Mass Hysteria In The Crucible

Many people believe that the infamous witch trials ended, however, facts prove otherwise. Long ago, there were believed to be witches in a place called Salem Massachusetts. The book The Crucible written by Arthur Miller in the year 1953, is a retelling of the horrific events that took place many years earlier that took the lives of 20 people. These people were hunted down for whatever evidence, fake or real, that would convict them. The new witches of today may have different labels or may not do do actual witchcraft, but they do get hunted down for reasons that are quite unfair. The goal is to bring these “witches” into the light so it may see what the people or you, the reader, are truly doing out of fear and anger what shouldn’t be done at all. The witch trials never ended and are almost identical to the ones today, which are are just as horrific as they were then with terrorists and racism abounding and modern day fears as well as the original mass hysteria in tow.

Witches tend to be thought of as satanic and

those that practice evil otherworldly powers. In modern days people don’t give witches that title, but the feeling toward them and the treatment stay the same. Any person or group of people that are inherently seen as bad or evil, that the very sight of them causes fear and prejudice. Susanna from The Crucible stated “ He (the doctor) bid me come tell you, reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books.” “aye sir he’s been searchin’ his books since he left you, sir. But he bid me tell you, that you might look to unnatural things for the cause of it” (8 - 9). This quote shows how people treat people harshly largely based on the fact that they jump to conclusions. As soon as they don’t understand something, then they assume it must be evil or wrong all around and if one person does a bad deed then the whole lot of them must be evil or bad as well. The quotes explained can only be seen as how real modern day witches are fore how were the witches or accused seen? The answer to that question is left for the reader to determine.
Some of these witches have been given the name, terrorist, immigrants and even just with the color of their skin can cause many to have the reactions talked about as aforementioned and also in The Crucible. I’ve talked about some of the reactions towards witches but what about mass hysteria? Mass hysteria is when a large group of people act hysterically and this tends to leave behind nothing but destruction. In The crucible Parris says “... but let you say nothing of witchcraft ….. The cause is unknown” ( 16). To understand this quote to a deeper level poor Parris is a preacher in this town and fears being run out…..again. Parris states what we should all feel during these times. Instead of acting in fear, look for knowledge. This can be asking credible sources or even just listening to all the parties involved.
Many power hungry rulers love to use the tactic of “mass hysteria” for the plain reason that when people are hysterical they don’t think very logically so if their told something by leaders or people they look up to then it becomes as factual as anything else.

In The Crucible Putnam says “You are not undone!...... declare it (the witchcraft) yourself…..” (15) He needs to get rid of Parris so he uses his fear against him. Putnam fought with anybody that could give him land that he thought was his or owed to him. The Putnam couple use the fear of witchcraft to attack those that may point at them as guilty or are stopping their rise to power. Mr Putnam sees himself as the best man in the village and thinks he should have the up-most power to use but the people placed others in charge. He now uses the fear to put those in his way in prison or worse, hung. This goes to show that hysteria is the difference between knowledge and the fear with the lack of

it.
The witch trials never ended, we still attack what we don’t understand with fear. This must not continue. As the reader you have seen how modern The Crucibles treatment of fear and ours don’t differ enough. Fight fear with knowledge. Remember that only those that seek ruthless amounts of power will use the mass hysteria tactic and be wary of it. Last but not least the only thing to truly fear is the lack of understanding or the fear itself.