How Does Arthur Miller Present Hysteria In The Crucible

In 1953, playwright Arthur Miller took inspiration from the unfolding Red Scare- an era of inflated panic over the perceived threat of communist infiltration- to write his play titled “The Crucible”. Having lived through the frenzy surrounding the communist accusations, Miller understood the importance of conveying the dangers such hysteria poses to the maintenance of a functioning society. While Miller based the play on historic events, he never claimed complete accuracy, instead including a preface addressing the revisions he made and why. Miller’s intent was never to provide a strictly accurate depiction of the Salem witch trials; he wanted to provide a parable for McCarthyism, using the dramatization of events to warn Americans of the destructive potential of hysteria. Therefore, it can be discovered that while Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” accurately portrays fear and hysteria in terms of a fear of persecution, his depictions prove predominantly inaccurate, exaggerating mob mentality and neglecting to emphasize the true magnitude of a fear of the Devil.

In “The Crucible”,

He depicts fears as stemming largely from a fear of persecution and the perpetuation of mob mentality, which he inflates; however, Miller chooses to neglect the primary cause for panic, Salem’s fear of the devil, choosing to portray it as unimportant compared to the aforementioned fears. Critics conclude that Miller morphs aspects of history due to his own experiences; the hysteria surrounding the Red Scare caused Miller and his peers to lose much, and by emphasizing mob mentality in a story reeking of moral injustice, Miller conveys his desperate warning to all the peoples of America; that nobody is safe from the destructive nature of hysteria, and the path through adversity is best taken