In “The Crucible”, there are words that have different meanings based on their context such as hysteria, evil and hope, which applies to the content of the play. Hysteria destroys the people of Salem, evil is within the Devil, and hope is when the characters confess. “The Crucible” displays hysteria in many ways throughout the play, but the main act of hysteria was that it wrecked the people of Salem. Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion, which is mainly demonstrated by divisions of society. Hysteria takes a main part of the play because it caused the people of Salem to do such unreasonable acts. One hysterical act in “The Crucible” was during the Salem Witch Trials, one hundred fifth people were accused for practicing …show more content…
Evil is a profoundly immoral and malevolent. Evil is shown all through the play, firstly through the Devil and then through the characters. The Devil is evil because it caused many crimes such as the multiple deaths of babies and so on. Marry Warren and others have been trying to catch the Devil and to stop all this absurd villainy, “The Devil is loose in Sale, Mr. Proctor, we must discover where he’s hiding.” Although he may seem that all this evil is coming from the Devil, yet it is also coming from Abigail Williams. “ You drank a charm to John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor”, this shows that Abigail has the desire to have John Proctor and she is willing to act evil, like the Devil. This clearly shows that this selfish act of Abigail’s was her own act of evil, rather than the Devil’s. In the end, evil is not only the Devil to blame for all the wrongdoings in the play, but other characters also have the qualities of the Devil. The Crucible”, the play indicates that there is hope for the people who have done such disasters.Hope is a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Though the play has many harmful dramatic actions going on, towards the end there are still people who still have hope by confessing their sinful sins. John Proctor attempts to break the witch trial system by confessing his sins. His first confession is when he admits that he has been cheating on
The Crucible is aiming to tell audiences about the dangers of mass hysteria and what damage could be done either to a small community or a larger, more controllable, area. In the beginning, we find out that at least three girls, Abigail, Betty, and Tituba, are involved with a forest dancing and perhaps calling upon the Devil, after more girls are accused and word is spread thru town, mass hysteria begins. Hysteria in society can spread rapidly leading to panic, chaos, and disaster, and in The Crucible this is exactly the message trying to be sent to the readers.
Hysteria is an uncontrollable outburst of fear among a society. Throughout the story “The Crucible, hysteria spread by fear of others throughout the community in many ways. Abigail was one of the main characters in the story that showed great hysteria fearing others that mentioned her name. At the beginning of the story Abigail and some girls were found dancing in the woods. Fearing that she would be accused for witchcraft Abigail responded “Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor’s packed with people, sir. I’ll sit with her” (Miller, 10). This is showing how Abigail was worried about her reputation in the community and how she wanted her uncle to go to the parlor to deny it to the people. This is also showing how over one night an uprising of fear spread throughout the town, fearing
The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was a historical play written about the Salem witch trials that took place in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1692-93. The Salem witch trials created mass hysteria throughout the entire village of Salem, which was also mainly inhabited by Puritans. Puritans had a set ideal of firm beliefs that managed how they lived. Essentially, they were living as an elect, which meant they (referring to the Puritans) had a place in heaven for the righteous acts they have done in the physical world. Meaning, any sinful acts could potentially hinder the chances of entering heaven as an elect. The Crucible, questioned everything the Puritans abided by. It questioned the basic morals of a pure lifestyle, adultery and
Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. This can lead to lie being spread that people will believe due to hysteria. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller, Arthur use the red scare of post war america as his inspiration for his novel. During the red scare people were accusing any person of being a communist and people believed because due to hysteria. Arthur miller uses hysteria to show that it leads to Damaged reputations,lies ,and hurting people's lives.
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
Hysteria has been seen throughout history, but what dictates the outcome is how the community reacts. Hysteria can be defined as uncontrollable emotion among a group of people. It has been depicted throughout human history, which can be seen during the the Cold War, 9/11, and terrorist threats. The Crucible evidently shows how hysteria leads to the disunification of a community through the human obsession of reputation, the Puritan lack of respect for privacy, and human anger.
In the crucible, Reverend Hale finds a bunch of girls dancing around in the forest and thinks that it is witchcraft. This leaks out and eventually everyone is accusing eachother of witchcraft, and if they don't admit to it, they get hung or burned or drowned. In this essay I am going to tell you how fear, and hysteria are big contributors to the events in “The Crucible”.
Hysteria is the vital aspect in the act “The Crucible” about witchcraft which spreads throughout the small town called Salem and involved having tragic events without any facts. Abigail Williams is a major character in the play “The Crucible” Arthur Miller, but she is portrayed as an great antagonist who drives the wheel in the play. She has an unnatural power to manipulate others and gain control over them. Abigail states "I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil! (Miller 48). While confessing to witchcraft gets Tituba positive attention, and makes her a believable to accuse others, along with Betty she uses same technique to develop trust toward others. A major theme of the play is blame, revenge, and mistaken innocence. Abigail shifts the focus away from herself by accusing others of witchcraft. This furious act of selfishness soon becomes Abigail drive of power.
Hysteria is an exaggerated or uncontrollable emotion or excitement, especially among a group of people. Hysteria is fear of the highest degree. Fear is defined as a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, is a story inspired by actual historical events that occurred in Salem, Massachusetts. People in Salem start accusing others of doing witchcraft and then the trend goes on in a continuous cycle.During the time of the Salem Witch Trials fear and hysteria blinded people from the truth.
In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor, who is a highly respected individual in Salem, consistently shows his honorable character, which proves his actions at the end of the play to be believable. Proctor is a compassionate, honest, and strong willed man, especially toward his wife and true love, Elizabeth Proctor. Not only is he great to his wife, he is an upstanding citizen and respected by most. In the end, John confirms his goodness by sticking to his beliefs and not lying to save his own life.
In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.
Mass hysteria is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear. In a play called The Crucible by Arthur Miller, mass hysteria breaks out in Salem when children start acting weird and accusing people of being witches. There are multiple scenes and characters throughout the play that show how hysteria was affecting the town and the people in it. If accused, a person will be hung unless they confess to be being a witch, and even then they would have the entire village against them. Hysteria itself grows when people begin to accuse others because people do not want to be called a witch. The only reason why someone would confess is to save themselves from being hung. Arthur Miller uses powerful characters and scenes to create an atmosphere of hysteria in Salem.
The theme of Hysteria was evident throughout all scenes of The Crucible and tension of relationship was apparent with a number of characters, particularly with Abigail Williams, John Proctor and Mary Warren. Within the town of ‘Salem’ hysteria made its mark in the very beginning of the play, and it stayed consistent right throughout the entirety of the show. In scene two of the play, witchcraft is already mentioned when referring to Betty who laid unconscious. The rumour moved throughout the town quickly which created an atmosphere of chaos, this heightened the emotions and fears of the towns people. An example from the play that displayed tension of relationship was when Proctor and Abigail face the audience with the rest of the court focused on them.
fates of the people of Salem that we have got to know in the first two
During the time The Crucible was set, the community of Salem was awry. It did not have the solid characteristics of what a healthy town should look like. Instead there was no trust between people, everyone was watching out for only themselves, and most of the townspeople were turning their backs on the disastrous deeds of the court. The people of Salem feel like they have no one to turn to, so fear crept into their minds and hearts. They developed hysteria which caused the town to slowly disintegrate. This panic allows other people in their community to take advantage of them and manipulate them for their own purposes. In his play, The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows how vengeance and greed destroy the community through the characters of Abigail Williams, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, and Reverend Parris.