Fear in The Crucible Fear plays an important role in the play The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller. Fear motivated the accusers and accused in the play like Abigail Williams, John Proctor, and Mary Warren. Abigail Williams was really scared in the beginning of the play because she was drinking blood in the woods well all the other girls watched and danced. Another one of her fear was getting convicted by the court so she kept lying to the court so she would not get in trouble. She also wanted to get rid of Elizabeth proctor to have john all to herself. John Proctor's fears one of John's biggest fear was losing his wife to hanging and getting in trouble for being a witch and he knows she's not. Another one is when Abigail is accusing
Think for one moment, you’re in a situation where you need to make a decision that you have no idea of what the future is going to bring you. Most people tend to have fear when it comes to situations like this. A better understanding is that fear can be inflicted into the mind of individuals and severely affect them and manipulate them . This might seem unusual but, this reason states otherwise. In the play “The Crucible” the author, Arthur Miller, implies that fear can have a dramatic effect on society.
In The Crucible, Aurthur Miller illustrates, and suggests how fear of losing someone leads to atrocious and vicious acts. It all starts when Abigail gets caught for performing witchcraft. In this time Salem was Puritan, they were full of fear in the devil, and would kill anyone who was apart of it. Abigail's behavior in the woods lead her to be scared of the other girls she was with to betray her and her name being blackened.
Fear is something everyone has no matter how strong they may present themselves. Fear is an emotion that becomes a threat because of something in ones life that was approached unordinary. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, fear is such a powerful feeling that gives huge impacts on people. For example, Abigail and Judge Danforth. Fear causes them to lie in order to protect themselves.
“Don’t touch me - don’t touch me! [...] You’re the Devil's man! [...] I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God. [...]
Abigail Williams, the girl who started all of this madness, used this hysteria to get revenge on John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth. John and Abigail had an affair together and Elizabeth found out. Elizabeth then fired Abigail from being their servant to protect her and her husband’s marriage. Abigail wanted revenge, so she made plans to get rid of Elizabeth to have John all to herself. Abigail even says to Parris’ daughter Betty,“…let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a point reckoning that will shudder you” (1137).
One sin that can be linked to the downfall in both The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter is pride. In Miller’s play, the theme of pride influences the character of John Proctor dramatically. While he wishes to save the lives of his friends and wife, Proctor refuses to confess to conspiring with the Devil. When he confesses to his crimes, Proctor is told that it will hang on the doors of the church, which he responds: “I have given you my soul; leave me my name” (Miller 294)! Proctor is risking his life on his reputation by not confessing to his sin of witchcraft.
Fear can lead to many things. It may lead to you making harsh decision and be very closed minded. But overall, our fear can blind society from the truth and keep them from getting justice. We see most of this in many cases. We mostly saw this occur in the book The crucible by Arthur Miller, the Central Park five and as well with McCarthyism.
Miller uses children as a truth hidden behind a lie as some believe they live in a world of virtue. They were chosen to be the main accusers for their “purity,” their sense of judgement of witchcraft, and their sadistic actions that are considered untrustworthy and unrealistic. He intends to use it as a way to reveal the reality of children and their poor judgement within the play. “...I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil!
Abigail Williams and the girls is responsible for the deaths of the people who were wrongly convicted and hanged. Also Danforth has some of the blame for this situation as well. However, the girls are the ones who started this situation because the book explains, “Mr. Parris said, “That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest,” (6). In Salem, the rules are to not go through the woods and dances. Now people think that they are doing witchcraft.
What is fear? Fear is an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief of someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain or threat. In my own words fear is a feeling people get when someone is going to kill them. But not all fear is bad because some people feel fear differently How is fear used in “The Crucible” ?
Throughout history the fear of corruption and change has compelled people to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The Crucible, a play by arthur Miller, is set in an environment of religious citizens who fear that the devil and witchcraft will corrupt their society. Much like The Crucible, McCarthyism caused the citizens in America to fear corruption of the government by communism. Arthur Miller used his play the crucible as a direct response to McCarthyism and through this play Miller writes about the Salem witch trials during the McCarthy period to comment on how history repeats itself. The social and political factors in The Crucible resemble those in America during the red scare and McCarthyism.
Arthur Miller's The Crucible presents the mass hysteria known as the Salem Witch Trials, which can be related to the events following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a once faultless naval base in the United States. Just as in The Crucible Abigail caused the unjust imprisonment of nearly all of the members of the Salem community, Franklin D. Roosevelt also caused a mass hysteria when he used fear to encourage the United States to action following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This marked the beginning of Japanese internment where all Japanese people, including Japanese-Americans, were taken from their homes and relocated to isolated internment camps. Abigail's accusations on the people of Salem and Pres. Roosevelt's
Salem and the Fear within. As a middle aged man, Arthur Miller was forced to endure the horrendous scares throughout the Red Scare. These events inspired Arthur to create a novel consisting of fear and paranoia similar to that of the Red Scare; The finished product made by Miller is known as The Crucible.
“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: 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.