Examples Of Hysteria In The Crucible

Cases of mass hysteria have been recorded all over the globe and throughout the years. One such case was that of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, where various people were tried and convicted for witchcraft. These were the basis on which Arthur Miller wrote his play, The Crucible. Accordingly, there are many instances of mass hysteria throughout the play. The mass hysteria exhibited in the play can be described as anxiety and unusual behavior in a group of people caused by an “abnormality” with no real backing. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller exhibits multiple examples of mass hysteria and demonstrates the factors and effects related with it by using characters like Abigail Williams and Judge Danforth, as well as his own personal connection

Subsequently, he used his own life experience as an inspiration to write about the happenings of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. Steve Hendrix states as such when he wrote, “One of those he would accuse, playwright Arthur Miller, would finally draw the circle from Sen. Joseph McCarthy all the way back to zealot judges of Salem with his acclaimed parable drama, ‘The Crucible’” (Hendrix). This reveals that Miller wrote the play as a sort of protest, writing about the “witchcraft” in Salem in The Crucible to express the similarities between those proceedings and the ones during 1952 when he released the play. This background gave Miller the capacity to create a realistic atmosphere of malaise in The Crucible and allowed him to reference his current injustices by using characters and situations in his work as an image of McCarthy and McCarthyism: this gave him the liberty to voice the effects of these inequities. Miller expressed his demurrals by creating parallels between Judge Danforth and Senator McCarthy. This can be seen when Miller writes, “I will not receive a single plea for pardon or postponement ... Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part” showcasing that both Danforth and McCarthy manipulated the evidence and

Hollywood has beenis notorious for its breeding and objectification of women, therefore it came as no surprise when a flurry of sexual assault allegations surfaced in the industry. As allegations came to light, hysteria spread as people called out for action against the accused without any assurance that the suspicions were truthful. Even though many of these allegations have been proven to be truthful, there are still some who stem from no real occurrence and only serve to hurt a person’s reputation and belittle their influence. For this reason, some actors like Liam Neeson consider the overflowing amount of sexual allegations that have surged in the industry as a kind of “witch hunt” for the remorseless consequences they bring, like in the case of Garrison Keillor who lost his job following sexual assault allegations (Guardian). Homologous to The Crucible, the testimonies of victims of sexual assault are more esteemed and trusted than that of the accused because it is not commonly thought that one would offer themselves to the scrutiny that a lawsuit would bring just for blasphemies. The power of the victim in low-evidence crimes is displayed when John Proctor says, “Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? … I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem— vengeance is walking Salem …