from conjuring up the dead to sending their spirit out on others. Terror soon spread throughout the village and people began to point fingers at each other. Although many townspeople contributed in getting the situation out of hand, one person was responsible for starting the whole ordeal: seventeen-year-old Abigail Williams, ringleader of the troubled girls. Her reason for crying witchcraft and spreading panic was due to her obsession with a man named John Proctor.

The events which took place in Salem in 1692 could be described as awful and unjust. 19 innocent people were hanged, another person pressed to death and 4 others died in jail. Witches or Wizards are what they called these people, people who made pacts with the devil. The idea of witches provoked fear into the puritan fundamentalist society. Further more, two young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, were said to have been acting strangely.

Fear is essentially the main cause for all the foreboding issues in this world. It is a natural human emotion that certainly everyone and any living thing has encountered. However, when fear becomes irrational, the outcomes can be devastating. Ranging from outright foolishness, all the way down to mass hysteria, fear is a true emotion that can manipulate someone and the people around them to their demise. Irrational fear has been seen in the Crucible, as well as in the McCarthy era, and modern times.

The fear over the devil and people who did his bidding spread rapidly across Salem. People feared that the devil would find a way to infiltrate and damage Christian communities; they feared that the devil was nearby. Yet, how had this happened? Many factors contribute to this question such as religion, economics, vengeance, fears and even imagination. However, there’s one factor which contributes the most: one of the accused witches, going by the name of Tituba, confessed that she and other people were indeed witches bound to do the bidding of the devil. It was the already-found fear and the confession of the accused witch who seemed to start it all, who seemed to start a massive witch hunt.

Facing the Challenges of the Real World In the book, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, there are many themes that are seen in the book. One theme that is seen in the book is fear. Fear plays a very big role in the book as well as in the real world. In the real world, fear plays a very big role in society.

Can fear escalate to disaster? The Crucible written by Arthur Miller was originally written to protest the Red Scare. A time where communists spies became a national fear in the US and even ruined hundreds of lives due to suspicion. Though The Crucible takes place even before the United States was established, the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare had both been motivated by one thing in common which is fear taken too far. One of the main characters within the play is Abigail Williams who is a teenage girl around the age of “seventeen… A strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling” (Miller Act one lines 29-30). Her power is abused which is known to the reader and becomes a weapon for her true intent that drives the plot. Abigail’s most important value is her obsession to be together with Proctor and even confesses to him “John- I am waiting for you every night” (Miller Act one line 415). Despite her undying affection, Proctor is a married to Elizabeth and Abigail’s feelings becomes one sided. Due to this, her motivations through the play is influenced by the abuse of her position in the role of playing God. She uses this power to mainly as vengeance to rid of Proctor’s wife, “she (to Proctor now) testify it were the wife’s familiar spirit” (Miller Act Three, lines 807-808). The obvious reason reveals key factors such as witches becoming a sensitive topic and the fact that the court evidence relies on her witnessing spirits. Her crying out the devil on Elizabeth will automatically send her to jail and leave Proctor alone for herself. Abigail’s motivation is hidden away from the court just like her trying to hide the fact that she has had an affair with John Proctor, “Mr. Danforth, he is lying!” (Miller Act three, line 837). She denies Proctor’s accusation because her name because her name within the town will no longer be a person blessed by God. She will reveal her true self who is skillfully manipulative that especially evident when she comments openly to Proctor about Elizabeth that “she is a cold, sniveling woman” and that Proctor “[he bends] to her!” (Miller Act Two lines 461-482). Of course, Abigail doesn’t recognize this nature of herself and doesn’t change the