Public Hysteria In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

The crucible is a play based on a historical event that happened approximately 3 centuries ago. This plays talks about a small village (Salem) in Massachusetts that confronted a horrible event, witchcraft. Hysteria invaded people´s mind causing chaos around the village; their Puritan beliefs obligated them to do horrible things even if they did not wanted. Many people were condemned to prison, while others were hanged; the only way to save their souls was to confess their acts. Trials were made to many people that “supposedly” committed witchcraft; but, these trials were unfair.

Dramatic irony is created in the text through Danforth asking “Why did you dismiss Abigail Williams?”, and Elizabeth responding “She - dissatisfied me”(Miller. III.18.). This is an example of Dramatic Irony because the reader already knows that John has confessed to adultery, but Elizabeth doesn't so she lies in hopes of protecting his reputation. Elizabeth's attempt in maintaining John’s Power caused her and John to both have bad reputations, and resulted in John being out on death row. from this, more chaos in the community is created because of more deaths of significant characters, leaving the town to run with orphans and rotting from lack of order.

The Salem Witchcraft Trials had many effects on the town of Salem, Massachusetts. A lot of the effects were negative, destroying the community, government, even individuals. The Witch Trials affected the community of Salem in multiple ways. The witch trials created many tensions between several families in the town. The most acknowledgeable dispute from the play was between the Putnam’s and the Nurse’s.

Judge Danforth’s unwavering egotism culminates in the unfortunate deaths of Salem townsfolk. Arthur Miller’s classic play The Crucible demonstrates how the actions of one person can affect many others. Judge Danforth cares more about his own reputation than what is right. Often times people try to think of what is right instead of saving their own face, Judge Danforth is an exception to this stereotype. The Salem Witch Trials were a horrible time where many people lost their lives due to an unjust court system.

In the play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, fear, jealousy and greed play a significant role in the Salem witchcraft hysteria. What possessed so many Salem townspeople to accuse their friends and neighbors of performing unexplainable actions upon innocent lives? Many based their claim on the feelings they had for their neighbors. Those feelings may have been hatred, or even love for them. Individuals then began to fear what so many were pushing to be the truth, they feared for their lives and safety of their family's.

Intolerance is important in The Crucible because it demonstrates how fast people’s attitudes and beliefs can change due to an event taking place in their town. Judges Hathorne and Danforth exhibit intolerance towards the people being trialed. If somebody spoke of another person performing witchcraft, the judges would not tolerate it and had that person thrown in jail even if there was no evidence to back up the statement. They were definitely substituting a role of unjustifiable reasoning. Miller uses intolerance to show that the people of Salem, especially the judges, were narrow minded and wanted everything to go their way.

It last theory is that the afflicted girls accused the victims because they wanted revenge, but it is unlikely for children to hold a grudge with so many people. Most of the accusers came from high families, “Was some of the witch hunting the result of that big fight between Reverend Parris and the members of his congregation who refused to pay his salary”(- Schanzer 113)? Could it be that the parents of the accusers were malicious and fervently wanted to purposely cause their enemies to be condemned to death. It is quite a possibility due to the fact that people were not as friendly with each other as they are today. “But in the trials, neighbors also testified against neighbors, bringing up grievances as a way of getting revenge”(-Spiritual Travels).

As a result, people begin to blame witchery on others whom they have vengeances with. These actions result in many well, respected people's execution. A prime example of a character who goes through this process is John Proctor. The court of Salem tests John Proctor by threatening him to confess in exchange for his life. This brings out many of his weaknesses and strengths.

Much of what happens in Salem still resembles some things we see in society today. The word of one man can change people’s ideas and images of another without conclusive evidence. What people fear the most can sometimes bind us together, even if it is not

The Crucible by Arthur Miller is a play full of suspense and suspicion. Many people involved in the Salem witch trials died because of vengeance which is amplified by many groups. Problems arose when people began to choose sides. In the Crucible, the conflicts of the play illustrate the power of a crowd mentality to influence the actions of people.

In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller many characters turn on each other accusing them of witchcraft. Many people are getting hung by these false accusations, and the town is chaotic due to this. In the play The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows that characters are motivated and will stop at nothing to get what they want. Miller shows this through the accusations made by Thomas Putnam, Judge Danforth, and Mary Warren.

Because of a servant telling the children of the town of sorcery and the devil, they began to believe what they had heard. The town was scared of the “possessed” people, thinking that killing them would stop the problem. Sadly, over 24 men, women and children died because they were assumed to have possessed by the devil. Bridget Bishop was the first accused and was hung on June 10, 1692. Many followed, until the court overruled the judgement of the mayor.

Religiousness brought out fearfulness and strictness among others, these all stirred up mischief among the Puritans. People were always worried about someone spying on them or others being a witch. The fearfulness is what caused the strictness. The town feared witches and so they brought out strict laws against any actions. The town people had to obey the rules or else they could be discriminated against.

The growth of hysteria in America exemplifies people’s tendency to abuse newly-gained power and is supported by Americans’ intolerance of unpopular ideologies. During times of hysteria, one often show his or her true natures. Therefore, human nature can be most easily observed in such times. During times of hysteria, people exploited fear among the public to gain more power, which they abused.

In The Crucible by Aurthur Miller mass occured when it was believed that witchcraft was being used and the townspeople panicked. A curent event that caused mass hysteria was the bomb threat in December 2015 to the LAUSD districts. In THe Crucible , Betty would not wake up after playing in the woods with many women. Reverend Parris,Betty's father, claims that the women who were out in the woods were doing witchcraft for he saw a pot with animals in it and tahat Betty was chanting.