...“We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!”(77). The people in Salem don’t base their opinion on facts. The possibility of witches in their village brings mass hysteria to the people. While some would say the theme of The Crucible is corruption can happen anywhere, the theme of The Crucible as displayed through the author is that hysteria can rip apart a community, this is expressed through language, symbolism and characterization. First, language in The Crucible displays the theme by showing aggressive and passionate tones. Shouting from the accused at trials shows how bad the hysteria was. Also, the girls screaming at the sights of pretend spirits shows that the language in the play fuels the theme of mass hysteria ripping apart the town. Elizabeth and John Proctor confessing their...
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...While the use of evidence is an important factor in the criminal justice system, The Crucible shines a light on the situation of mass “witch hunts” in history.The Crucible is an allegory to McCarthyism because they both use hysteria to put fear into society.The Crucible was a play written by Arthur Miller ; he wrote the play after he was affected personally and his close friend, Elia Kazan, who testified in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the mass cultural and political hysteria surrounding the Red Scare.This hysteria caused mass amount of public backing behind these mass “witch hunts”, against targeted individuals and industries. The individuals in Mccarthyism were blacklisted from Society which is characterized by the hangings in The Crucible, and the social hysteria of society being scared of witches or communistic ideas....
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...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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...Mass hysteria is a social phenomenon wherein people valve something worthwhile, to such an extreme level, that it leaves to them doing horrible things to maintain it. The Crucible and Swing Kids share many commonalities that make them examples of mass hysteria. The Crucible is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials and they show a number of teenage and preteen girls feeling (or at least claiming they feel) as though they are being cursed by witches, so they seek to root them out. In Swing Kids, we follow a group of boys who like to dance to swing music, something outlawed by the Nazis; two of the boys join Hitler’s Youth and start to believe Nazi propaganda, at least to a degree; by the end of the movie, one of these boys ends up so firmly against the Nazis that he gets sent to a prison camp, while the other...
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...The Crucible This essay will discuss, explain and evaluate the main ideas, themes and interpretations of Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. It will also explain and evaluate the language Arthur Miller uses and how it contributed to the overall success of the play. The Crucible is set in 1692 in the puritan town of Salem, Massachusetts, a theocratic society, where the laws of the land are laid down by the church. The main idea running throughout the play can be viewed as a direct comparison to McCarthyism which was happening in 1950’s America, in which members of the general public including public figures such as Arthur Miller were brought in and questioned over connections to communism. This can be seen as a direct comparison to people being brought into the Salem courts regarding connections with witchcraft. It was not until Miller saw this comparison that he then felt compelled to write The Crucible as he now felt he could get into the minds of those going through similar circumstances back in the Salem witch trials. Hysteria was the main cause of nineteen deaths in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, and countless ruined reputations on account of Joe McCarthy. Hysteria does not just appear out of nowhere though. There are driving forces such as revenge and abuse of power that bring about the irrational fear that can take over society. These are the issues expressed in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. The Crucible is paralleled directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly...
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...The Crucible Act Three Questions Short Response Answer the following questions based on your knowledge of the drama. Write a response on a separate sheet of paper. 1. Describe one piece of evidence that Giles, Francis, or Proctor bring before the court to show that the girls are lying. 2. What does Abigail do to distract Danforth from Hale’s accusations that she is lying? 3. How does Hale show that he believes that the court is not doing the right thing? Use three details from the text in your response. 4. Danforth explains that “. . . a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between.” What conclusion can you draw about Danforth’s character from this line? 5. How does Hale excuse Elizabeth’s lie about Abigail’s affair with Proctor? 6. Danforth explains that witchcraft is an invisible crime and that only the victims are reliable. How does his philosophy flame the hysteria? Use details from the drama to support your response. 7. How do Hale and Parris try to thwart each other, or act as foils, in regards to Danforth and the court? Use details from the drama to support your response. 8. Describe the point at which you think the plot reaches its highest intensity, or climax. 9. After the outbreak in court, Mr. Danforth makes the following short statement to Mr. Hale: I will have nothing from you, Mr. Hale! In your own words, describe what Mr. Hale has said or done to instigate Mr. Danforth’s...
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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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...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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...seeking loose spirits.” The theme that the tragedy fiction play, The Crucible, displays is hysteria and desire leads to unconscious consequences. As conveyed throughout the play, hysteria is most clearly observed in the villagers' illogical acceptance of the girls’ claims of witchcraft. Specifically, Act III depicts the idea of mass hysteria devastating the community when the afflicted girls led by Abigail, accuse Mary Warren of witchcraft for testifying against them. Furthermore, several people including Mary Warren have indicated that the witchcraft accusations are false yet the court refuses to be persuaded. Arthur Miller’s play the Crucible was an exaggeration of the Salem witch...
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...Mass hysteria is the phenomenon in which a group of people experience similar symptoms of anxiety, fear, or other physical symptoms. A well-known case of mass hysteria in history was the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. This incident was portrayed by the Arthur Miller play The Crucible, in which a group of girls starting falsely accusing multiple women in their town of witchcraft, starting a wave of hysterical fear throughout the village. Neighbors would accuse others of witchcraft over land disputes, petty squabbles or simply because they did not like them (Miller). A more recent case, and on a much greater scale, was the Pokémon Panic of 1997, when an episode of Pokémon in Japan sent hundreds of children to the hospital with seizure-like symptoms....
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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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...Gillian MacDonald 21 March 2013 ENG 4U Mr. Chalmers The Ringleaders of the Salem Witch Trials In the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the theme of hysteria is dominantly present throughout the entire play. It is not hard to narrow down the cause of the widespread hysteria to three people that inevitably had their hand in the trials. The devious character, Abigail, shows her wicked mind and skill of manipulation in the play so she can get what she wants, John Proctor. The slave, Tituba, gave into the accusations and started the hysteria of the witch trials. The last character that contributed to an entire town’s belief in witches would be Danforth. His stubborn and narrow minded attitude had people dangling from a rope. It is easy to say that Abigail Williams is the triumphant ringleader of the accusers in The Crucible. Constantly pointing fingers, she named name after name and everyone believed her whole heartedly. At the beginning of the play, Reverend Parris accused Abigail of witch craft but to avoid punishment she passed the blame to Tituba saying “I never called him! Tituba, Tituba…” (Miller 42). Abigail took no responsibility for her actions but blamed another person claiming, “She made me do it! She made Betty do it!” (Miller 43). Once Tituba confessed to witchcraft, Abigail joined in by accusing others of witchcraft so the negative attention would not be on the girls. Once Abigail started accusing people, Betty woke up from her “infinite” sleep...
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...to create drama in the crucible In his play, The Crucible, Arthur miller presents an allegory for McCarthyism through the use of the Salem With trials of 1692. In the crucible, miller uses many techniques to create drama to influence the decisions of the ordinary townsfolk. Drama is created by placing key protagonists in situations of conflict. The intolerance of puritan society towards new or different practices is one of the ways that miller creates drama. Another factor is the maintenance of personal reputation and the consequences of conflict upon this status. By manipulating ordinary people, hysteria also creates a large sum of drama. Through an analysis of Intolerance, reputation and hysteria, this essay will explore how conflict creates drama. In a puritan society, not meeting the social norms was seen as treason and heavily persecuted. This lead to an intolerance of anyone who did not worship god, and dissent lead to beliefs of Satanic activity. Judge Danforth quotes in act three page 85 "You are either with the court or against it". Miller uses tone to foreshadow what is yet to come in the the text. The tone of this sentence shows that the witch trials are the ultimate form of intolerance and hanging...
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...The word “crucible” is defined as a severe test or trial, or a vessel that can withstand intense heat and is used for melting substances. In the play written by Arthur Miller called the “Crucible”, the word applies to many characters as they progress and attempt to resolve their conflicts. During the play, we watch as the town of Salem has a witch hunt hysteria in which many Puritans are falsely accused by teenage girls. The word crucible is significant to the consequences that Mary Warren, Giles Corey, and John Proctor go through during this time of mass hysteria. Mary Warren was one of the girls that was found conjuring spirits in the forest with Tituba and the other girls. However, when she made a poppet for Elizabeth Proctor, she accused Elizabeth of making it in order to avoid being blamed of hurting Abigail.. This led to Mary becoming one of the main accusers of witchcraft in Salem. “Proctor: ‘We will slide together into our pit; you will tell the court what you know.’ Warren: ‘I cannot, they’ll turn...
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...In Act 3 of The Crucible, we see that hysteria has taken over this town and the way that they think, act, and talk. The court makes judgments based on hysteria, that determines who is innocent and who is a witch. We see that in the way that the court treats Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, and Martha Corey. In act 3, we also see that the court is making decisions blindly. They believe almost anything the girls say, without any proof to back it up. I think that this irrational decision making, is coming from the amount hysteria in the town. The court is so set on finding an answer, they don’t care what is truth or not. We see in act 3, that hysteria is making people believe things that are clearly fake. On page 1205, Abigail is in the courtroom,...
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