The Crucible: Leadership Through Fear

Leadership Through Fear

Leadership through fear has been shown in many historical leaders. Someone who led through fear is Adolf Hitler. Hitler demonstrates this leadership style when he pinned the blame on the Jews and lead the Nazi party causing many innocent Jews to die. This is similar to Arthur Miller’s novel The Crucible because in the novel, Abigail Williams leads through intimidation and bullying. Miller argues that leadership through fear is the most effective leadership style, although it has some negatives.

Through the use of intimidation Abigail Williams controls all the other girls in town. Abigail Williams proves this when she is being questioned for dancing in the forest. She puts the blame on Tituba and this where all the accusations start, “Sometimes I wake and find myself standing in the open doorway and not a stitch on my body! I always hear her laughing in my sleep. I hear her singing her Barbados songs and tempting me with—” (Miller Act 1). Abigail falsely accuses Tituba of witchcraft and it demonstrates how the Salem witch trials are corrupted. This false accusation is still effective because it saves Abigail herself. Another example is when Abigail takes control of the girls in court. Abigail pretends to see a bird which the judges believe that it is allegedly Mary Warren’s spirit attacking them. Mary tries telling the judges that they were pretending, but Abigail’s plan caused

Abigail proves this in a couple of different ways. She shows how her leadership through intimidation is effective when she falsely accuses Tituba of witchcraft and when she pretends to see Mary Warren’s spirit in the courtroom. Abigail also shows how leadership through bullying can give too much power when she threatens Judge Danforth and the girls. Overall in the holocaust, Adolf Hitler remained his power for a decent amount of time because of his leadership through