The Fear Of Fear In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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

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.

Abby, an average, rebellious teenager, lives her day-to-day life as one might expect. She ignores authority when she is around her friends, keeps secrets, and gets out of trouble by using the outcasts of the school as scapegoats. She seems to have an air of authority and coolness that everyone wants, but little do they know that she is just trying her best to fit in. Some people might say that Abby’s whole life is influenced by the fear of fitting in. In the play The Crucible, there are also many characters who are motivated by fear. This play is about the Salem witch trial and how the conditions escalated to the point that 17 people died. Although some people say fear doesn’t have a big influence on people’s actions, fear is the greatest motivator of human behavior.

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

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

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.

The most common use of fear in The Crucible is to manipulate the weaker minded people into serving someone else’s best interests. Abigail, who is clearly a master of this craft, uses this tactic to intimidate Betty and the other girls into joining her web of lies when she threatens, “I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it. I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!” (Miller 135). Evidence of fear as a motivational tool does not come any clearer than this. Abigail uses her power over the other girls to force them into compliance with her wrongdoings. This direct threat lines up perfectly with Robert Wilson’s guideline to using fear as a motivator which states, “To use fear successfully as a motivator, a solution must be offered with it” (Wilson). By giving the girls a choice between compliance and punishment, Abigail makes their decision all the more simple. With

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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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