...At the Edge of Unjustified Suspicion Mass hysteria is a plague that has been around for many decades and is still around in today’s society. Mass hysteria is a condition in which many or certain groups of people are afflicted by the belief that something is not real or that is a fable. A prime example of mass hysteria occurred in Spring of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts, known as The Salem Witch Trials. The mass hysteria which caused the Salem Witch Trials was unjustified. The Salem Witch Trials began in 1688 when the Goodwin children all started behaving in a bizarre manner. Then, four years later, in 1692 two young girls (Abigail Williams and Elizabeth Parris) started to twitch, choke, and twist their bodies in many different horrifying...
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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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...The Crucible and Mass Hysteria Mass hysteria has been displayed many times throughout history. From The Dancing plague of the 1500’s to the more modern LeRoy High School tourette incident of 2012, mass hysteria is rare but perplexing when it is seen. Though it is fairly easy to find differences between mass hysteria and other problems in modern times, it is harder to distinguish older supposed cases of mass hysteria due to their limited evidence and the legends which have become a part of the story. This is displayed greatly in the events of the Salem witch trial. It is very hard to distinguish if the events of the trials were caused by mass hysteria or some other catalyst which caused the destruction of so many lives. Even so it is safe to say that is is very unlikely that this tragedy was caused by mass hysteria, rather some other illness. Before a claim is made there must be a...
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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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...suggests that an entity, be it an organization or individual, has an obligation to act for the benefit of the society as a whole. A historical example of failure to be social responsible is Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, during the World War II era. During that time Hitler’s ideology and lack of social responsibility towards the citizens led to the death of millions of people. The citizens of Germany were incapable of taking responsibility and standing up for the millions of people that suffered and died. The society of WWII Germany is similar to that of Salem’s in The Crucible written by Arthur Miller because one of the larger issues in the community is the lack of social responsibility from the citizens and judicial system causing the hysteria and deaths in the Salem witch trials of 1692....
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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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...Syrian refugee Hysteria https://democracychronicles.com/witch-hunt/ This article is about the hysteria over the syrian refugees coming into America. Since the threat of ISIS in Syria many of these refugees have been forced to leave their homes in order to be safe. Because of this they have traveled to America to seek refuge to be safe, but most people fear that some of these refugees are terrorists in disguise. As a result of that many of these refugees have been deported and killed when they get back to Syria. The author of this article is Ana Maria Fores Tamayo and this article was written on February 3, 2016. She wants people to be more compassionate to the refugees and to make them aware of the pain they are enduring. The syrian...
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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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...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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...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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...Lindsey Sibille Ms. Gonzales AP English III, 1 16 October 2015 The Crucible Book Card Assignment Authorial Background Arthur Miller is the award-winning playwright of The Crucible along with many other famous plays such as Death Of a Salesman and All My Sons. Born in Manhattan in 1915, Miller experienced the pressing and devastating times of the Great Depression and both World Wars. His first two plays were The Man Who Had All the Luck and All My Sons, with the latter being performed on Broadway in 1949. His next play, Death of A Salesman, received a Tony award, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Pulitzer prize. These awards allowed him to rise to fame and helped his career skyrocket. Despite his successful playwriting...
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...The Crucible and The Salem Witch Trials both contain mass hysteria and elements of McCarthyism. Mass hysteria is defined as, “a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness.” McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of treason without proper regard for evidence. During the McCarthy era many Americans were accused of being communist and became investigated and questioned before government agencies. This time period of fear and accusations caused mass hysteria within the country. The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are similar because they both caused mass hysteria in which people accused each other of things that were not true....
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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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...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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...inferior to men. Taking a look at basic world history and it's sociology, there's a consistent pattern that appears against women. For instance, "Female Hysteria" used to be a medical term for women who showed any type of abnormal behavior. In fact, the word "Hysteria" is greek, meaning "Uterus". This is due to the fact that women are viewed as the weaker gender. The play, "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller is about a mistress name Abigail Williams what wants John Proctor to be her lover for life, but Mr. Proctor would not leave his wife, Elizabeth Proctor, for her. So, Abigail seeks vengeance...
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