One individual in a group can create and transform ideas and thoughts of others in that group. This is concept is known as mob mentality, and it is extremely applicable to events in American History. In the early Seventeenth Century, one girl, Abigail Williams, created the idea of witches had been sending their spirits upon others, and it spread to others making the same claims. In addition, Joseph McCarthy, a United States Senator in the 1950’s, charged many state employees and other public figures of being Communists. This ultimately led to a plague among the American public over the fear of Communism. Both of these American events can be explained simply by social principles in The Tipping Point like mass hysteria. In Arthur Miller’s …show more content…
The Communist Scare in the 1950’s also demonstrated this idea. Senator Joseph Miller, well aware of American fear of the Soviet Union after World War Two, claimed that the American Government was overrun by Communists. This one event led to the beginning of an epidemic as now fear of Communism ran across the country. Eventually, it reached a point in which the government, using the Smith Act of 1940 as their basis, arrested anyone that could be against the government. There became a large trial of Hollywood actors that may be communist sympathizers. Like the accused in Salem, these actors were assumed guilty from the start of the trial, and it was difficult to prove against being Communist. The goal of the trial was to get the “actors, directors, and producers to ‘name names’ of colleagues who had Communist ties or sympathies”(Roberts 2). This just created more people to investigate, and therefore a larger epidemic of Communism in the United States. The event is evident of mass hysteria as the fear of Communism became rampant across the entire county, even though the threat of Communism in the United States Government was not likely. It also demonstrates the traits of an epidemic as described in The Tipping Point. The fear of Communism started out in a Women’s Club in Wheeling, West virginia, and then within the year there was a House for Un-American Activities. The point at which the fear went from local to national is the “dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once”(Gladwell 9), and this moment is known as the tipping point. The Witch Trials lacked the element of an epidemic as it never was contagious enough to spread passed salem, but both events clearly demonstrate mass hysteria across a given
Carlson claims that the notorious events that created the outbreak of witchcraft hysteria in Salem correspond with the physical and neurological symptoms displayed by the residents of the town. However, Carlson’s argument lacks conviction as she fails to explain why other related family members and other communities were not affected by the epidemic. If this was truly an epidemic, the unexplained symptoms would have spread across the entire population, and eve the world, affecting millions of people. Epidemics put the entire human population at risk, not just select groups of people. Also, the majority of the accused were women which fails to explain why an epidemic would only affect women and not the male population as well. Attempting to blame the hysteria on an epidemic seems a little too simplistic. Furthermore, Carlson’s argument does not explain why the witchcraft hysteria faded as the economic conditions improved. As soon as the socioeconomic conditions and tensions improved, the witchcraft accusations seemed to fade. Therefore, in Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, Boyer and
The Salem Witch Trials demonstrated a hefty fear onto its residents because of their melodramatic belief that Satan was among their adolescents and themselves.(Salem Witchcraft) During both instances, when a group of people acts irrationally regarding the subject the event symbolizes, it would eventually ignite a spree of illegitimate accusations among others and slander.(Salem Witchcraft) A dread that could arise would be of the fact that your whole essence could be diminished because of a substantial accusation of being involved with Communism.(Red Scare) According to History.com, it states “Americans also felt the effects of the Red Scare on a personal level, and thousands of alleged communist sympathizers saw their lives disrupted.”(Red Scare) This would motivate such a fear that it would arrive in everyone’s lives at that time, especially government or popular figures.(Red
In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, explains 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.
Typically people do not handle things well if they are unsure of it (Blumberg). The AIDS hysteria is very similar to the Salem Witch Trials because both cases were caused by fear. The people didn’t know how to deal with the situation. Also in both cases they took extreme measures to keep witches and people with AIDS away from society (Blumberg). The paranoia led to many deaths, and also made people make many rash decisions.
In Salem, the suspected witches are imprisoned, even if they have in the past been regarded as “upright” citizens (Miller). Citizens of the village are concerned about what will happen, and all of the sinful activity that will take place, if witches are present in Salem. Likewise with the Ebola situation, those who had come in contact with, or were suspected to have the disease were quarantined and isolated to prevent it from spreading to other people, and other countries(Ebola {2}). In both occurrences, citizens of Salem and the whole world were afraid of the unfamiliar and the damage that could have been done if proper precautions were not
The Salem Witch trials were when hundreds of citizens of Salem, Massachusetts were put on trial for devil-worship or witchcraft and more than 20 were executed in 1692. This is an example of mass religion paranoia. The whole ordeal began in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris. People soon began to notice strange behavior from Parris’s slave, Tituba, and his daughters. Many claimed to have seen Parris’s daughters doing back magic dances in the woods, and fall to the floor screaming hysterically. Not so long after, this strange behavior began to spread across Salem.
During the 1950s, the United States was afraid of the communist party. This caused the U.S. to quickly judge anybody who was assumed to be a communist. A similar story was the struggle John Proctor had. John Proctor lived within a super proper society, with many of the people in it being superstitious with the Witch Trials going on. The Salem Witch Trials were filled with the lies of people being witches that would eventually destroy their reputations.
Yet, the theocratic society, the mass hysteria, and the girls’ desire for attention and power were the three most significant factors which caused the greatest impact. It is very likely that without one of the factors, Salem would have never had a downfall. The theocracy is what potentially led to the accusations because of how connected god and government were in Salem. The mass hysteria spread due to how the conditions in town created major trust issues. Finally, the because the children were so looked down upon in the town, it was hard for them to be noticed and once they got a chance to gain the people’s attention they went for it gaining the power they needed to bring down anyone they wanted. The main theme presented in the play The Crucible, is that social pressure can lead individuals to go along with actions they know are
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. & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; & nbsp ; The Crucible parallels directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s. The story of The Crucible takes place against the background of the Salem Witch, but the themes lie much deeper. The main themes expressed in The Crucible relate to the events that occurred at both the Salem Witch Trials and during the McCarthy era.
...appenings of everyday life turned into something more. From the belief that women were more susceptible to evil intimidation and for having a weaker constitution since Eve was tempted by the Devil to having a non-existent court system to settle disputes between neighbors or just the fact that there were people who saw an opportunity to gain personal wealth, the Salem witch hunt and trials was more than just a religious cleansing of the community by pious people. They were a microcosm of what could happen when people do not understand the relationships between themselves, their neighbors and the natural cause and effect of the world around them.
From the beginning of time there has been conflict between the views of different people and their different groups. Conflict has brought prejudice and fear into communities around the world. As conflict is an inescapable part of any society, it can be expected to extend to the greatest impact possible. The Salem Witch Trials are one such conflict. This conflict caused many to be accused, arrested, and killed. Because of social, economic, religious, and physical problems within the community, Salem Village was present with prejudice and panic causing the Salem Witch Trials.
Hysteria is an uncontrolled fear complemented with excessive emotion that leads to poor decisions and actions done with complete lack of forethought. The hysteria that existed in the town of Salem was largely caused by the people’s extreme devotion to religion, as well as their refusal to delve into other possibilities to explain the predicament of the time. These circumstances still exist today, and it is quite possible, as well as frightening, that a similar event could recur today. One would like to think that one would never lose control of their opinions and thought, but hysteria is a powerful force and can bring even the most intellectual of people to lose sense of what is occurring. More modern examples of hysteria such as the McCarthy trials and the ostracizing of people infected with AIDS show that learning to properly evaluate a situation for it’s reasonability and integrity prove to still be a valuable lesson for today.
In discussing the problems surrounding the issue of factionalism in American society, James Madison concluded in Federalist #10, "The inference to which we are brought is that the causes of cannot be removed and that relief is only to be sought in the means of controlling its effects." (Federalist Papers 1999, 75) In many ways, the nature of American politics has revolved around this question since our country's birth. What is the relationship between parties and government? Should the party serve as an intermediary between the populace and government, and how should a government respond to disparate ideas espoused by the factions inherent to a free society. This paper will discuss the political evolution that has revolved around this question, examining different "regimes" and how they attempted to reconcile the relationship between power and the corresponding role of the people. Beginning with the Federalists themselves, we will trace this evolution until we reach the contemporary period, where we find a political climate described as "interest-group liberalism." Eventually this paper will seek to determine which has been the most beneficial, and which is ultimately preferable.
The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.
As an individual in the middle of Twentieth century Joseph McCarthy had a rather intense effect on society. He started the movement that bears his name. McCarthyism was the movement that caused many changes in the lives of the people of the 1950's. McCarthy headed the charge against communism in the United States after the second World War. Through his actions many people were accused of being communists and hastilly judged to be so because of the general feeling toward communism. What causes such an incredible uprising. What caused so many people to rally behind, in many cases, unfounded accusations that would ruin other peoples lives unjustly? What caused not just a movement but the movement known as McCarthyism? It is historically proven that a simple action can have many complex causes, while a movement can have immeasurable causes underlying its begining and the momentum that keeps it alive. Leaving the little, but not insignificant causes alone, the major causes of McCarthyism were the attitude of the United States toward communism, the sense of superiority within the United States, and McCarthy's own position.