Hysteria In The Crucible

The Dangers of hysteria

Screaming, Riots, panic, and total chaos is the result of mass hysteria. A collision of feelings and people that cause an escalation of emotion to arise. Miller uses these examples to adhere the similarities to form The Crucible. The conjoining parts to this play were conceived only for the idea of storytelling, but instead became something else as the dangers of mass hysteria evolved and became clear. The McCarthyism era was a time between 1940 and 1950s where senator Joe McCarthy became paranoid of spies and Communists hidden within his daily life. He used his power to speak out against the so-called traitors, that were planted among the population. On one occasion, in part of history.com, included McCarthy delivering

Miller used the salem witch trials as a base for which he started to build his fictional town and the villagers within. He used this to share the hysteria felt within the two time periods and blend them together to form a play about them. Within the play he makes connections so seamless that it can be felt throughout the audience making the hysteria perceivable. This blended text includes information that proves the disruptive properties of hysteria. The disruption in history included those who were accused during the Salem Witch Trials. During the witch hunt many were accused by others as stated from history.com “ Like Tituba, several accused “witches” confessed and named still others, and the trials soon began to overwhelm the local justice system.”(Staff, HIstory.com) Miller used this information but concluded it wasn't enough. He dug deeper on McCarthyism to prove the resemblance. Miller found a proposed list of 205 names of communist given by McCarthy. The speech that contained this list stated that the Communists were “working and shaping the state department” ( Staff, History.com). The captured scene of this occurs in the play on page 9, abigail states “Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d best go down and deny it yourself.”(Miller 9) The very mention of witchcraft started the hysteria and created a perpetual movement of fear within the village. Miller

He uses the story of the Salem Witch Trials in the The Crucible as an allegory for the Red Scare. During both the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials, the dangers of mass hysteria are illustrated by the consequences of both historical occurrences; specifically, The names given up by others. Those names could undergo dangerous consequences according to pbs.org “Some had their passports taken away, while others were jailed for refusing to give the names of other communists. The trials ... could often destroy a career.” The dangers of hysteria are seen here as not having a job which some relied solely on. Miller encrypts his lines to include the same dangers by mentioning Giles Corey. Corey was a man that refused to accuse, he is pressed for information and comes to the conclusion of two words which he states on page 135 “More