Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

The Crucible by Arthur Miller has a main character who goes by the name reverend Parris. His motivation in supporting the witch trials change variously throughout the trial. He just so happened to be the one that had caught Abigail Williams and Betty dancing in the woods early in the morning. When he had first caught them in the act he immediately thought of witchcraft because of the same occurrence in a nearby town. He wanted to keep what happen low so he would not lose his placement in the town.

The first time Hale truly Stands up for Proctor is when hale says," But it does not follow that everyone accused is part of it."(Miller 513). He says this to Danforth about all the people accused and how some may be working with the Devil but that doesn’t mean all of them are. Hale now truly believes that the whole trial is a scam. At last Hale has realized what he has got himself into and now does everything in his power to stop it.

For example, in Act II, the first sense of doubt Hale receives in the people who have confessed to witchcraft is shown when John Proctor suggests that there are people who, “ ...will swear to anything before they’ll hang” (Miller 1173). This way of thinking creates doubt in Hale, which only grows as Proctor later remarks, “We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!” (Miller 1179). All of Proctor’s words throughout Act II influence Hale to review the court and their actions. In Act III, in an attempt to save his wife and also disprove the court, Proctor throws away his reputation and admits to his crime of lechery with Abigail who is underage.

In January 1692, in the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, innocent citizens began to be accused of witchcraft. Two young girls, Betty Parris and Abigail Williams hid under furniture and contorted their bodies into unusual shapes. They screamed and cried out that the spirits of innocent citizens in the town of Salem were torturing them by stabbing them and trying to convince them to sign the Devil’s book. They were thought to have been under witchcraft’s spell, causing the young girls to accuse many people of witchcraft such as their own slave Tituba. More and more people of the town became afflicted with the same symptoms as Betty and Abigail, in the end causing over 200 people to be accused of witchcraft and all found guilty.

Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, illuminates a community’s mass hysteria due to the commencement of the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials, or simply put, the test. Stringent pious and ethical beliefs fueled the colony’s dramatic upset when a seventeen year old girl, Abigail, and her companions accuse a plethora of innocent people of performing witchcraft. Each character that is accused by the girls who are attempting to avoid hanging, as they originally committed the devilish act, are forced to endure the test of The Crucible. The word “crucible” does not appear anywhere within Miller’s dramatic play, yet this noun remains the underlying reason of each characters triumphant or defeated conclusion. A crucible is a metal container (Salem) in which

Fear is perhaps the strongest force within humans- something that is an undeniable influence on our decision making process, whether those decisions may be major or minor. Fear comes into play both consciously and subconsciously; both practically and non practically; it is not always 100% apparent but it is the drive behind so much more of our thought process than we actually realize. This is not only human nature but the nature of animals, too. It is a force we cannot escape, whether is comes in reflexes or is something we avidly dwell on, so we’ve instead explored and embraced the wonders of this thing called fear.

Stopping Panic One of America’s greatest plays is “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is based off of the true events of the Salem Witch Trials, which caused mass hysteria all throughout Salem; However, it was a satire that explained the hysteria during Arthur Miller’s time known as the “Red Scare”. During this satire, he uses characters that had real-life counterparts to explain how mass hysteria, which is exaggerated and uncontrollable emotions of fear, to show how people of his day were doing the same things and how they needed to stop it before it got worse. In the play, two characters who could have stopped the hysteria that plagued Salem were Abigail Williams and Reverend Hale. One character that could have stopped the hysteria was Abigail Williams.

Since the citizens of Salem are very religious, Hale’s reasoning is deemed logical, thus, Hale creates hysteria and intolerance through religion. However, later when Elizabeth lied to the court to protect John’s reputation, Hale claimed, “Excellency, it is a natural lie to tell... I may shut my conscience to it no more—private vengeance is working through this testimony!” (Miller 1091). Elizabeth violated the Ninth Commandment by lying, but Hale still supported her because Hale realized that the world is not simply black and white like the Ten Commandments.

Reverend Parris was a greedy, selfish man who went to extreme lengths to save his reputation and job claiming he was seeking help for the sake of his daughter who lay unconscious due to witchcraft. When his daughter awakes she joins a group of girls who were originally found in the woods together. Reverend Parris describes the majority as “ all innocent and Christian people are happy for the courts in Salem! These people are gloomy for it.” ( The Crucible pg.87).

The Crucible Essay The theme of hysteria is evident throughout Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and in everyday life and society. Driven by self-preservation, hysteria influences many characters’ actions and leads to the devastating witch trials in Salem. For instance, many characters in The Crucible are driven to execute drastic actions to sustain their reputation and protect themselves.

The Crucible Literary Analysis The theme in a story is the concealed message that the author is trying to portray. The theme can be compared to a baby crying. Sometimes it is obvious as to why the baby is crying, but often times it is a mere thinking situation. The baby cannot tell you why it is crying or what he/she wants.

Fear that spread among a group of people in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials, that event in history is a prime example of Mass Hysteria. In Salem the reason why so many women were killed was because of Mass Hysteria. It caused many people, in Salem during this event to think fast, rash and jump to conclusions. “The Crucible”, a short play dedicated to these events in Salem shows us how hysteria was such a leading cause of why the Witch Trials had even occurred. Reverend Hale, Abigail Williams and Judge Danforth.

Hale highly suggests that Danforth “must hear the case” (40) because he convinced that the group of girls are lying about being bewitched. Now that Reverend Hale is on John Proctor’s side, he can exert his influence on the court. He shows his allegiance to John by trying to save his reputation in the town and by continuously trying to convince Danforth to listen to Proctor. Ever since Hale knew the truth, he has sought to fix the wrong doings of the

The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is a story based off of a lot of main characters and scenes. The story itself is based off the salem witch trials hence the story is in the town of salem. The three categories of this story was mass hysteria where people believe things and all join in. Group think is how people together make decisions based on ideas in the group.

This shows the fear of being accused. The court possess a different point of view on witchcraft. Miller explains that it is not feared, but is repulsed. The members of the court often speak about witchcraft in anger or astonishment.