The Crucible: Assumptions, Mob Mentality, Fear, and Blame

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Recommended: Compare the crucible and the salem witch trials

A crucible is defined as a container made with metal or refectory material used for heating substances to a high temperature, but it can also be defined as a severe test or trial. So, how do witch hunts relate to both definitions? Back in 1641 England made witch craft a capital crime, so in 1692 when Abigail Williams claimed that she had seen women in her village working alongside the devil you can only imagine the hysteria and problems that came along with the false accusations and the beliefs of the puritan lifestyle. So this brings us to the point of how lifestyle and the social norms form witch hunts. It seems to be human nature to fear what we do not know and with fear comes hysteria which leads to mob mentality that causes mass amounts of people to put blame on those who they have known for a long time. This blame ruins the lives of many people, and people in modern society, even though many have learned about the Salem Witch Hunt, do not think that we have modern day witch hunts and that brings us to assumptions.
Assumptions about not having witch hunts and assumptions about mob mentality not being as strong as it was before. But, there are many examples of modern day witch hunts that can be compared to not only timelines of the Salem Witch Hunt of Massachusetts but to the Crucible written by Arthur Miller as a way to inform and captivate the reader of the massacre of the Salem Witch Trials. In the Crucible mob mentality is used in a way to have combined testimony against those accused. “’I saw Goody Hawkins with the devil’-Abigail ‘I saw Goody Bibber with the devil!’-Betty” (p. 1049). These accusations go on to blame 19 people in which 16 of those people died because of the mob mentality that went around the village that...

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...e leaders believed lived within Salem.
Throughout the 17th century people were accused of being witches because of the things that ended up going wrong in the villages of the world. Assumptions were made hysteria had set in fear had begun to rise, blame was being placed, and the blackest most sinful secrets of the accused came alive and posted on the churches door for everybody to see. So, how does an un-yielding container that is able to heat substances to high temperatures relate to the Salem Witch trial? The witch hunt in many people’s opinions is a melting pot in which the lives of those who lived in Salem during the witch hunt started to melt into one large catastrophe because of the horror that was going on around them and the many people that the villagers knew that had been affected or the villagers that had been affected themselves during the hangings.

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