Hysteria In The Crucible

When a community gets so caught up and engulfed in the hysteria surrounding them they will be ravaged and ripped apart. In the Crucible Arthur Miller shows the effects of terror on the town of Salem Massachusetts by showing the role that hysteria has in deconstructing a person's common sense and ability to recognize what is true and what is a lie. The town of Salem is entirely consumed by the effects of hysteria surrounding witchcraft. Hysteria put a fog over their eyes and had the townspeople and the court believing that their neighbors, the people they have known their whole lives, were capable of witchcraft.

Hysteria is a powerful force that can lead to the persecution of innocent individuals and the destruction of entire communities. As Jureidini and Taylor note, "hysteria is a social phenomenon in which anxiety, fear, and uncertainty spread rapidly and uncontrollably through a group or population" (Jureidini and Taylor 278). In The Crucible, this hysteria is fueled by a combination of religious fanaticism and the desire for power and control. The consequences of this hysteria are devastating, as innocent individuals are accused of witchcraft and subjected to punishment, including death. This play demonstrates how hysteria can lead to a breakdown in rational thinking and a disregard for justice and the rule of law.

Throughout history there have been instances where individuals inflicat chaos to gain their desires. The dramatic play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller was written in the 1950s but takes place in the last 1600s during the Salem witch trials. These trials are notorious for the public hysteria it caused and drew out. Due to individuals greed and deception many innocent were accussed and sentenced to death for witch craft. This only subsisted the hysteria and caused several unjust deaths.

Abigail was the whole reason any of the drama in Salem started, she was caught dancing in the forest, and accused of witchcraft soon later. With this accusation and the whole town of Salem focused in on the case Abigail had quite that platform that was willing to hear what she had to say, but instead of setting the record straight she danced around the truth and fled before anything bad could happen to her. “Thirty-one pound is gone. I am penniless. ”(Miller act IV para 74).

What Truly Caused the Salem Witch Trial Hysteria. On the Merriam Webster Dictionary website hysteria is defined as “a situation in which many people behave or react in an extreme or uncontrolled way because of fear,anger,etc. ”This is the exact same thing that happened in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible which is based off of the Salem Witch Trial hysteria. What truly caused the hysteria within the play and in the actual Salem Witch Trial can be multiple things

The amount of hysteria that Aruther Miller expresses through his characters in the crucible is more than relevant to what was going on at the time. Aruther Miller shows hysteria through many characters throughout the story. The characters I choose to focus on are Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Elizabeth Proctor. The ways that he includes hysteria helped show the public how they were treating people at that given time. One of the characters Miller chooses to cause hysteria is Abigail Williams.

Aiden Sanderson Mrs Ritchey CP English II 16 June 2023 Many different stories share common themes, such as the search for gratification, inescapability of death, meaning of life, sense of curiosity, and inevitability of isolation. Mass hysteria is an outbreak of lots of people at the same time, usually having mental symptoms come along with it, mainly being fear, anxiety, and depression. In The Crucible and Night, everyone is hysterical about World War II and the Salem Witch Trials. The theme of mass hysteria reveals itself through the trials and feelings of the villagers in The Crucible and the reactions and feelings of the inmates in the camps and death marches in Night. Mass hysteria occurred in Salem due to the trials, this made everyone think they were going to be arrested and killed, and

The Crucible is a commentary on the dangers of mass hysteria and the importance of individual morality in times of

Reverend Hale bought into the idea that witchcraft is afoot, and would say things like: “[n]o man may longer doubt the powers of the dark are gathered in monstrous attack upon this village” and even claims that there is “too much evidence now to deny it”. (Miller 64). The evidence he is referring to is “the ocular proof, what he believes he has seen, which drives Hale’s investigations”. (Tredell 90). All of the ocular proof he is referring to was not proof at all, and nothing more than an act by Abigail and the other girls.

Hysteria is when there is uncontrollable excitement or exaggeration. This is relevant to The Crucible in the way that when witchcraft was first “confirmed” to be in Salem everybody went into hysteria and mass panic and accused people of witchcraft left and right. This is also what occurred when communism was found in America. In Act Two we find out from Mary Warren just how many people have been arrested because of the mass hysteria. Proctor: “Mary.

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.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the 17th century Salem Witch Trials to reflect the dangers of mass hysteria. Hundreds of years later, the fear of terrorism in Americans has spurred a similar reaction of mass hysteria. People don’t realize how dangerous mass hysteria can be and how it can affect everyone. It all starts from a rumor or an actual occurrence that people take upon themselves to act on it. Then in turn leads to mass hysteria which is where a group of people believe that something bad is happening.

Abigail thought that Reverend Hale began to disbelieve her claims, so she accused his wife. By including this scene, it exaggerates the ongoing theme of mob mentality in The Crucible. Everyone is accusing each other of witchcraft for past or present conflicts between one another, to gain the land of the accused, and even accusing to just join in on the fad of witches. It also presents how immoral Abigail’s character actually is. Just like how selfish Parris is, Abigail only thinks of herself, not caring how her actions affected others.

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.

Imagine a world where a group of of girls manipulate a town with their words and actions. In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, several Puritans are falsely accused of dancing with the devil. Many who were accused, sacrificed others in order to save themselves and many innocent lives were taken. In The Crucible, several aspects of the Puritan worldview such as the fear of the unknown and the abuse of power contributed to the mass hysteria.