The Fear Of Fear In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or a threat. Our own emotions, especially fear, make us do the things we never saw ourselves doing. In the play “The Crucible” many of the characters actions are driven by fear. President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. This emotion doesn’t have to control our actions.

Another time in this play where fear is shown is when Elizabeth Proctor is put on trial for being accused of witchcraft. She was being charged because Abigail and John Proctor were participating in lust, and she wanted to keep him for herself, but John only wanted Elizabeth. So Abigail says “she is a cold sniveling woman and you bend to her!”(page 177) Therefore, she went to the clerk of the court (Ezekial Cheever) and told him she had been stabbed. Mary Warren made a poppet with the needle still in the stomach (which is where Abigail got stabbed) while she was still in court to give to

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

Martin Niemöller once said,“First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” The culture of accusations is a part of hysteria. As paranoia ensued in “The Crucible”, Joseph McCarthy made false allegations that influenced many peoples lives. An affair integrated in Arthur Miller’s play created controversy among the community. Trials were held for those accused and lying was the only way to survive. The harsh truth that was revealed in “The Crucible” and the parallels between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials show patterns in which fear was used as an advantage, unsubstantiated claims occurred, and unethical punishments were given.

If there is one thing that is impossible to escape in modern society, it is fear. Whether it be advertisers using frightful hypotheticals to sell a product, or politicians instilling panic into the citizens in order earn themselves a few extra votes, fear is found everywhere and anytime. With this in mind, it is no surprise that the use of fear seeps into the literature of the times, especially when the content of the work has a basis in real events from the past. Fear is an effective motivator as evidenced by the characters in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible.

The Crucible Theme Essay The word “fear” can be described as: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger or pain. Throughout the play “The Crucible,” several characters contribute to the theme that fear can lead to the downfall of others and possibly, yourself. Puritans lived in a constant state of anxiety, with god and their neighbors. This element of fear caused the people of Salem to act irrationally and propelled the witch trials forward.

Throughout our history has become the ultimate weapon. it turns secentist into idiots, warroirs into cowards, and blinds individuals from the truth. chaos has always orginated from fear because once fear takes over, all sense of humanity and intelligence in one disappears. while checking on Betty, Mrs. Putnam says "She ails as she must- she never waked this morning, but her eyes and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat. Her soul is surely taken"displaying not only her fear for her daughter but also her ingorance as well (Miller 13). She jumped to conclusions out of fear and ignorance. to nothing can explain Mrs. Putnam"s duagther's condition, so she finds one in Witchcraft subconsciously. She does this to bring hope that

Today, the focus of society is based in a search for peace, but such efforts have been thwarted by a lack of open-mindedness which has synthesized a sense of fear and ignorance in the views of society. This is a social facet captured in Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, and his portrayal of the witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. A historical event in which synthesized lies fueled the massacre of many villagers. Such behavior is unfortunately the only aspect of human nature that has not evolved over time, and has prevailed in a number of historical events. One of the most notable of such historical events, was the horrid internment of Japanese-Americans, which hunted social order during the height of tension during World War II.

There are many things that can trigger fear in someone’s mind. Evil is a type of fear that causes adrenaline to rush through a reader’s heart, muscles to tense and can be distributed in so many different ways. In “The Crucible” fear is enclosed in many lies and in false accusations, but in the story “Young Goodman Brown” fear travels through the forest late at night. In The Crucible Abigail Williams is a brilliant mastermind behind the horrifying images in the minds of the ignorant people in Salem. She was attacking the innocent, and John Proctor was the weakest of all. He had committed adultery with Abigail and was prone to being tormented by her, because she keeps a secret he could never bare to confess. People fear for their lives and just follow along to prevent from being hanged. In “Young Goodman Brown” we see how Goodman leaves his wife, in order to meet someone

Fear is a powerful emotion in The Crucible. It defines the human race. In old ignorant societies such as puritan Salem in 1692, fear runs rampant when dozens of innocent people are accused of witchcraft and some hanged. In Arthur Miller’s famous play The Crucible, dozens of innocent citizens were hung for the wrongful accusation of witchcraft in Salem. It also happened in 1962 when 62 textile workers came down with a disease that was blamed on the bite of a Junebug. When fear becomes widespread and mistaken as it has in Salem, it is not fear anymore; it is mass hysteria, a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness. The human behavior

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 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