Hysteria In The Crucible

In the short story “The Crucible” hysteria is spread when Betty and Abigail were dancing in the forest around a fire and caused the townspeople to suspect that both girls were associated with witchcraft due to religious beliefs. This hysteria caused reverend Parris to fear that his position was in danger because if the townspeople were to find out his enemies would attempt to dethrone him. In this case hysteria was caused by Betty and Abigail dancing in the forest around a fire. Therefore hysteria is spread by the fact that Parris is panicking with that he is causing more hysteria, “It must come out - my enemies will bring it out.Let me know what you done there. Abigail, do , you understand that I have enemies?”. This quote signifies how

Mass hysteria is a phenomenon that has occurred throughout history In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the hysteria and irrational overreaction during the Salem Witch trials as an allegory to address the current issues the U.S. faced while dealing with communism in the 1950’s, and the hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists became known as the Red Scare. All three events vary in the intensity of hysteria as well as the size of the population, although similarities regarding the hysteria in both The Crucible and The Red Scare can also be applied to the current hysteria surrounding the Ebola virus. Examples of these similarities are the use of scapegoats by the individual people or parties responsible for the initial hysteria, wrongfully accusing or discriminating people due to a belief based solely on trepidation and lack of substantial evidence.

People have used multiple ways to manipulate people to carry out crimes, spread rumors, and to get themselves into a high position like a king or president of a certain groups. Famous people in history like Senator Joseph R. McCarthy who used mass hysteria to control the people to supposedly get rid of communist and Abigale who accused people of witches. Mass hysteria is an easy way to get people involved in something that does not apply to them, just so that one person can obtain power, for instance Abigale in the story “The Crucible.” Why do people exploit mass hysteria, is it the only way to get what you want in life, or is there another way? Mass hysteria has impacted the people by manipulating them, for that person to obtain power in the past, as well as its portrayed in a story to the people.

During the late 1940’s and the early 1950’s, America acted out of fear instead of their head. Author Miller motivated to write The Crucible due to his being alive during the late 1950’s when McCarthyism was prevalent in the U.S. He was trying to make the comparison of the two-time periods. Author Miller wrote The Crucible to point out the hysteria caused by the Red Scare by drawing comparisons with fear fueling hysteria, the ignoring of evidence, and types of people who were falsely accused.

Perhaps as teenagers of the current society our morals have eluted by the ever-so present beliefs portrayed in the media. Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" is broadly applicable as it demonstrates resonance of contemporary events such as the engagement of spreading lies, propaganda and fake news. Whilst, the play certainly is a critique on the McCarthy era it can also be viewed as commentary on the "alternative distorted facts" presented through mainstream medias. Miller suggested the witch-hunt insanity was fueled by a number of complex causes including the dark desires to satisfy hateful urges by the mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is a social phenomenon where imaginary fear and anxiety spread uncontrollably through a community. Throughout the play "The Crucible," hysteria regarding witchcraft spreads through Salem resulting in the numerous deaths of innocent people.

Moore and Miller extend their portrayal of hysteria from derivations of the extreme versions of historical political climates that exploited the morals and cognition of those they were governing. Power was evident within ‘The Crucible’ directly through the corrupt judicial system, basing their judgements on tactics that relied solely on the accused’s confession. ‘sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between’(Act 3. Scene 2. 45) explains Danforth’s black and white perception towards the authorities and the judicial system similar to majority of the authorities’ attitudes. Providing further insight into how Moore utilised dialogue to characterise and further structure the influence that power had on mass hysteria. Miller explored the idea of faith and how preconceived notions concerning the authenticity of religious figures in power are damaging to society, specifically through the characters of Reverend John Hale and Reverend Parris’s constant affirmations of propaganda that incited hysteria including publicly doubt within the community through ‘You have sent your spirit out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering souls for the Devil? (Act 1. Scene 1. Page 34) ‘The Crucible’ was structured as a play so audiences could fully comprehend the emotive language intended to persuade and scare the community in a state of hysteria, consequently, allowing opposing perspectives to be easily identified. Moore explored

Hysteria means “exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement among a group.” During the Witch-Craft trials of Salem; hysteria tore apart communities. Many people were executed during this time. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller shows how hysteria tears apart a community.

John Mellencamp once said, “When you live in hysteria, people start thinking emotionally.” Arthur Miller's drama The Crucible expresses many themes including the dangers of pride and envy. However, out of many themes conveyed in The Crucible the most applicable, that relates to Puritan America and the McCarthy Era, is the role that mass hysteria plays in tearing down a community. In The Crucible, hysterical fear becomes a senseless means of declaring the bitterness and anger subdued by Puritan society.

In the Crucible I believe it was a mass hysteria because the girls Abby and Betty were accused of doing witchcraft in the woods with other girls and their slave Tituba. After Betty’s dad caught them at the forest. He says on page 10 in the book, “I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came on you”. He saw everything that happened in the woods that day. After that day Betty would not wake, or she would have her eyes open but would not talk or walk. A lot of people believe that it’s witchcraft, Mrs. Putnam believes that Tituba murdered her seven born babies and that Tituba can also speak to the dead. Mrs. Putnam is a very strong believer of witchcraft. Her daughter Ruth Putnam is also very sick she has the same symptoms as Betty. Mrs. Putnam thinks Ruth was very close to speaking to her dead sisters. Abby blames Tituba for making the girls drink chicken blood, Tituba confesses it. She also accused Tituba of making her laugh at prayers. Tituba accuses Abby for making her conjure and charm.

Within Arthur Miller’s award-winning play, The Crucible, there is a constant trend that flows through time. As the tale persists, Salem, Massachusetts gets wound up in the witch hunt of 1692, creating an infectious hysteria on all the villagers. City-wide fear overtakes individual thought and reasoning as well as it can today in America’s “trivial” matters.

The accusations in the Crucible started because of hysteria. In Act 1 Tituba was blamed for being a witch, and was intructed that if she didn’t confess she would’ve been whipped and hanged. The option she faced was very unpleasant so, she confessed dishonestly of being a witch. Abigail sees this as a way avoiding punishment for dancing in the woods so she says that she was bewitch and starts naming others for being witches.As the hysteria grows all her friend, who werecaught dancing in the woods, starts to blame others for being witchs. As the situation starts to grow and inoccent are put to jail Elizabeth Proctor states “folks are brought before them, and if they sceam and howl and fall to the floor…the person’s clapped in the jail for bewitchin’ them.” Another example is in Act 3 when Mary Warren gives in to hysteria many times. Mary Warren is asked to faint infront of the judge and she couldn’t so she says “I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I--it were only sport in the beginning, sir, but then the whole world cries spirits, spirits, and I--Ipromise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not.” This shows that they all started screaming beacause on person started to do it and that emotion circulated around the girls. This is how hysteria functions. Lastly when Reverrend Parris was given a document

What is hysteria? By definition, hysteria is a state of intense agitation, anxiety, or excitement, especially as manifested by large groups or segments of society. In a broader sense however, hysteria is a killer, the delitescent devil. More specifically, hysteria was the main cause of nineteen deaths in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and countless ruined reputations on account of Joe McCarthy. Hysteria does not just appear out of nowhere though. There are driving forces such as revenge and abuse of power that bring about the irrational fear that can take over society. These are the issues expressed in Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

1. Throughout The Crucible, the theme of mass hysteria is presented. For example, after Tituba “confessed” to have been working under pressure, Abigail screams “I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (54) The reason why Abigail suddenly “confesses” starts with Tituba. Tituba was under extreme pressure when Reverend Hale and many others were screaming at her; therefore she decided to just give them what they want – a confession – so they would stop. Seeing this, Abigail joins in that she will not be interrogated later, thus adding to the overall hysteria and madness of a witch hunt. In addition, the theme of vengeance is also displayed when John Proctor blatantly states “I'll tell you what's walking Salem - vengeance is walking Salem… now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom,

In today's society there are many cases of mass hysteria just like long ago. In the book John Proctor says a quote that hits big time for mass hysteria, he says “God is dead” while laughing insanely, and if that does not cause mass hysteria then nothing does.

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.