Throughout history, public hysteria has been conducted and exploited as a means to obtain power and control. People often fall prey to public hysteria and all that it entails. Oftentimes it’s something that starts off as a little white lie and spirals out of proportion. Moreover, public hysteria is used to turn citizens against one another and push them into the hands of a new leader; one they often feel can protect and restore society. Public hysteria fogs judgement and cultivates suspicion in the minds of many. What makes public hysteria attainable is how easily it can be embellished and distorted. For instance, in “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller it states, “I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!.” This is a prime example of the manipulation of words and the seriousness of the allegations made. Today one would have the ability to identify the deceit behind those words, but due to the use of spectral evidence in the time of the Salem Witch Trials it was taken seriously. It held the ability to destroy the …show more content…
They are seen as perjurers who are going against the nation. To speak out is to put their lives in jeopardy, but to remain quiet could be risking destruction of the country. Paul Robeson, an All-American football player who had a law degree from Columbia had to testify because he refused to sign an affidavit stating how he was not a Communist. He stood up for his rights as an American citizen and he was sent to court because his ideals contradicted theirs. The trial was truly negligent and unnecessary, yet Robeson then had to fight for his freedom. He was an innocent man being portrayed as the guilty party by American
The focus of Miller’s The Crucible is an appalling witch trial that morfs the once-peaceful town of Salem into a cutthroat slaughterhouse. As a lucrative playwright and a not-so-subtle allegory author, Miller is a seasoned wordsmith who addresses people akin to himself, and is not secretive about that information. The Crucible best serves its purpose as a learning device and a social statement, especially at the time of its publishing. Miller‘s piece showcases the appeals in an easy-to-identify manner that is perfect for middle or high school students who are new to the appeals, or for English majors who have no problem pinpointing them, making this play ideal for a classroom setting.
When in doubt of an idea that presents itself, you either have to pursue the superior opinion or compose it for yourself. You’re sitting in a court, bewildered at the fact that an innocent or guilty individual is accused of a substance so erroneous. The residual of the audience believes these unwarranted accusations, but they have no understanding of the material that is being forenamed. The only option left is to neglect your subjacent opinion and follow the superiority or seem like someone at fault . This is what occurred during both the Salem Witch Trials and the Red Scare which undoubtedly displayed hysteria of that clear-cut populace. Both these events sparked dread, repression, and hysteria throughout history and significantly affected their participators in these two completely contrasting time zones.
The mass hysteria between today’s society and the Salem witch hunt can be compared through Freedom , Religion ,and the killing of innocent victims. Mass hysteria has caused a lot of destruction in society throughout the years. It has brought about a lot of chaos in both Salem as well as the present society. Mass hysteria has brought out a lot of fear in people in both Salem and present society.
A crucible is defined as a container made with metal or refectory material used for heating substances to a high temperature, but it can also be defined as a severe test or trial. So, how do witch hunts relate to both definitions? Back in 1641 England made witch craft a capital crime, so in 1692 when Abigail Williams claimed that she had seen women in her village working alongside the devil you can only imagine the hysteria and problems that came along with the false accusations and the beliefs of the puritan lifestyle. So this brings us to the point of how lifestyle and the social norms form witch hunts. It seems to be human nature to fear what we do not know and with fear comes hysteria which leads to mob mentality that causes mass amounts of people to put blame on those who they have known for a long time. This blame ruins the lives of many people, and people in modern society, even though many have learned about the Salem Witch Hunt, do not think that we have modern day witch hunts and that brings us to assumptions.
Hysteria is a mental disorder marked by excitability, anxiety, or imaginary disorders. It can play an important role in people’s lives. Hysteria supplants logic and enables people to believe that their neighbors, whom they have always considered highly respectable, do things they would never expect them of doing. In “The Crucible”, hysteria causes people to believe their friends are committing deplorable acts. The townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious piety but also because it gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to seek reparations from grudges. Hysteria suspends the rules of daily life and allows the acting out of every dark desire and hateful urge under the charade of righteousness. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the hysteria due to the paranoia of witchcraft causes Abigail to lie in order to save herself, Danforth to ruin the community, and Proctor to be convicted of witchery.
Life as a human is dictated by an inborn hunger or purpose, and people, in general, will act on this hunger for their own personal gain in their individual ways. This hunger, be it for wealth, land, love, power, revenge, or pride, can, and will be the undoing or failing of all mankind as Miller so clearly points out in his play 'The Crucible';. This essay will explore the motives of characters within the play and even the motives of Arthur Miller himself and therefore show how conflict stems from certain recognisable human failings including those mentioned above, fear, and hysteria.
In Arthur Miller's famous play The Crucible, innocent people are falsely accused of witchcraft and are killed as a result. Even the thought of witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts in the late 1600s would put the whole village into mass hysteria. Mass hysteria refers to collective delusions of threats to society that spread rapidly through rumors and fear. This is the main reason why so many people were arrested and killed for witchcraft. One way people could save themselves was by falsely confessing to having performed witchcraft.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
Hysteria is an uncontrolled fear complemented with excessive emotion that leads to poor decisions and actions done with complete lack of forethought. The hysteria that existed in the town of Salem was largely caused by the people’s extreme devotion to religion, as well as their refusal to delve into other possibilities to explain the predicament of the time. These circumstances still exist today, and it is quite possible, as well as frightening, that a similar event could recur today. One would like to think that one would never lose control of their opinions and thought, but hysteria is a powerful force and can bring even the most intellectual of people to lose sense of what is occurring. More modern examples of hysteria such as the McCarthy trials and the ostracizing of people infected with AIDS show that learning to properly evaluate a situation for it’s reasonability and integrity prove to still be a valuable lesson for today.
The Communist Scare in the 1950’s also demonstrated this idea. Senator Joseph Miller, well aware of American fear of the Soviet Union after World War Two, claimed that the American Government was overrun by Communists. This one event led to the beginning of an epidemic as now fear of Communism ran across the country. Eventually, it reached a point in which the government, using the Smith Act of 1940 as their basis, arrested anyone that could be against the government. There became a large trial of Hollywood actors that may be communist sympathizers. Like the accused in Salem, these actors were assumed guilty from the start of the trial, and it was difficult to prove against being Communist. The goal of the trial was to get the “actors, directors, and producers to ‘name names’ of colleagues who had Communist ties or sympathies”(Roberts 2). This just created more people to investigate, and therefore a larger epidemic of Communism in the United States. The event is evident of mass hysteria as the fear of Communism became rampant across the entire county, even though the threat of Communism in the United States Government was not likely. It also demonstrates the traits of an epidemic as described in The Tipping Point. The fear of Communism started out in a Women’s Club in Wheeling, West virginia, and then within the year there was a House for Un-American Activities. The point at which the fear went from local to national is the “dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once”(Gladwell 9), and this moment is known as the tipping point. The Witch Trials lacked the element of an epidemic as it never was contagious enough to spread passed salem, but both events clearly demonstrate mass hysteria across a given
Mass hysteria is when everyone is afraid or feels unsafe about something in a certain community drawn from fear and rumors. Japanese Internment began during World War II because the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. Franklin D. Roosevelt passed Executive Order 9066 and sent Japanese- Americans to ten internment camps on the west coast. The Crucible happened during the 1600’s in Salem because Reverend Parris found girls dancing in the woods and said it was witchcraft. Then the constant allegations of the girls, led by Abigail Williams, set off a mass hysteria in Salem. When one points out that both those accused of witchcraft and those accused of being spy could not prove their innocence, one person called all of the shots, and there were light
Throughout the play, The Crucible, a theme portrayed was fear and suspicion can ruin a society. As Abigail had to find a way to get the blame off of her in the beginning of the story she created fear and suspicion in the town. When others began to believe witchcraft in Salem could be true, suspicion began to run wild. Mrs. Putman put it into a good perspective when she stated, “... there are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!” (Miller 17). This tells us as readers that everyone is becoming suspicious of each other, and nobody knows who they can really trust. When Mrs. Putman is talking about fires she means everyone is creating plots on each other based on their previous encounters with each others. Towards the end of act two it wasn't more about suspicion any longer, but everyone was now just
the 1600s, same thing right? Hysteria is an exaggerated emotion especially in large groups of people. Hysterical events will be examined through the AIDS epidemic and the Salem Witchcraft Trials which are two separate points of history.
Hysteria has no place in a society because it is wrong. It causes chaos and confusion and in these cases death.
Hysteria is defined by dictionary.com as “Behavior exhibiting excessive or uncontrollable emotion, such as fear or panic.” This was a critical theme in the play in which it was tearing apart the community. Hysteria replaces logic and allows people to believe that their neighbors are committing some unbelievable crimes such as, communicating with the devil, killings babies, and so on.