Hysteria And Fear In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Pointing fingers at someone can do a lot of damage to someone's reputation. Sometimes we point fingers at innocent people in fear the unknown or what may hurt us.. Fearing something or fearing the unknown can cause an uprising or reaction throughout a society or community. Throughout the story “The Crucible” and during the time of McCarthyism many people feared of what may happen to them, as known hysteria. Hysteria is an outburst of fear that spreads through society leaving consequences for blameless people, although with hysteria no one would know what to fear or believe in the society.

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.

The Salem witch trials was a series of accusations upon men and women; these people could either plead guilty and survive or plead innocent and be put to death. If a person pleads guilty, their allegations with the devil would be broken. Arthur Miller noticed the similarities between the Salem witch trials and the red scare of the mid 1950’s. These events inspired Miller to write The Crucible. In the American playwright Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the characters lie to manipulate others in order to protect their reputation.

Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. This can lead to lie being spread that people will believe due to hysteria. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, Arthur use the red scare of post war america as his inspiration for his novel. During the red scare people were accusing any person of being a communist and people believed because due to hysteria. Arthur miller uses hysteria to show that it leads to Damaged reputations,lies ,and hurting people's lives.

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

“Ultimately, no good can come from this type of decision-making. Fear prompts retreat. It is the antipode to progress. Just when we need new ideas most, everyone is seized up in fear, trying to prevent losing what we have left” (Berns). Fear can be defined as a biochemical, emotional, and physical response to something negative or thrill situation. Most individuals have a negative reaction to fear causing them to obtain the physical response of “fight or flight” in face of fear or avoiding anything that causes fear altogether. The characters in The Crucible all reacted to the witch trials differently and that most likely was because of how afraid they were of the accusations. If someone was more fearful of the possibility that some people were witches then they were more likely to want them in jail or hung opposed to if they were not that fearful. The research question that is being explored in this essay is “What role does fear play in individuals’ decision making in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible?” In other words, fear can affect how one reacts to certain situations and it can cause them to make different decisions than they normally would.

One of many reasons the witch trials were able to continue was because of Judge Danforth’s ignorance towards what was actually going on in Salem. When Francis Nurse and John Proctor try to explain to him the girls are deceiving him, he over rules their ideas by challenging “And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?”(Miller 179). Danforth is proud to say that he has put people in jail, put people to death for witchcraft because his ignorance blocks him from seeing the evidence he is presented with is false. As well as being exposed to false evidence, Judge Danforth also makes the claim that witchcraft cannot be disproved; therefore the court has to rely solely on the girl’s accusations. Danforth declares, “But witchcraft is ipso facto, on its face and by its nature, an invisible crime, is it not?

The Crucible is a 1953 play by American playwright Arthur Miller; which gave a detailed description of the Salem Witch Trials. “The story concerns a group of young Puritan girls who are caught in a forbidden act, i.e., dancing and cavorting in woods, In order to evade punishment, the girls accuse an ever growing number of their neighbors of having bewitched them”(Dector 1). This shows the basis of the story the girls broke basic Puritan law in Salem, which then starts the witch trials. The only way the convicted could save themselves

In the late 1980’s, Ray Buckley along with his mother, sister, and teachers of the McMartin preschool faced 321 charges of child abuse additionally there were allegations of the group performing satanic rituals and traveling in secret underground tunnels. Many children from the preschool were accusing several people of performing bizarre acts much like the witch hunts that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts, such hysteria brought fear amongst many. The Crucible a play composed by American author, Arthur Miller wrote this play about the town Salem that fell into mass hysteria after a group of girls Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Ruth Putnam, Tituba and Mary Warren accused townspeople of witchcraft. Many may argue that the root and cause of the witch hunts were caused by the girls in the forest looking for revenge or trying to benefit from the accusations however the cause was fear amongst the characters this is demonstrated by Elizabeth Proctor, Mary Warren, and Abigail Williams.

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.

The year is 1692. Throughout the small, Puritan, seaside community of Salem, rumors and accusations fly like gusts of ocean wind. Neighbors turn on neighbors, and even the most holy church-goers are accused of being the devil’s servants. The Crucible details this real-life tragedy of the Salem witch trials, in which nineteen members of the Salem community were hanged for alleged witchcraft. Abigail Williams, a seemingly innocent girl, accuses dozens of Salem’s citizens of witchcraft through the support of her mob of girls and the complicity of the court officials. The title of this play gives significant insight into the experiences of several of these Salem citizens. Although a crucible is often used in chemistry for heating up substances, the title of the play carries a much greater weight. In his famous play The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the title of “crucible” to signify the severe and unrelenting tests of faith and character that many of the community members endure throughout the Salem witch trials, which he achieves through the use of figurative language and fallacies of relevance and insufficiency.

Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. Hysteria is fear of the highest degree. Fear is defined as a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is a story inspired by actual historical events that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. People in Salem start accusing others of doing witchcraft and then the trend goes on in a continuous cycle.During the time of the Salem Witch Trials fear and hysteria blinded people from the truth.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a famous play which was written in the early 1950’s. The Crucible is a play based upon the events in 1692, which led to the ‘Salem Witch Trials’, a series of hearings before local magistrates to prosecute over 150 people accused of witchcraft. This was due to the hysteria caused by a group of girls accusing innocent people of witch craft. The play was set in Salem, Massachusetts between February 1692 and May 1693. Salem was a very isolated and puritanical community, so their biggest fear was the devil and witchcraft. A person being accused of witchcraft was the worst thing possible in this society.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the characterization of Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam, and Governor Danforth, to show how people protect themselves during times of hysteria, which helps to continue the chaos that broke throughout Salem. Miller shows the importance of maintaining values and principles in order help end the chaos. Miller connects The Crucible with the events of the witch hunts from the 1690s where citizens were accused of using witchcraft, and the McCarthy trials of the 1950s. It leads to the significance of hysteria of manipulation, power, and personal gains in which leads to a downfall in the society in Salem.

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.