ipl-logo

Examples Of How Following The Crowd Can Affect People In The Crucible

385 Words2 Pages

Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible connects to the article Why Do People Follow The Crowd by ABC news by providing examples of how following the crowd can affect people. Just like in the Crucible, Miller displays how fear can cause people to follow and make bad decisions. The article and the play both show how following the crowd can cause adverse responses. A good example of this is in the Crucible, a girl named Abigail who spreads a rumor about witches in her town which then gives rise to the belief that there are witches in the town being controlled by the devil. In the Article the speaker describes an experiment by a scientist named Berns where he observes the reactions of his subjects. What he discovered is that people actually

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Power Seekers In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

    262 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, a prominent conflict that ensues is the community versus power seekers. The story takes place at a time when people are living in a very closely knit community based on Puritan principles, and, consequently, prone to intolerance towards opposition or dissent. Not to mention, the whole town is involved, not simply one family whose drama might be representative of the plight of the community. In addition, such a rigid society implies that any form of individuality is considered dangerous. With a society this controlling, community members are more likely to act out and pursue personal interests.

    Read More

  • How Does Arthur Miller Use Groupthink In The Crucible

    592 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie, “The Crucible”, published in 1996 is a drama film that sets in Salem, Massachusetts in the year 1692 and tells the story of the Salem Witch Trials. The film documents a group of teenage girls, who are caught dancing in the woods conjuring love spells and are forced to lie that Satan had “conquered” them, shortly after, they begin to accuse several innocent individuals in the community of witchcraft. As the allegations spread, the community became increasingly paranoid as well as divided, additionally, many innocent people were prosecuted and put on trial. Remarkably, throughout the play Arthur Miller portrays the influence of groupthink, to demonstrate how a character can easily be influenced by society and changes one’s perspective on life.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

    782 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fear pushes people to do bad things, to better themselves, and to keep them safe. But sometimes this makes it worse for people around. Throughout history, there were many driving forces on what people had feared. This was through mass hysteria. In the story, “The Crucible,” by Arthur Miller, he was able to show this fear and hysteria being his driving force.

    Read More

  • Insanity In The Crucible

    984 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Selfishness In The Crucible

    491 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” (1953), it is shown that people seem to forget basic morals when dealing with mass hysteria. Puritans in the play do not want the devil or any other demonic figures such as witches in their community, they will go to great lengths, as far as turning their back on their own people to get rid of these demonic figures as shown in “The Crucible”. This idea of witches in the community caused chaos in the village which led to the deaths of 20 people in the village. Do people in the play not care about the consequences other people face because of their actions? In the play, loyalty falls far below self selfishness in the face of mass hysteria.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Fallacies

    1936 Words  | 8 Pages

    Communism—culminated in public hysteria over internal communist threats, efforts to contain communism, brinkmanship, advancement races, and other issues. Anything remotely socialist was marked as suspicious, and the public began to suspect not only one another but the government. Author Miller illustrates how logical fallacies create mass hysteria and cloud a society’s judgment; this is seen throughout the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible and in times of history, such as the Red Scare. The logical fallacy called faulty causality—falsely assuming the correlation between two events—creates baseless accusations and paranoia within the public during times of crisis. In The Crucible, Abigail uses the dangers of faulty causality to deceive the public.

    Read More

  • The Crucible And Scarlet Letter Essay

    1816 Words  | 8 Pages

    The Crucible by Arthur Miller and Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne are two stories that are based on mass hysteria and public shaming. Both stories and their topics are what helped to shape America’s early identity. In The Crucible, the townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious piety but also because it gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to act on long-held grudges”. This shows that there is mass hysteria in the story based on the quotation and its explain why people have mass hysteria or why they do it. A group of teenage girls is discovered dancing naked in the woods by the town minister.

    Read More

  • Essay Comparing The Crucible And Mccarthyism

    906 Words  | 4 Pages

    When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

    Read More

  • Mob Mentality In The Crucible

    751 Words  | 4 Pages

    Arthur Miller’s portrayal of a town in the midst of a downfall “The Crucible”, tells the story of how mob mentality and hysteria can significantly influence not only individuals but the whole town. This mob mentality leads to unthoughtful acts and false accusations. Two characters who demonstrate how mob mentality can lead to the demise of Salem are Abigail and Mary Warren. As Abigail begins to be accused she is pressured to deter from the truth. While Mary Warren gets pressured by Proctor to reveal the truth about Abigail, but the overwhelming pressure from the mob makes her turn from the truth.

    Read More

  • Social Pressure In The Crucible

    578 Words  | 3 Pages

    We all know peer pressure can make you do things, But Arthur Miller’s The Crucible shows us the extremes of social pressure and how it can make us do things we would never have thought of doing. One of the major themes in The Crucible is that popular belief causes you to act and operate differently than you would normally. Some examples of this is Mary’s behavior, the girls fainting, and Proctors struggle to not confess. One of the main examples of someone giving in to social pressure is when Mary Warren decides to convict Proctor and say he is working with the devil.

    Read More

  • How Is Abigail Corrupt In The Crucible

    692 Words  | 3 Pages

    Society as a whole seeks to satisfy themselves. This may be at the expense of their peers or individuals they are associated with. Arthur Miller brilliantly displays this dark side of humanity’s side in his play The Crucible. This play is based on the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. During the Salem witch trials over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed.

    Read More

  • What Is The Cause Of Hysteria In The Crucible

    1451 Words  | 6 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Fear In The Crucible

    819 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Crucible: How Fear Changes People During his first Inaugural Address, Franklin D. Roosevelt once announced, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Fear manipulates a persons rationality resulting in them behaving in ways they normally would not, especially in the story The Crucible written by Arthur Miller. The characters in The Crucible allow fear to manipulate their beliefs and actions. They all know what is right, but fear alters their mindset causing them to act differently.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

    852 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Crucible Mob Mentality Analysis

    665 Words  | 3 Pages

    More than 20 people were executed during the Salem Witch Trials between 1692 and 1693. The play The Crucibles written by Arthur Miller a historical fiction piece based on the Salem Witch Trials. The play shows the struggles of a small town with a big controversy with mob mentality and justice themes throughout the play. Mob Mentality or otherwise called Cult Mentality which is describing humans that have been influenced by their peers around them and move together as a whole or “herd”, they adopt such behaviors from the others apart of their group. Mob Mentality is shown in multiple parts of The Crucibles examples are when the girls are all dancing together in the woods taking part in the so called ritual which happens to be very much out

    Read More

More about Examples Of How Following The Crowd Can Affect People In The Crucible

Open Document