Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

Fear has become part of humanity as humans evolve over time. Since the beginning of time humans have always been feared of the unknown. This fear of the unknown 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 such as the Puritans in Salem. The famous play The Crucible by Arthur Miller demonstrates this mass hysteria which has led people of Salem in wrongful accusations and death of twenty individual citizens of Salem for witchcraft.

Mass hysteria cases have been reported many times throughout history and have continued to occur even in the modern world. In “Mass Hysteria in Upstate New York” by Ruth Graham, the author states that many cases of Tourette’s-like symptoms that had occurred in LeRoy Junior-Senior High School was not as a result of the “derailment that dumped cyanide… in LeRoy in 1970” (1). Instead, Graham specifically accuses mass hysteria for the origination of the symptoms similar to those of Tourette’s. The incident at LeRoy Junior-Senior High School provided many parallels to mass hysteria. The author claims that the victims of mass hysteria “are overwhelmingly female” (2).

Many of the symptoms listed, though, are easily faked. Symptoms listed during the Trials are easily faked: hallucinations, prickling skin (Caporael), and imitation of the accused (Weller, 30:40-30:55). The more severe symptoms can easily be explained by the extreme measures taken against the accusers and the accused. As seen in a scene of The Crucible, the people of the court are put through intense scenarios. Mary Warren is bombarded by questions and screaming to confess as Abigail and many of the girls deny the idea that they could be lying (Miller, pgs 46-49).

In The Crucible (1953), Arthur Miller illustrates how mass hysteria of “witches” blinds the truth of fake acts of sorcery destroying religious purpose with the government laws. Laws of religion were broken when a bunch of girls went into the forest and dances around preaching for their wishes to be true to a woman named Tituba. Tituba did “witchcraft” to these girls as Reverend Parris finds the girls dancing around. Reverend Parris took the girls home and tell to some people about their selfish acts in the woods. The girls acts were not correct as the girls state that they were bewitched by Tituba.

Mass Hysteria In the book “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the characters were strong believers of witches and witchcraft. What started off as a little lie, grew way out of portion, which can be blamed on a few specific characters. They caused the death of many innocent people that were falsely accused of being witches/doing witchcraft and/or working with the devil. The first major one being Abigail, she single handedly made all of the children afraid to speak about what happened in the woods.

The last, but not least example of why mass hysteria takes over this town is when at the end of act two John Proctor said, “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!” this quote shows that most of the things that are happening are because of vengeance, people are accusing people that no one likes in town in order to become powerful in the town, or to get rid of that people. Mass hysteria conducts people to believe that all people that is being accused are witches without even proving it or listening to what they say in their defense. for this reason hysteria caused the death of many innocent people, just because they were unfairly accused

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the play conveys the hysteria that took place in Salem in 1692. Although the play is fiction, Miller based the plot of his play on historical events and his characters show how paranoia and fear can escalate. There are many references to chronicle how the setting, Salem, is like a crucible. A crucible as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is a pot in which metals or other substances are heated to a very high temperature or melted, a difficult test or challenge and a place or as a situation that forces people to change or make difficult decisions. Appears akin to an authentically decent illustration for the bellicose hysteria that the little village of Salem contained amid the witch trials.

The Crucible, could the hysteria that played out in this intense and nerve racking story have been stopped by anyone? The truth is yes, the hysteria in Salem could have no doubt been stopped by two people in particular, Abigail Williams, and Judge Danforth. Here’s how these two individuals could have stopped the hysteria in Salem. Throughout the story it is seen that Danforth has a bit of an ego due to the reputation he has as a successful judge.

I think that the crucible begins some supernatural manifestation, but that is pure mass hysteria. At first They were summoning spirits, but later on, it was just an act. In the first scene, it says that Parris finds Betty, Tituba, Abigail, and other girls dancing in the forest. They all try to summon the devil and try to play it off. Abigail wanted Tituba to ask the devil because she wants Elizabeth, john proctors wife dead, but she doesn’t tell Parris.

In The Crucible, the young girls in the town lie about their actions in the woods, which cumulates into a witchhunt and the death of innocent people. The girls were only a small portion of the town, but as they continued to condemn their neighbors, the panic grew, and continued to grow as important people in the town pushed it. Arthur Miller reveals that mass hysteria is caused by a small part of the whole in The Crucible, and this concept is still relevant today as shown through the media and the refugee crisis. In The Crucible, Miller indicates that mass hysteria is caused by only a small portion of the whole society, but quickly spreads to encompass the whole of society.

Brook Mills Mrs. Brown English 10 11/03/15 Many individuals of Salem have to deal with everyday hysteria with many people accused of being a witch and being executed. Other than Abigail, three characters who are to blame for the hysteria in The Crucible are Judge Danforth, John Proctor, and Mary Warren. A character that contributed to the hysteria in The Crucible was Judge Danforth. He contributed to the hysteria because he sent men and women to be executed for no reason.

People assume that because someone is Islam or Muslim that they must be a terrorist, and they become weary of them to protect themselves. These situations demonstrate how permitting self-preservation to lead to hysteria causes destruction and hurt throughout the community. If not fixed, these situations will lead the destruction of the world. The theme of hysteria and self-preservation is evident throughout The Crucible and in real life.

The Spread of Hysteria in Salem In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, multiple factors fueled the hysteria leading up to the Salem witch trials, such as Abigail’s deceiving plots, Reverend Hale not establishing the truth, and citizens’ mindless accusations. Abigail is the most guilty of causing outbreaks of panic starting with dancing in the woods with other girls, then moving to framing Mary Warren with a doll, and fake acting out seeing otherworldly entities. One example of Abigail’s manipulation is when she stabbed herself with a needle to frame Mary Warren: “Stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draw a needle out” (176). Abigail also has a habit of accusing falsely and gets to girls to gang up during hearings, but everyone believes

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.

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.