...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...
Words: 415 - Pages: 2
...Fear affects everyone in different ways. In The Crucible, terror dominates the town of Salem. Titiuba along with several other girls sneak out at night and dance around a caldron with a concoction in it. Reverend Parris catches the girls and accuses them of witchcraft, and he brings them to talk to Reverend Hale. Reverend Hale makes witchcraft a reality, and panic engulfs the whole town. Everyone is afraid that they too, will be accused of witchcraft. Throughout the story, fear causes people to act out in ways that lead to destruction. This idea is shown through Abigail Williams, Marry Warren, and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail shows and causes anxiety several times throughout The Crucible. After the girls get caught, they are brought to court to figure what exactly happened. All of the girls start to point fingers to make themselves look better: “She comes to me every night to go and...
Words: 714 - Pages: 3
...You may be asking yourself what does fear mean?? There a lot of manys for FEAR. The word fear mean something that can get you in trouble or you in dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. Inside of you can feel that something bad will happen because of that fear you have inside of you. In the Crucible there are a lot of examples of fear that have been shown. To began, In the crucible there a lot of fear. From all the lies people start saying and then they end up believing the lies they have told. Like John Proctor one of the character from the crucible show fear. Proctor have been in a secret romance with Abigail Williams and he is scared that people with find out. If people start to find out then his reputation will get ruined, and...
Words: 376 - Pages: 2
...Fear is a state of mind which can affect your actions and emotions. For example, if you’re really scared that’ll affect what you do in the situation and you might have what is called Fight or Flight. This means, you might defend yourself or, you might turn and run Another example and an example from the Crucible is anger, Abigail was angry of being accused of witchcraft so she accused others. However, there are a lot more examples of fear in the play, I will be talking about these main three. In The Crucible, there is a variety of fear. For example, Reverend Parris is afraid of losing his reputation, even if not everyone likes him. Abigail, Rev. Parris’s niece, is scared that her and Mr. Proctor’s affer will be discovered so, she acts out in anger. Also, Mrs. Putnam is scared of her daughter, Ruth, being possessed which, she claims is also happening to Beth and that only the Devil is to blame. In the case of Abigail, when she is afraid, she gets angry and does her best to ruin whoever comes across her path. For example, at the trail when Mary Williams says that Abigail is faking all of it and so is the girls who were dancing in the woods were pretending and it was “for sport” and to make a scene, all the girls ,including Abby, were acting as if Mary had sent...
Words: 463 - Pages: 2
...Trepidation, or fear is an enormous emotional contributor to why people conform in society, for they may not want to cause any trouble or have their reputation ruined. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, fear is definitely relevant amongst the people in Salem. The girls that are in Abigail’s group have to always obey her with every order she gives them, or they would be on her bad side, which is a big deal. Betty tells Abby that, “[she] drank blood, Abby! [She] didn’t tell him that!” Abby responds to Betty’s cry with, “Betty [she] never say that again!” (Miller 19). Once Betty wakes up from what was soon found out by the audience to be a fake slumber, she calls Abby out on drinking blood when everyone was dancing in the woods together, and Abby yells and...
Words: 437 - Pages: 2
...In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible he shows the power of fear and how it can consume people and turn them against one another through the characters of Rev. Parris, Mary Warren/ The Girls and Danforth. For example, Rev. Parris fear was mainly about losing status in Salem and that fear consumed him and it was shown when he accused John Proctor of witchcraft(Pg.110). Also in the book his fear of witchcraft is not just about witchcraft it’s about his job as the Rev. and how his status will be destroyed(Pg.119). Also Mary Warren is consumed by fear when all of the Girls are imitating here and accusing here of being the witch that possessed them and finally giving up on trying to fight the accusation just goes along with the girls and their false...
Words: 312 - Pages: 2
...Fear can influence decisions and corrupt ones morality. The fear of death, judgment and isolation all have the capability to make good people do bad things. Arthur Miller portrays this phenomenon in his book The Crucible. In The Crucible there are distinct examples of fear debilitating ones ability to make the right decision. Mary Warrens fear of death resulted in many deaths. John Proctor’s fear of judgment kept him from revealing the truth. Lastly, the fear of the unknown, in the mind of the townspeople, set off a series of devastating events that transpired throughout the book. Furthermore, fear darkened their conscience, and as a result, self preservation became prioritized above all else. Mary Warren, naturally a honest women, wanted to confess to the dancing and conjuring spirits in the woods. However, Abigail disagreed and threatened to kill her and, consequently, fear overtook Mary until she was Abigail’s slave, or rather, a slave to fear (Miller, pg.19). Mary knew the truth, the truth that could have saved lives, but withheld it. She lied and became dishonest, for the reason that she was afraid of being hung as a witch herself. Therefore, she accused John Proctor, an upstanding man, and in doing so, she put him to death (Miller, pg.118). She was terrified of death, and Abigail made that horror something real that she couldn't overcome. So in turn, she took the pressure off herself and took a mans life to preserve her own. Abigail was a dishonest and deceitful...
Words: 1253 - Pages: 6
...Fear can lead good people to do horrific acts, especially when religion is involved. For example, in the play The Crucible the girls who was following Abigail knew dancing was considered in Salem as an act of the devil. When they got caught dancing in the forest, they began to think about their punishments in this case, were whippens, jail, or even worse death. They decided to keep following Abigail's lead and began to claim that the devil and these images of the people from Salem tried to make them do horrible things. Soon Abigail started to take advantage of this power and used it for evil. Millers play The Crucible shows us how vengeance and land can determine weather some one lives or dies. It also shows how many accusations can lead...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...nuclear holocaust was at an all-time high. It was a time of fear and paranoia for everyone, and it wasn’t just from the threat of the Communists. There was a nationwide search for Communists, Communist sympathizers, and even anyone who acted suspicious. There was no requirements for an accusation, which led it to become a modern day witch hunt. This idea of the McCarthy Era being a modern day witch hunt is what countless historians, authors, and poets have tried to relate. Which means there is no surprise that Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is an allegory for the Red Scare and the McCarthy Era as well. To start off, the background of The Crucible was awfully similar to that of the McCarthyism Era, making it viable grounds for creating an allegory....
Words: 880 - Pages: 4
...Arthur Miller wrote the Crucible because he wanted everyone to be aware of what is going on with the government in the 1950’s. On how they were accusing people without concrete evidence. The Crucible made more people realize that McCarthy is a demagogue. Praying on their fears of communist so he could get more power. Arthur feared that everyone was going to lose their rights and America won't be the same anymore. People were also being thrown in jail from court hearings not from court trials. Arthur Miller had to write the Crucible in a different country because McCarthy was coming after him. Britain was happy to take him in. He wrote the Crucible out of desperation and it branched out from a typical depression era trauma. His marriage was teetering and he tied in his marriage to the story. He based most of his marriage on John Proctor and Abigail Williams. John kept cheating...
Words: 533 - Pages: 3
... 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 that fear and panic are the worst forms of chaos...
Words: 951 - Pages: 4
...In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the tone of irony boats from every corner you look, this story casts a mirror onto McCarthyism and reflects the outcomes of this ironic process. The Crucible depicts the reality of the Salem Witch Trials in a time of hysteria and fear. Miller uses a past event to emphasize the effects of unnecessary fear imposed by McCarthyism, indirectly relating to the Salem Witch Trials. Miller’s, The Crucible, is one of irony in which it obliquely equates to the consequences of fear and blaming others by relating the Salem Witch Trials to McCarthyism. Abigail’s intentions regarding John Proctor are nothing if not ironic, you can see this perfectly in which Abigail acted out in a complete façade so that she could be...
Words: 792 - Pages: 4
...11 September 2016 The Crucible VS The Red Scare The Crucible by Arthur Miller and The Red Scare relate because of the way the trials were held. The Crucible just like The Red Scare has something to do with convicting, killing innocent people and imprisoning. In the Salem witch trial, people were in trepidation of witch craft the same way that Americans were in apprehension of communism. Around this time and between The Cold War, Joseph McCarthy was a first-term senator from Wisconsin and he had won the election in 1946 after a campaign, which he then criticized all of his opponent’s failure to enlist during WWII. By the end of time, McCarthy lost some allies. He kept his job and lost his power. He died in 1957 at 48 years old. The Red Scare has always been said to be the most effective of WWI. The Salem witch trials didn’t have any type of cause and there were even some reports of more witchcraft in other towns. Arthur Miller had become very fascinated with the environment and how it affected society as a whole. Arthur also wrote an essay in 1996 called “Why I Wrote The Crucible; Authors answer...
Words: 442 - Pages: 2
...Relations Between The Crucible and The Red Scare Ever experience the feeling of being falsely accused? This was exactly the feeling many people felt, during the times of witchery and communism. In, “The Crucible”, many people were being accused of witchery, and would only remain alive, if they confessed. During the times of communism “The Red Scare” showed the increase of fear, involving going against the leaders and speaking up for what was right. Both the play and the article are similar in many ways. While Arthur Miller clearly wrote the play “The Crucible” to demonstrate his belief that an individual should never give up the power to think for him or herself, he also intended it to be an allegory for “The Red Scare”. Being punished for...
Words: 481 - Pages: 2
...“witches” because of their unpopular or unorthodox views. In the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller, specifically talks about Witch-hunts where power, profit, and fear lead to accusations of witchcraft that spread like wildfire, resulting in the execution of 18 innocent people. Nowadays mental illness is the scapegoat to blame for mass shootings and gun violence, fueled by corrupt politicians whose goals are profit and power, as well as creating fear in the minds of citizens across the nation. In this essay we will compare the similarities in profit, power, and fear between “The Crucible” based on the Salem Witch Trials from the 1500’s and the stigma surrounding Mental Illness in today's society. Power: In the book The Crucible, the judge maintains power by telling people what they believe the people want hear regardless if eighteen innocent people would lose their lives. Nowadays mental illness is blamed for mass shootings and gun violence by...
Words: 384 - Pages: 2
