Theme Of Hysteria In 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.

Concerned that word about her affair will spread throughout the village, Abigail begins to lie and point fingers at people for witchcraft, hoping it can draw the people’s focus away from her. After she and the girls were discovered in the forest by Reverend Parris, she lies or purposely forgets to mention to that she had drank a potion that would kill John Proctor’s wife. The only thing she said to him was: “We did dance, uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there's the whole of it.” (Miller 9). In another situation where Abigail's lying is shown again, Parris is asking why she was fired from her previous job as Elizabeth Proctor’s servant, and her excuse is: “She hates me, uncle, she must, for I would not be her slave. It's a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I will not work for such woman!” (Miller 11). Clearly this is false because Elizabeth didn't fire Abigail just out of coldness, though that was part of it, she fired her because she found that Abigail was having an affair with her husband, John. These lies led to unnecessary problems and prove Abigail is a self centered person because she only wants what's best for herself.

Another quote “i will not blacken my face for any of them” which can tell me that she is not willing to sacrifice her reputation for others she wants to maintain her reputation for herself. It was not just Abigail everyone in Salem was turning on each other even the people they knew for a very long time. I think the reason why people did that because they were pressured into giving out names or were threatened to be condemned or imprisoned. According to an article the salem witch trials and Mccarthyism it states that “My basic need was to respond to a phenomenon which, with only small exaggeration, one could say paralyzed a whole generation and in short time dried up the habits or trust and toleration in public discourse.” this quote sounds like something that happened in the Crucible. A quote from the article states “ the object was to destroy the credibility of any and all ideas associating with socialism and communism, whose proponents

This is later confirmed when she threatens to “come to [them] in the black of some terrible night and … bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder” (Pg.175) Mary Warren and Betty Parris if they dare to tell the truth. This shows her determination at killing Elizabeth Proctor and securing her own reputation. Unlike many naive villains in other literatures, Abigail sets out a meticulous scheme to frame Elizabeth. First, she witnesses Mary Warren leaving a needle in a doll. Then she “[sticks] two inches [of a needle] in the flesh of her belly”(pg. 203) to frame Elizabeth of performing witchcraft. So mendacious is Abigail that she is willing to injure herself to accomplish her plan. Under her beautiful appearance also lays a manipulative heart. She is capable of manipulating not only the girls into doing things her way, but also the members of the court to her advantage. When questioned by Danforth whether the spirits she has seen are illusion, Abigail steps it up a notch by making the members of the court feel sorry for her and madly refutes, “I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people—and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a—” (Pg.210) This, following by Elizabeth's failure to tell the truth and the girl’s verisimilar acting toward the “yellow bird”, further demonstrates her manipulative power which brings the court in her favor. Altogether, many

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.

Abigail has caused so much sensation in the town but yet no one suspects Abigail at first. Abigail was blamed for the events that took place in Salem. Abigail tried to blame so many innocent people for her mysterious ways. In Act I of The Crucible , Betty, Abigail’s cousin had falling in a strange coma. The coma stuns so many people in Salem that they said Betty was apart of witchcraft. The people in Salem wondered why Betty was in a coma but in reality it was Abigail’s fault. “ My, you seem improving. I talked to your papa and I told him everything. So there’s nothing to—“ (20). This made Betty worry and she faked a coma. It was Abigail 's fault because she made all the girls go in the woods and dance naked, drinking a charm so they could kill Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail also lied to cover up what she did in the woods by lying to Putman. “No, he’ll be comin’ up. Listen, now; if they be questioning us, tell them we danced - I told him as much already,” (19).

Within “The Crucible”, Arthur Miller presents the effects of hysteria by using the witch trials of Salem to show friends and family turning against each other because of mass hysteria and fear. One of the major themes of “The Crucible” is hysteria and fear. From the quote, we can gather that a Devil is in Salem, yet Revernd Hale speaks of a much more dangerous thing called hysteria. He speaks of frightening proofs in the court, pointing to the bandwagon of the courtroom where

Abigail shows her need for power when she threatens the girls to not tell anyone what their plan was when they were dancing in the forest. When Abigail is talking to the girls about what had happened that night, Betty, Abigail’s cousin, shouts out that Abigail wants to kill Elizabeth Proctor to get back together with John Proctor. Then Abigail “smashes [Betty] across the face; shut it!...Now look…all of [the girls]. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And…[if] either of [the girls] breathe[s] a word…[Abigail] will come to you in the black of some terrible night and [she] will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder [the girls]” (Miller 18-19). Abigail shows her power best when threatening others to get what she wants. Abigail’s power causes the girls to follow what she says because if they tell someone that Abigail wants Elizabeth Proctor dead, they will be killed or seriously punished. This shows that Abigail is a bitter young woman who uses power to get what she wants. When Tituba was accused of being a witch by Abigail, she starts accusing other people of being witches. Then

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller in 1692 a thing called the Salem Witch trials started. People around Salem were accused of being a witch for no reason at all. If you were a single old lady with a bunch of cats and marks on you, you were considered a witch. A girl named Abigail basically ran the town. Everyone was scared of her, she had a lot of power.

“Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” (Miller, Act I). This shows that Abigail doesn't want anyone to know what happened in the woods so as to not raise suspicion about the girls delving into witchcraft. Abigail is also not afraid to threaten the other girls to show her power to them. Abigail wants to have more power over all of them so they will fear her and not betray her in fear that Abigail will get them killed or punished in some way. Abigail also want’s to be more powerful than the other girls so she has most say in the courts and so she can sway the opinion of the townspeople. With all of the lying that Abigail is doing there is little hope for this to be worked out in a way so people won't get

Abigail begins to have authority over the other girls in the town of Salem. They follow her league in every lie that Abigail gets them caught up into. In Act I page 10, Abigail lies to Parris about what really happened in the woods and what he really saw. “Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it and I’ll be whipped if I must be. But they’re speakin’ of witchcraft. Betty’s not witched.” She doesn’t state the real reason as to why they were in the woods to Parris and his suspicions raise up. Abigail is in total denial and somehow convinces Parris that he has mistaken what he saw. This raises up questions about witchcraft and the presence of the Devil, so Abigail starts with accusations with people in the town. From that moment

Power is a simple thing to have but a difficult thing to control. Power with the wrong intentions can cause great devastation. The Salem Witch Trials are a prime example of power becoming strong enough to kill innocent people. Salem, Massachusetts is full of Puritan Protestants who focus on the righteousness of God. The Puritans, following what they believe to be God’s words, create an irrational situation to present the importance of conformity.

What is mass hysteria? It is a condition in which a large group of people exhibit similar physical or emotional symptoms, such as anxiety or extreme excitement. In the Crucible, the Salem Witch Trials take place. The Salem Witch Trials took place in 1642 in Salem, Massachusetts. The Salem Witch Trials was a series of hearings and prosecutions of people accused of witchcraft. The Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials is a notable example of mass hysteria. One example of mass hysteria was in 1994, The Toxic Lady. The Toxic Lady was a woman whose body and blood made the workers at Riverside General Hospital fall ill. But, when doctors and professionals took a closer look in the situation; they found out that mass hysteria has taken

In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible (1953), he shows us how hysteria took over the town of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. In The Crucible, the townspeople were led to believe that the devil had settled in their town and witches were responsible for it. In the play many people played a part in the hysteria that consumed the town, but some people had bigger effects than others because of their decisions and moral blindness. How did this handful of people cause so much hysteria? How does a town get so easily consumed by lies? When hysteria took over Salem many people were affected, lives were ruined and many innocent people were accused.

Mass hysteria referred to puritan belief that satan was active, present, and walking amongst them in disguise. Irrational fears caused people to accuse others, and those who were accused had no way to defend themselves. Of those people who started accusations, they would do crazy things like pretend that their “spirit” was harming them, and that was enough to have them hung and killed. This falls in in mas hysteria because those “spirits” were considered to be from sent from the devil. Just like in the film where the girls falsely accused innocent people of practicing witchery, they would say those kind of things about sending their spirits, and that's what would get the judges to believe it. The judges then would sent forth and kill them, or sometimes the people who were accused would confess and they would get put in jail instead. Many of them prefered death though, just because they didn't want to agree to such a lie. During the Salem Witch Trials, the girls dancing in the woods, Abigail’s affair with John, and Mary