Hysteria In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

The Crucible is a 1953 play written by Arthur Miller. It is amplified and somewhat novelized story of the Salem witch trials. Miller wrote the play as a parable to the McCarthyism persecution of communist sympathisers. In this play, a group of Puritan girls are found dancing and conjuring with the devil in the forest. Soon the whole village of Salem knows about the dancing and starts accusing people of witchcraft.

Whoever was responsible for this outrage must be brought to justice.” They believed the people had to be put under a curse to become a witch. Nobody knew why these young girls were acting weird but they needed an answer. These two girls could no longer be left alone by their selves without an adult or some type of guardian.

Those who would admit to being a witch would go to jail, but for those who denied having interaction with the devil would have been trialed and hung, so really, anyway you put it it’s a lose-lose situation. Things like politics, religion, imaginations, and fear of people were just some of the main factors of what aided people into believing that Satan was upon the town of Salem. They believed that the humans were with devil and doing as he said which in turn gave them the power to harm others. One girl named Tituba was trying to save herself by confessing to witchcraft. She didn’t just confess but she also accused many other women about being witches and she said that they all were in the “hands of Satan”.

The most acknowledgeable dispute from the play was between the Putnam’s and the Nurse’s. Rebecca Nurse was blamed for the death of all of Ann Putnam’s children, except for one. The events also caused numerous people to be convicted of witchcraft, some of them being executed. Two of the most notable people convicted in the play were John Procter, condemned for adultery and later hung, and Tituba, who confessed, saving her own life.

There be thirty-nine now” (Miller, Act II). Fourteen women in the first place was a lot, and then suddenly, it raised to thirty-nine. So many women were arrested for witchcraft, but it is not possible that so many people were doing something that was illegal. Everyone was so terrified of witchcraft, they starting accusing people at

“Rather than try people in the order they were arrested, the court started with the accused with the strongest cases against them” (“The Salem Witch Trials, scholarly articles). This was the concept in how the court charged the cases of each victim. The judges only listened to the girls that lies and just kill everyone that was accused, making the trials unfair. The trials were biased because it all started when a slave, Tituba, was accused of witchcraft. As a slave, she could not defend herself.

Her main target to incriminate was Goody Proctor, but she had to delicately choose people before Goody Proctor. “I saw Goody Booth with the devil” (Act 1) She’s starting to build up her lies to increase her credibility with the court and the village. Each victim she blames strengthens her position of being innocent. To have her fiction be more convincing she threatens the girls tangled in this to lie with her. “I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you’ (Act 1) Exposing how far she will go and how manipulative she is with the girls knowing Abigail would not hesitate to falsely accuse them too and is now controlling them.

Acknowledging that most women in the witch trials were falsely accused of using magic to harm others, many feared for their lives as punishment would mostly lead to death. Governed cases favoured this issue through committing to personal interest instead of evaluating the individuals benefit. Optimizing the feeling of helplessness most victims were committed to pursue the witch trails given in order to confess. Following through one of the dialogues, we can determine that in Tituba’s case the responsiveness of the trail moreover shows the commitment of deny as for being the first accused woman to confess to witchcraft. Being the primitive confession, we can make assumptions that the court carried out an underlying statement hindering the emotional state of the person being implicated.

Mary desperately wants to tell the truth because she believes their punishment will be less severe if they are truthful. Because of this Abigail threatened her and the other girls, saying they will not tell the truth, so the girls decide to use the two afflicted girls to their advantage and claim witchcraft. Their claim of witchcraft leads to an entire mess of people being falsely accused. John Proctor knows that the girls are lying but doesn't do anything about it until his wife is arrested. Whereupon he forces Mary Warren to tell him the truth and say that she will tell the truth to the court to save all of the innocent people.

Summary of The Crucible and The Theme of Rumours, Lies and Prejudices The Crucible is a story written by Arthur Miller based on the Salem witchcraft trials, take place in a small Puritan village in Massachusetts in 1692. It mostly about rumours, lies and prejudices mostly presented by the main character ; Abigail William who made her own town in panic and confusion. People were afraid of witches and crazy about it, thus, a lot of guiltless people were accused and suspected of being witches. The story started by a group of girls led by Abigail and Tituba the Barbados woman dancing and making witchcraft in the forest at night. They were trying to make something superstitious that can make someone they want love them, but they were incidentally found by Reverend Parris; uncle of Abigail and master of Tituba.

Around the time of the witch trials, the people in Salem were very religious. Rumors were easily spread and it was nearly impossible to prove yourself innocent if people were talking about you otherwise. During the witch hysteria, innocent people were imprisoned and and executed because someone has accused them of being a witch. It is understandable that some would accuse others to save themselves from imprisonment or from possible death. However, I believe Abigail should be held responsible for the imprisonment and execution of innocent people because she threaten the girls, so they would act bewitched and she also lied about getting stabbed by a needle and making it look like as if Elizabeth Proctor did it with witchcraft.

Both events involve a mass hysteria that leads many innocent people being accused of something they did not take part in. For example, the witch trials accused blameless women of practicing dark magic while McCarthyism accused hundreds of following communism. Both also have a person or group that leads the act. This shows how mindless humans can actually be. The Crucible expresses this trait by telling a story of the Salem witch trials.

People were so full of fear that they would do anything to eliminate their anxiety. The McCarthy hearings of the 1950s reenacted the hysteria of the Salem witch trials of 1692 by spreading mass fear of prosecution, creating false accusations, and blacklisting people. The Salem witch trials were considered to be America 's most notorious episode of witchcraft hysteria. Many innocent people were killed as a result of false accusations, and many other women were put through trials to determine if they were witches. All of the evidence that was given, in other circumstances, would be deemed unreasonable.

During the witch trials, the accused were interrogated and forced to plead guilty of witchcraft or die. Most pleaded guilty just to save their life, but they were also forced to give up the names of other “witches”. Blaming others could also direct the blame from the accused to someone else, this way the accused could escape the pain and shame of being called a witch. In Cotton Mather Biography, it is stated that, “As the trials progressed, and growing numbers of person confesses to being witches.” This portrays the on going snowball effect of blaming other people of witchcraft. This is also depicted in the McCarthy hearings, for accused communists were pressured to give up the other communists.

In conclusion, the characters of Thomas Putnam and Abigail Williams influenced and shaped the Salem Witch Trials. Abigail Williams and Putnam started the first accusations which led to widespread fear of witchcraft in the village. This same fear was exploited by Williams and Putnam in order to achieve their selfish motives. Without these characters, the Salem Witch Trials might have never occured which brings us to realize how much damage vengeance and wealth can cause. All in all, Abigail Williams and Thomas Putnam’s grudges and selfish intentions were what caused Salem Witch Trials and the destruction of several innocent