The Prevalence of Fear Fear is something that has always existed since the beginning of time. In ancient times the notion of fear allowed humans to survive and not be killed by predators. While in modern times, the fear of the unknown has restricted creative learning and progress. Fear is a double edged sword and fear is something that is still affecting the daily lives of countless people to this day. Fear is something that has allowed us as a society to advance while at the same time, we allow it to hold us back, which has got to change. In our current society, we tend to be incredibly risk averse. While this isn’t a horrible idea per say this is something that can still affect us. “One generation... could transform the world by bringing …show more content…
In The Crucible by Arthur Miller the concept of fear is apparent numerous times. This is firstly apparent in The Crucible when people start screaming “Witch!”. The masses of the town are afraid that they will be the one who has the blame turned on them, so they are fearful. This fear leads them to accuse others and starts an immense web of accusation in which all the people caught up in the web are innocent. One of the people caught up in this web is Mary. Mary then tries to free herself from the web, protesting in court that all the accusations are just a bunch of lies that the people manufacture up for their own preservation. Sadly, though she escapes the web she flies right back into it again. There is simply a horde of people supporting the web, turning what was once one thread into hundreds, giving everyone caught up in it no options. The most considerable showing of fear in my opinion is the judges in the story, who do not dare to say that they are wrong. Once they are siding with witchery, they stick to it even though it is an invisible crime, so you can only trust the witness and the accuser. They seem to choose the accuser larger amounts of the time and even if they realize that their ignorance of siding with the accuser is unjust, they do not care and do not want to soil their names. They are fearful that they will lose their reputation if
Today, in the world there are so many different types of societies that unite for numerous reasons. They can either be big or small, but no matter what, a society is a society that stays united. However, one of the many things that can destroy millions of a united group in a matter of seconds is the compelling emotion also known as, fear. People who are power hungry individuals, see fear as an easy and beneficial tactic to gain power. In both the Crucible by Arthur Miller and the Red Scare, it is clearly evident that fear does not unite but rather splits both of these societies.
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.
Humans are born to be afraid. A feeling of fear is only natural for humans to feel; it is a part of who we are. However, it can be more than just a feeling. Fear can be a weakness in humans even though it is only our natural instinct for survival. Sometimes, fear is so powerful that it can blur our rationality and dominate how we think and what we do.
The quote "Fear can prevail over reason so that fact and opinion become confused" by the mathematician and philosopher Thucydides speaks to the idea that when people are fearful, they may lose their ability to think rationally and differentiate between fact and opinion. This concept is central to Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, which depicts the events surrounding the Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts in the late 1600s. In Act III of The Crucible, fear is rampant in Salem as the court begins its hearings and trials to determine who is a witch. As a result of this fear, many characters, including some of the judges and accusers, lose their ability to reason and distinguish between fact and opinion.
“The Crucible” by Arthur Miller and The Red Scare share many characteristics. “The Crucible” describes the Salem Witch Trials. These trials were during a period of time where men and women were very rancorous so others feared to speak up because they would be accused of witchcraft and killed. Similar to Arthur Miller’s book, the Red Scare was a period of time in the late 40’s and 50’s in which United States citizens were intensely paranoid of an opposing threat of communism in Eastern Europe and Asia and ultimately communists infiltrating the United States. What the Red Scare and “The Crucible” have in common is that accusations of witchcraft or communism were false, people were blind to the truth, and the accusers weren’t very tactful and
Throughout the town of Salem, Massachusetts fear has spread. It has affected everyone in the town and has brought nothing but chaos. The people of Salem are becoming more scared and determined to hunt down every witch they can find. In The Crucible, fear is appeared as a negative trait since it makes the people act differently during this period of time. Abigail showed fear when she said that Tituba was a witch and was performing witchcraft.
Research Essay Fear can occur when a person has a feeling of threat or danger and sometimes harm or anxiety for oneself or another. Fear can often influence a person to take extreme measures and act irrationally. For instance there are a number of parallels between the treatment of of the accused during the Salem Witch Trials and the treatment of Muslims after 9/11 ; In both cases, people were being belittled and downgrading, and society was in a state of grief and shock and it all resulted in discrimination of the accused. Almost each person in Salem wanted vengeance for various reasons due to that people who were accused of witchcraft were constantly belittled and did not have a fair chances during the trials In Salem.
Death can be the greatest fear, as in the Puritan days, being accused of witchcraft meant death. In order to save her own skin, Warren turns on Proctor and accuses him of controlling her to overthrow the court. This slander is completely made up, but at that time the court will believe anything the victim has to say according to Danforth, and the Mary Warren has justified herself as a victim when accusing Proctor. Fear as seen in the Crucible plays a major part in controlling members of their Puritan society, to create accusations and slander towards people influencing drastic measures and actions. The Crucible
The Crucible, published in 1953 by Arthur Miller is a very popular book written about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. While most people use the book to study the Witch Trials, with closer examination it is easy to conclude that it is a direct allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era of 1950s America. An allegory is an extended metaphor in which the characters or objects in the story represent an outside meaning. The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era drastically by its plot, characters, and the flow and outcome of the court trials. To begin with, The Crucible is an allegory because the plot of the book closely resembles the events that occurred during the Red Scare.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” - Franklin D Roosevelt. Fear plays a major role for the tragic ending of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, because fear is upon the citizens of Salem, Massachusetts, it leads to unanticipated accusations, power, and hatred. This feeling, has occurred in everyone’s life at some point, which is more overpowering than some might think. Once hysteria arose about the girls dancing in the woods, due to all the fear it leads to unanticipated accusations, being a slave, Tituba was accused by Abigail to avoid any punishment.
The Crucible Fear has effected much of history. Many of these events in history are very similar. One of the biggest examples in history would be The Holocaust. An example would be the Salem witch trails which were depicted in the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The Crucible and The Holocaust are related because one person was to blame for the mass hysteria, there was one person in power, fear was used to control the people and many people were wrongly punished.
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.
People have traced fear all the way back to the beginning of civilization. Starting with Adam and Eve in the BIble , “tigers, and other animals that we now fear so much ... be victorious if determined not to yield; for God gives us ... not help sinning, he would be guilty of falsehood,”(Bible Hub). This shows that because of the sin that Adam and Eve made. They now have to fear their surroundings. Animals, weather, and the human inhabitants that will later dwell on the earth will be faced with threats and fears that all future generations will have to cope with.
Fear: A simple word, the mere sight of which, gives some of us goose bumps. We have all dealt with fear in our lives at some point. Whether we’re afraid of heights, speed, accidents or someone doing us harm, this is a feeling that has a big impact on our behavior, physical and mental health, thus it must be taken serious. Because of such negative emotions, we often sabotage ourselves, turn down opportunities, never experience certain things and in some cases develop disorders and illnesses. Most of the time it is up to us to change for the better but we lack the courage to actually try and face our fears.
There is no human who has not known fear. Perhaps not in the extreme stages that fear can attain, but we all possess this trait which must reside close to the soul of our existence. It can alter the very nature of our personalities and often the course of our life. The majority of us will experience the fear of death, of failure, of aging, the unknown and numerous other basic fears. Some people are consumed by minor fears, which most dismiss as irrelevant, but can have a serious impact on those so infected.