...Mass hysteria is a condition affecting groups of persons characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness. In the play The Crucible written by Arthur Miller shows that mass hysteria can affect anyone on how they act and it had an influence in different societies throughout history like the 2016’s the creepy clowns scaring people, 1940’s the holocaust eliminating jews, and the 1400’s-1600’s European witch hunt finding witches. In the 1990’s the holocaust was a tragic event where many lives were lost. It was caused by a man called Hitler and he was the one who made it all happen. He showed mass hysteria to people about jews. A reason why hitler targeted jews is because a book that came...
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...world, there are many reasons for mass hysteria. In "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, the mass hysteria was that many girls were accused of being witches because they were "dancing in the forest". An entire town went balistic when they heard the word witch. In the twenty-first century, people panic and become frightened over terrorist attacks and bombings. Numerous attacks and bombings have occured in the United States and an infinite amount of people become terrified that something worse might happen. In "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller, the people of the town go insane when they heard that a number of girls were bewitched. Once the people heard, their only reaction was to run and see if it was the truth. Reasons why a diverse amount of people become frightened is because people are going to get hurt or killed and also are worried about themselves because they can also be accused. Humans cause problems as a result of not having a satisfying childhood and want to make others lives miserable....
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...13 February 2016 Reading The Crucible by Arthur Miller was a thrilling and mesmerizing experience. Every aspect of the play was entertaining. The story of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is less about the tale of the witch hunt and trials. Subsequently, it is more about how the witch hunt and trials take an effect on the communities. Throughout the course of time, when a situation that causes a mass hysteria, people will force themselves to conform in order to place themselves in a safe spot. For instance, during the Salem witch trials, people admitted to “crimes” that they never actually committed, or began accusing others who were once allies (ex. neighbors, friends, etc.) in order to keep themselves in the clear and safe from being hanged or jailed. If one was doing what they could in order to maintain the safety of the community, they earned themselves a safe spot. It was the individuals who were not pointing fingers in order to help out the “witches” that were soon assumed to be subject to the Devil’s influence and were eventually either jailed or hanged (sometimes both). Arthur Miller utilizes John Proctor’s protagonist character in order to show not just what he believed was the right thing to do in a situation such as this one, but to show how difficult it is to sometimes play the role of a nonconformist tackling a much larger group of people. Also, The Crucible shows how mass hysteria can eventually allude to violence. The Crucible was not only a terrific story of...
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...Throughout history fear has invoked society into violence, division ,and also hatred. Fear does not discriminate, it can be shown in every nationality, race and gender. Fear takes form in many different ways. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller fear was in a form of assumption and accusation.During the 1800’s, The Ku Klux Klan was one of the biggest cults based of fear along with hysteria during the depression. In the 1990’s The Red Scare was parallel to The Crucible based on accusing citizen of communism. The most powerful motivator in society is fear, because it develops a change in society. The Crucible along with The Ku Klux Klan intersect with each other. In both incidents fear was used as an crucial instrument. This was the main reason...
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...The Crucible and the Detroit riots have a lot in common, whether it be from comparing the mass hysteria, or people being falsely accused of terrible acts, the similarities are unmistakable. A small rumor can have giant effects and push people beyond a breaking point. Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, is a very good example of how people react when they don’t know how to respond and they see violence as the only resolution, such as the residents in Detroit did during July of 1967. The two events are very similar if you consider the mass hysteria and several other factors. The Detroit riot of 1967 was a series of violent clashes between the city’s residents and the police department (Emeka). It remains of one the most violent uprisings in the...
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...jennifer lux 12/8/15 The Crucible analysis “We consume our tomorrows fretting about our yesterday”- Persius. There have been moments in history where people were too consumed in fear that they broke many of their morals and due to powerful situations people behaved differently than their normal self. A play called the Crucible was written in 1953 by Author Miller to portray the unfairness at that time due to people being accused of witches with little to no evidence and then hanged. This event was called the Salem witch trials, which took place in the province of Massachusetts Bay. This play is an allegory to the McCarthy Hearings that took place from 1950 to 1956. The McCarthy hearings occurred in 1947; President Truman ordered background checks of every civilian in service to the government due to a fear of people within the United States being a communist spy. The fear of communism intensified when a high ranked official Alger Hiss was convicted of being a communist spy. Senator Joseph McCarthy stepped in and convinced/alarm people within the U.S that there were Communist and Communist sympathizers that would try to overthrow the government. As a result, he formed a special Congressional committee to investigate Americans who were suspected of Communist activities and this movement was named McCarthyism. The Crucible is a play that is universal and enduring because it uses allegory and archetypes to teach readers...
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..."Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven" (1156 Crucible). Mass hysteria has been an issue all throughout history. The root cause of this is usually just misinformation or straight up lies. Although sometimes you cannot blame the people who regard the hysteria as truth. Threatening someone's livelihood, family, and well being causes them to think irrationally. Mass hysteria in a time or crisis can result in an overreaction and loss of critical thinking. Examples of this throughout history are the Salem Witch Trials, The Red Scare, and the 2012 Mayan Calendar scare. Within the Salem Witch Trials, was a vast amount of hysteria that cost the lives of many people. Religion and “the devil” played a key role in the cause of the trials and even does today “The Christian belief in the existence of the Devil is widely accepted in modern-America” (Kenneth). The use of unknown evils as well as spectral evidence to instill fear into the commoners propelled the hysteria “witchcraft is... an invisible crime, is it not? Therefore, who may possibly be witness to it?” (Miller). Leaders of the court realize that witchcraft is something with no real evidence to it other than he said she said. Evidence during this time was allowed to be completely circumstantial, which in turn made claims by people get too much traction too quickly. Even the more level headed characters in the crucible could succumb to the nonsense. One of...
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...A Goodness in Humankind In 1692, the Salem Village of Massachusetts fell victim to an outbreak of mass hysteria caused by a fear of witchcraft. This fear of witchcraft was caused by a small group of girls who accused innocent people of the village of being under the influence of the devil and harming them with spells of witchcraft. How would a town so concerned with religion react to such crazy accusations? Arthur Miller describes such reactions to these in The Crucible. In this story Miller describes how different people having different perspectives on the events handle this type of hysteria. Some people join the afflicted girls and participate in the hysteria out of fear for their lives. Others grow suspicious and try to find an explanation on how honest these girls, or “victimsâ€, are in accusing them otherwise innocent people of witchcraft, if witchcraft is even the cause of the girls’ hysteria. Arthur Miller writes the play to demonstrate that human nature is actually good regardless of how easily humans can be influenced by the spread of evil. Miller illustrates how pressure created by fear, intolerance, and frustration can cause people to accept their personal responsibilities. Although fear often drives people away from their responsibilities in the story, it is shown that a person’s fear can push him to realize and accept his purposes and responsibilities. John Proctor, a main protagonist in the story, realizes how dangerous the witchcraft accusations are when...
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...In Arthur Millers, The Crucible, the Salem witch trails occurred. In Salem, while the Salem witch trials were occurring, the citizens tell many lies. This is one thing that led to the mass hysteria that defined the Salem witch trials. It also led to many conflicts between the characters in this book. This is because in the eyes of the puritans anyone who was involved in “witchcraft” was against the church and thought to be communicating with Satan and deserved death. One of the conflicts that occurred in The Crucible was between John Proctor and himself. Because lying is a sin and in turn causes negative effects, John Proctor is forced to face the reality and the consequences of his deceitfulness. In the play The Crucible, John Proctor, the main character, endures multiple inner conflicts. He believes his affair with Abigail Williams, another citizen of Salem, has permanently damaged him and his worthiness in the eyes of God. After scolding Elizabeth Proctor, his wife, for continuing to be suspicious of his actions with Abigail and not giving him forgiveness, Elizabeth expresses that she does not judge him, but that it is, “The magistrate sitting in [his] heart that judges [him].” Lying is a recurring theme in The Crucible and Proctor’s actions with the affair is an example of this....
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...In the small Town of Salem, author Arthur Miller shows how hysteria works in a crowd of people in the play, The Crucible The mass hysteria presented in the play is the witch trials and the Red Scare. The score could have been stopped in the Salem village if Abigail Williams and Betty Parris would have told the truth and not accuse the girls of connecting with the devil and practicing witchcraft and served their punishment. Abigail would have been able to stop this if she had not spread the rumor of witchcraft around the village and, also by not making accusations about Tituba being a witch. Because of her blaming Tituba, they know there is more than just one as Tituba says which, makes a panic for Parris. Abigail tells Mrs. Putnam about it when she blames Tituba. Abigail shouts to Parris, “She...
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...Discuss how an idea developed in a text you have studied. In the play ‘The Crucible’ written my Arthur Miller an important idea the developed throughout the text is reputation and injustice. It shows us that in an environment where people are shelter, oblivious, and ignorant, peple may behave in ways that are unjust in order to protect their reputation. Arthur Miller was able to develope these ideas through the setting and characters. He was able to incorporate his own experience into his play as he was a victim himself of McCarthyism. The Crucible is set in a small town, Salem in Massachusetts, America in 1692 where people were oblivious of anything other than God, believing that they were self righteous. In such time, reputation determined how people looked at you and was considered something of great importance. “A man will not cast away his good name“ shows us the importance of people’s reputation at that time. When something is regarded as such a high level of importance to someone, people will do anything in order to protect it even if the means are considered unjust and ‘unrighteous‘. Abigail accuses Elizabeth Proctor of ‘blackening my name in the village‘ after commiting adultery with John Proctor, Elizabeth’s husband. This cause her to fear for her reputation, and how people will view her. Afraid of her reputation, Abigail Williams acts in fear to and pointed the finger at Tituba claiming that she was practising witchcraft ‘she sends her spirit on me in Church; she...
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...Authors and playwrights write their works intending for the audience to acknowledge a problem in their society. For example, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible to express the conditions the United States is in. Fear quickly spread throughout the country due to citizens accusing each other of being a communist. Similar to the Red Scare, the citizens of Salem began accusing each other of witchcraft due to their own fears. On the other, Jodi Picoult’s purpose of Salem Falls is to entertain the audience. Picoult adjusts the story to adapt to the twenty-first century. Unlike the ending of Miller’s play, the film had a true ending. In both versions, the audience learns that religion corrupts the justice system; nevertheless, the film’s ending exemplifies that a society can overcome such conflict. Religious beliefs may be the cause of biased outcomes in the justice system. For instance, John Proctor, the main protagonist in Miller’s play, argues with Hale, “And why not, if they must hang for denyin’ it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you never...
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...The Crucible The Crucible is a play written in 1952 that had a movie adaption made nearly 45 years later. Usually we see the pattern that the movie doesn't follow the original script. In this case, The Crucible movie adaptation followed the play closely.This is because they were both meant to be seen. Yet, there are still some differences that occurred for dramatic effect. When developing a movie there is more stress to develop scenes so viewers get the chance to “visualize” and have their emotions become touched by the tone the screenplay writer sends. Producers aim for perfection. In order to achieve this they alter scripts and add scenes to make their vision of a perfect movie come become a reality. One major difference...
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...The aftermath of the Salem Witch Trials was devastating, with nineteen innocent Puritans hanged and five deaths in jail due to harsh conditions (Wallenfeldt). Many theories have been proposed to explain calamity, but ergotism is the clear cause of the hysteria in Salem, Massachusetts during the trials. Ergot is a fungus that grows on grain and can cause horrifying symptoms including hallucinations, muscle spasms, vomiting, and gangrenous pain where the victims’ limbs are “eaten up by the holy fire that blackens like charcoal.” (Plants). There are two types of ergotism: gangrenous and convulsive. Gangrenous ergotism leads to extremities such as the falling off of affected body parts. There are many instances where gangrene has taken over the...
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...In 1950, Arthur Miller was blacklisted. During the time he had been writing The Crucible, Miller was fearful that he would be labeled as a communist if he was protesting too strongly by publishing this play. He was overwhelmed with all of the paranoia of communism. Miller was called to testify for HUAC and was uncooperative and refused to name anyone that was affiliated with him. This time in his life was increasingly difficult for him, but nonetheless, he continued the production of his plays and was successful in doing so (Arthur Miller...
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