Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

“Even in an enlightened democracy, the media have to check themselves to make sure they are not contributing to an unnecessary mass hysteria” (Brainyquote). Even the most sophisticated governments can lead the public into a state of hysteria. Often times when people become hysterical, others take that opportunity to obtain power for their personal benefit. In history and Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, public hysteria was exploited in order to obtain and manipulate power for personal gain.

Mass hysteria can strike anywhere, anytime. Mass hysteria is an illusion or condition that affects a group of people, and is caused by anxiety, fear or stress. It can sometimes put people at risk because in most cases, it makes people sick. Mass hysteria has a negative impact on people like it did on the people of Salem who were killed and locked away. The Crucible was one of many examples of how fear can cause mass hysteria and unfortunately there are many more. Fear causes mass hysteria and has many cases that can prove that this is true.

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.

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,

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.

“The Crucible” displays hysteria in many ways throughout the play, but the main act of hysteria was that it wrecked the people of Salem. Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion, which is mainly demonstrated by divisions of society. Hysteria takes a main part of the play because it caused the people of Salem to do such unreasonable acts. One hysterical act in “The Crucible” was during the Salem Witch Trials, one hundred fifth people were accused for practicing

Hysteria and paranoia have been a part of human life for a very long time. This tactic was used to scare people in many different ways. It has also become a byproduct of terrorism in modern times. An earlier event where hysteria and paranoia played a big part is in the Salem witch trials. This event is described in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the theme of hysteria and paranoia is present in the character of Rev. Parris; the development of this theme demonstrates Miller’s belief that hysteria can create an entire chaotic problem.

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.

The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller about the horrific events that happened in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. The definition of the word crucible is a severe test or also known as a ceramic or metal container in which metals or other substances may be melted or subjected to very high temperatures. Arthur Miller picked this word as the severe test represents people being prosecuted and the high temperatures needed to melt metal in a container represents the high tensions in Salem. These horrific events are known as the Salem Witch Trials, where over 200 people were accused of witchcraft and 20 people had been sentenced to death. All this corruption had been caused over hysteria. In The Crucible hysteria is what tears the town apart as people acted on their grudges and dislikes.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller develops the thematic subject “hysteria” in his play. He does this by displaying the madness of the accused and the accusers. When Abigail is accusing the potential witches she does so by screaming that their spirits are attacking her. Screaming fills the room as the girls pretend to see things and pass out. At this time in history women’s voices were not heard.

Maximus Aurelius of Ridley Scott’s famous film Gladiator once said, “What we do in life echoes in eternity”, and this holds true no matter the time period. What we do in our lifetime will forever be remembered as it is documented by word of mouth or maybe on paper. This is not to say, although, that since what we do is remembered it can never happen again. The Crucible, By Arthur Miller is a timeless cautionary tale that warns the reader of the danger of greed, fear, and hysteria. Miller uses these as themes and conveys them through the power of example in characters in the play to caution us.

Could you imagine a large group of people going against their morals just to survive and keep their name pure? That’s exactly what happened in The Crucible and the McCarthy Era. Both events used fear tactics to scare a large portion of the population if not everyone. This tactic is called mass hysteria and has been proven to effective.

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.

Hysteria was a main theme in The Crucible. Hysteria, meaning an exaggeration of emotion, was happening amongst the townspeople, afraid to be claimed as a witch or because of jealousy townspeople began to accuse people they've known for years as a witch. Once this happens the town of Salem falls into a hysteria, community wide fear over rules the judgment of right and wrong and puts everyone in a position of "survival of the fittest," if you couldn't lie for yourself and broke under the pressure of accusation, you would die if you didn’t confess to being a witch, ruin your "good" name, and/or end up in jail. Reputation, how people perceive you, is also a recurring theme in The Crucible. In the time period the Witch Trials took place, if

Fear has become part of humanity as humans evolve over time. Since the beginning of time humans had always been afraid of the unknown and this fear has given humans a drive to progress to be better. In the past, there have been societies that take wrongful advantage of this fear by creating mass hysteria by religious, political, and social activities. The article Mass Delusions and Hysterias: Highlights from the Past Millennium by Robert Bartholomew and Erich Goode, talks about Salem’s situation in 1692. “Salem Village (now Danvers, Massachusetts) was the scene of a moral panic that spread throughout the region and involved witchcraft accusations which led to trials, torture, imprisonment, and executions” (Bartholomew and Goode). The famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller demonstrates the similar act as the article which led to a mass hysteria between people of Salem for wrongful accusations and death of twelve individuals of Salem for witchcraft. According to the play, the delusions of fear in Salem turned into a mass hysteria. “Mass hysteria is characterized by the rapid spread of conversion disorder, a condition involving the appearance of bodily complaints for which there is no organic basis” (Bartholomew and Goode). In The Crucible, this mass hysteria has been used as a tool by Putnam for personal gain to acquire land of other citizens, Danforth for his political gain, and Abigail for her revenge against John Proctor’s wife Elizabeth.