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Modern relevance of the crucible
Modern relevance of the crucible
The crucible hysteria
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Themes are the basic and often widespread ideas explored in a literary work. The Crucible and Ethan Frome are two novels both focused on one main theme. In The Crucible the main theme was hysteria and in Ethan Frome it was desire. Both novels have very unique ways to express these themes throughout the stories. Hysteria was a very obvious theme shown throughout the play, The Crucible. It was all started by a few young girls in Salem, Massachusetts. They were all dancing in the woods one night and were caught by Paris, the reverend in that small town. The next day two of the young girls were sick and would not move, talk, nor eat . The town began to start talk of witch craft because of the forbidden dancing that took place the other night. When the girls heard of that at first they denied it, but then they realized they could get out of being punished if they put the blame onto someone else. The began to shout out the names of people they clamed to have seem with they devil. It seemed like a logical explanation to the people in the town, so they had the people accused of being witches arrested. The whole town was in an uproar crying out witch craft to gain respect and power in the town and to get revenge on those who they were jealous of . Everyone began to thrive on this hysteria in particular Abigail Williams. She was having an affair with Elizabeth Proctors husband, John Proctor, when she had lived with them as t...
In conclusion, the theme on how hysteria can occur and corrupt the entire community is displayed in The Crucible. Miller depicts how people can become hysterical over nonsensical things and that hysteria can ruin many people's lives. The reader should understand this theme to be aware of how much we can get swept up in hysteria. Without this hysteria a teenage girl had no power until she cried out witchcraft, a man was not able to act on his revenge until accusing someone else. Fear caused the townsfolk to believe the crazy accusations that someone could actually be a witch. All they were hearing was lie after lie. It’s sad how they actually could believe them. Make you think twice when you hear of a rumor, doesn’t
Many of the characters in Arthur Miller's The Crucible have specific human flaws that cause the tragedy of the Salem Witch Trials. The Salem villagers exhibit failings, including greed, vengeance, and fear, which eventually lead to the downfall of their town. Many villagers, especially Abigail Williams, take advantage of the opportunity to seek vengeance on others through the trials. Greed for power and land often holds precedence when the hysteria takes over. Fear of being arrested or put to death is the key motivation in turning others in as witches. From these three human flaws, the town of Salem falls into chaos with many innocent people paying the price.
The statement,“The Crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is proven true numerous times, throughout the play. The Crucible was written by Arthur Miller, about the true events that happened in Salem, Massachusetts, between the years 1692 and 1693. The Salem witch trials consisted of many hangings, lies, and complete mass hysteria. The citizens of Salem followed the religion of Puritanism, and the ideas of predestination. The root of the mass hysteria comes from their belief in the sense that in something happens then it must have been planned by God. In Miller’s portrayal of the story, Abigail Williams was the ringleader of the witch trials, and she used the idea of predestination to cover up her own sins. Abigail was a very manipulative girl and ruined many lives. John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor were just a few of the victims in Abby’s game. John, Mary, and Elizabeth exhibit the traits courage, weakness, and truth, whether it was in a positive or negative way.
In the novel Ethan Frome, by Edith Wharton, the character of Ethan Frome plays an important role in the development of the rest of the book. He has several character traits which distinguish him from the other main characters. Also, there are many factors which play against him throughout the novel.
“Whatever hysteria exists is inflamed by mystery, suspicion, and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.” – Elia Kazan. In the crucible, Arthur Miller describes the witch trials and the hysteria that was caused by it. The fear of the devil overwhelms reason and makes the town of Salem even more afraid. In the story, Marry Warren falls under hysteria and through her, Arthur Miller explains that fear causes people to leave behind all their logic and reason.
The main theme of the book Ethan Frome is failure. It is shown in three ways throughout the story: Ethan's marriage, him not being able to stand up to Zeena, and his involvement in the "smash up".
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.
Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is set in Salem village where an atmosphere of enmity and mistrust has been created through the conflicts and disagreements many villagers experience throughout the play. Many of these are caused by or, similar to the conflict between Parris and Proctor, are inflated by the many accusations of witchcraft occurring in the village.
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.
Mass hysteria is when a threat is presumed from a large group of people because of rumors or fear. In the case of the Salem witch trials, or the Red Scare, Mass Hysteria arose from fear. The hysteria along with fear led members to place blame on others in hopes of proving themselves innocent. In the Crucible, Tituba has already been accused of witchcraft, but Hale indicates that she is “Gods instrument put in our hands to discover the Devils agents among us” (44). He claims that if Tituba gives up the devils workers God will protect her. Given the puritan societal values, serving God is their number one priority. Therefore, Tituba realizes she can save herself from death by giving the names of others. She proceeds to state “Goody Osbourne and Goody Good” (44) as workers of the Devil thus removing the blame from herself. This situation happened with all the girls originally accused of witchcraft and thus removed all the blame from themselves. This happens because of mass hysteria. The fear of death leads individuals to take drastic measures in order to live. Also called the blame game can easily been seen by younger children blaming others to get themselves out of trouble, this is the same idea. Arthur Miller – the writer of The Crucible – speaks to this idea of Fear leading to Mass hysteria in terms of McCarthyism: “With amazing speed McCarthy was convincing a lot of not intelligent people that the incredible was really true” (Again They Drink from the Cup of Suspicion). He speaks to how easy it was to convince people. Many people were starting to believe in McCarthy’s ideas and it created mass hysteria and made it that much easier to convince people. This stems from fear they are scared of being considered a communist supporter and therefore the only way to shape their outcome was to join
The Crucible is a great example of the importance of reputation but the most paramount theme remains to be the staggering roles of hysteria. Hysteria is defined as, “an overwhelming fear and excitement that overrides all logic, and is often enhanced and intensified by the presence of others who are acting out on that fear.” (Campbell). Hysterically in Act 3, “She [Mary Warren] and all the girls run to one wall, shielding their eyes. And now, as though cornered, they let out a gigantic scream, and Mary, as though infected, opens her mouth and screams with them." (Miller, Act 3). The role of hysteria is the main theme throughout the play and it’s represented within the characters Danforth, Abigail, and Proctor.
Vengeance is the main theme of The Crucible. The people of the town of Salem were not united, but instead, distrusted and disliked each other. During the court trials, the girls started accusing certain people that they didn't like of dealing with witchcraft. For example, Abigail Williams couldn't forget John Proctor even though their affair was over. She believed that if his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, was out of the way, Abigail and John would be together again. Therefore, she told everyone that Elizabeth's spirit was trying to kill her and accused Elizabeth of being a witch.
During the setting of the Red Scare and The Crucible, paranoia was evident and many bad things occurred as a result of its presence. At the time of the Red Scare, many were afraid that communists were trying to take over America. This led the government to make the House of the Un-American Activities Committee, which would seek out communists and stop them from making any attempts of taking over the country. If the committee found anyone guilty of being a communist then they were jailed, or even killed like Ethel and Julius Rosenburg. The paranoia created caused the committee to put hundreds of people on trial that never practice communism at all. The paranoia in The Crucible also led to many terrible events to occur. After Betty and Ruth are struck sick and tired, many conclude that it is due to witchcraft. The notion of witchcraft being present in Salem causes paranoia and people become frightened. Searches are sent out to find these alleged witches and dispose them. The paranoia causes many people to be brought before the court in order for Salem to rid it of these evil witches. If they were found guilty, they were also jailed or killed. In both cases, the paranoia caused many innocent lives to be ruined or lost.
In Salem, it is a very hysterical society, and one of the more obvious cases is Abigail, she uses this situation in order to accuse Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft and send her to jail. This is all in order to get John Proctor all to herself. There are many others that survive on hysteria to get by as well: Reverend Parris strengthens his position in the village and church by making people like Proctor, who question his authority, look stupid or look like they are on a lower level then him. One of the towns wealthiest townsperson, Thomas Putnam, get revenge against Francis Nurse by getting Rebecca, Nurse’s wife, convicted of killing Mrs. Putnam’s babies. Hysteria can only thrive because people in the town are benefiting from it.
In the real Salem Witch Trials of 1692, the fear of witches came about through the idea that women are inherently more sinful than men. So Puritan society used sin and witchcraft as an explanation to the things women did and it spread panic like a wildfire. In Millers play, The Crucible, Miller tried his best to emulate the psychology