Mental Illness In The Crucible

The people brought in a doctor, but he could not find out what the problem was. It was concluded that there was a witch that caused her to be ill. People in Salem prayed and fasted to try to rid themselves of the devil’s influence. The worry of this spread rapidly throughout by word of mouth. People were brought before the girls to decide who the witch was that caused their illnesses.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 in Massachusetts are historically known as the tragic event where many people were accused of witchcraft and 19 of those innocent individuals were found guilty and then executed. These individuals were accused by a group of young girls that claimed that they were ‘bewitched"or possessed by the devil. These girls were experiencing symptoms such as hallucinations, convulsions, etc. Doctors then could not diagnose this, so they turned to blame it on witchcraft. In 1976, Linnda Caporael, who is a historian, developed a theory that ergot poisoning was the cause of the Salem Witch Trials.

Ultimately, I believe that the Salem Witch Trials’ main cause was mass hysteria and paranoia among the group. I can predict this, because in Exhibit A, Cotton Mather states, “ I will prove that Witchcraft exists. Those who deny it exists argue that they never saw any witches, therefore there are none.” I believe this is strong evidence supporting the over exaggeration of most people towards the trials and how hysterical people can become towards an unrealistic assumption like witches and witchcraft. Another piece of evidence supporting mass hysteria as the cause of the trials would be in Exhibit B, where Abigail Hobbs a 16 year old girls pleads guilty.

In the play called The Crucible by Miller talks about people being accused of being witches. In a small town in Massachusetts people were getting accused of being witches. Many people were not a witch but they the people did not believe them. They ended up killing the all the people who was accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch Trial of 1692 was caused by lying girls, jealous people, and people who more power than the others.

The other theory that they had for the “witches” is that they were suffering from epilepsy. In January 1962 when the group of young girls who were known as the “afflicted girls” after they had played the fortune game, after that they were acting very strangely. They were starting to feel some type of symptoms, a lot of the girls would start to feel very sick, and they would get fevers and the strange part is that they would hide under furniture. In the town of Salem, they didn’t believe in anything else all that they would believe is that were controlled by the devil and, they had become witches. There was nothing that was going to convince the people in the town to believe that they weren't witches after they saw that the girls started to get symptoms about getting sick and acting very strange, they were certain that they were taken by the devil and became witches.

The trials took place in 1692 when a small group of girls fell ill, becoming privy to hallucinations and seizures without any medical reason. In the overly religious community of Puritans, such random occurrences were often attributed to acts of the devil or his minions. This uncaused illness spread among countless young girls and furthered fears of witchcraft in the community. Eventually, the afflicted girls in order to escape blame accused the other residents of Salem of consorting with the devil. This

Once someone was accused of being a witch, it was very difficult to convince everyone that they weren’t. “Persons who scoffed at accusations of witchcraft risked becoming targets of accusations themselves” (Linder 18). If someone was accused of being a witch, no matter what they said to negate the accusations, they were going to be in the trials and if someone had supported one who was accused, they were also under suspicion and put in trials. This started a snowball effect of people being accused, leading to the Salem Witch trials. Many unfortunate events occurred leading up to the Salem Witch trials.

The news of these “symptoms” led to the epidemic of mass hysteria in Salem. The belief that people were witches rapidly grew in the village to the point where no one was

Not only had that, but everything during that time taken a downfall. People lost faith in God which caused multiple churches to close. Nobody walked the streets in fear of catching this plague. In Society today, we do a better job informing people about the latest outbreaks and diseases. Back then we didn’t have the research to sure up what certain things were and what to do to stop something.

The never-ending sway of human nature Bloody cheers fill the street, glazing the air with a fervor rarely seen: the witch hunt has begun. In Arthur Miller’s gripping tale titled The Crucible, he retells the story of the Salem witch trials - all while twisting truths to make the events fit into what was occurring in the present. But what he had written as a showcase of the madness ensuing at the time of writing, the themes present within still hold a flame within events happening today. In short, the Crucible details the events of the trials held for the 'witches' – beginning with the girls who got caught dancing in the woods.

Jonathan Coy Mr.Glorfield English 11A 16 December 2022 America and The Crucible Americans have been called many things entitled: self-righteous, easily offended, and much more. They have also been called many good things, like innovative courageous and ready to try new things. Back in the early days of America, Salem was a town much like you’re average American town. It was in Salem that the fear of witchcraft breaks out. Due to fear and unrest, many people unjustly got hanged and prosecuted for witchcraft.

There are plenty of effects of anxiety that people may feel. As shown, the most commonly effects are depression, anger and being an introvert. In the play, Parris reacted angrily due to the fact that he was scared of having witchcraft around since it will cause his people to drive him out of town. Throughout the play many people reacted to witchcraft with agression which caused a mass hysteria, and countless executions and hangings. Even though in the end of the story abigail, who is responsible for the deaths of innocent people accused of witchcraft left town John proctor still ended up dying from her evil act.

The population was highly influenced by West Indian slaves’ superstitions and tales. While this was happening, the slave Tituba, was in Samuel Parris’ house, who was the Salem minister of the time. She started telling them about witches and devil-related stories and tales. Specially telling them to Betty Parris and Abigail Williams, Samuel’s daughter and niece. These girls were starting to believe this stories little by little until one day, they came to the conclusion that two other women and themselves, were possessed.

Blaming Anyone for Craziness (A Discussion on Arthur Miller’s Crucible) A controversial topic that has come up in several conversations while discussing Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible, is the question of who is to blame for the mass hysteria which takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. There are several answers that people automatically jump to, that I do not necessarily consider wrong, for example Abigail. I do not disagree with that assumption, but I also don’t believe that she is entirely to blame for the craziness which overtook the small town.

Imagine being a wealthy 45-year-old woman in 1692 being accused of being a witch. The Salem Witch trials were caused by jealousy, fear, and lying. People believed that the devil was real and that one of his tricks was to enter a normal person 's body and turn that person into a witch. This caused many deaths and became a serious problem in 1692. First of all, jealousy was one of the causes of the Salem witch trials.