Mass Hysteria In The Crucible Essay, Research Paper
The Psychology of Mass Hysteria
In 1692, the people of a little, spiritual small town, Salem, Massachusetts, fell victim to an eruption of mass crazes caused by a fright of witchery. This fright of witchery was caused by a little group of misss who accused guiltless people of the small town of being under the influence of the Satan and harming them with enchantments of witchery. How would a town so concerned with faith react to such bizarre accusals? Arthur Miller explores such inquiries in The Crucible. In this drama Miller describes how different people with different positions on the events manage this type of craze. Some people join the stricken misss and take part in the craze out of fright for their lives, while others grow leery and seek to happen an account for how these honest misss, or “victims”, are impeaching those otherwise guiltless people, of witchery. Arthur Miller writes the drama to show that human nature is really good, irrespective of how easy worlds can be influenced by the spread of immorality. He illustrates how force per unit area created by fright, intolerance, and defeat can do people to accept their personal duties.
Not merely does the writer demo how can fear drive people off from their duties in the drama, but besides that a individual s fright can force one to recognize and accept their intents and duties. John Proctor, realizes how unsafe the witchery accusals are when the tribunal functionaries arrest his married woman, Elizabeth, for witchery and attempted slaying:” The small brainsick kids are jingling the keys of the land, and common retribution writes the jurisprudence! I ll non give my married woman to retribution! ( 77 ) . Before his married woman was arrested, John was truly incognizant of the extent of danger behind the accusals of witchery in the small town. At first, he is leery about the hysterical misss behaviour, but the fact that the tests did non straight impact his household makes him take the events less earnestly. Elizabeth s apprehension was a aftermath up call for John because now he is watchful and cognizant that the witchery accusals must be stopped because guiltless people are being put to decease. He makes a really of import determination, recognizing it is up to him to protest against the on-going tests because no 1 else will. He so discovers that Mary Warren, the household s retainer knows about the tests because of her function as an officer of the tribunal. John discovers that Mary knows that the witchery accusals are false.” You re coming with me, Mary, you will state it in the tribunal We will skid together into our cavity; you will state the tribunal what you know. ( 80 ) . He so comes to the determination that it is his duty, every bit good as Mary Warren s, to state the tribunal that the craze in Salem is based on prevarications and false accusals. It is because of a fright for Elizabeth s life that John realizes his single duty to salvage his married woman, every bit good as to protect other guiltless people from being accused and sentenced to decease.
As the drama progresses, Proctor comes to a realisation that it is his personal duty to state Danforth, a adult male of high authorization in Salem, that his rigorous attachment to the jurisprudence is set uping the town in a negative manner. Deputy Governor Danforth is a really serious tribunal functionary who does non allow anything “interfere with an exact trueness to his place and cause” ( 85 ) . It is because of his relation with the jurisprudence that he comes to believe it is his responsibility to implement the jurisprudence of Salem. A individual of his stature would non desire to believe John Proctor s account of the dishonesty behind the accusals of witchery because it would be an abuse to the judicial system of Salem. This narrative would travel against the jurisprudence that Danforth sto
Doctor of Optometry for and supported. John senses that Danforth is a really intelligent adult male who knows much about the prevarications behind the witchery accusals, but his trueness to the tribunal prevents him from believing them. Danforth s responsibility as a tribunal functionary prevents him from recognizing his duty to assistance John in protesting against the witchery accusal. Proctor tells him of his misguidance and shows him what his existent intent in the small town must be: ” For them that quail to convey work forces out of ignorance, as I have quailed, and as you quail now when you know in all you black Black Marias that his fraud God damns our sort particularly and we will fire together! ” ( 120 ) . John Proctor realizes that it is their duty to convey the people out of ignorance and that the craze that the misss started is based on prevarications. It seems that John Proctor told Danforth that his trueness to the tribunal is misdirecting him to back up the immature misss in Salem.
The drama besides demonstrates how defeat can non merely do a individual to deny duty for an action, but besides cause a individual to recognize his or her mistakes and take duty to deliver themselves as a good individual. Miller exemplifies this through his character Reverend John Hale, who first enters the drama as a individual called upon by the small town of Salem to happen a remedy for the unwellnesss caused by the witchery. He looks at his naming as a “beloved errand for him; on being called here to determine witchery he felt the pride of the specializer whose alone cognition has at least seen publically called for” ( 33 ) . He takes his naming as a compliment, experiencing that the people of Salem look up to him as a Jesus. Subsequently on in the drama, Hale inquiries the honestness behind the misss accusals because of their behaviour and the unfairness of the tribunal functionaries toward the accused. Hale could non happen a remedy in his books to forestall witchery and shortly came to recognize that the witchery involved in the tests are bogus. After fighting with the tribunal functionaries to understand his positions on the tests, he becomes really defeated and quits the tribunal. He subsequently comes to recognize his mistakes in happening his personal duties and attempts to forestall everyone else from conforming to societies crazes:” Let you non misidentify your responsibility as I mistook my ain beware cleave to no religion when religion bring blood” ( 132 ) . He finds that his books and his cognition based on them have misled him, believing that they held solutions to the jobs in Salem. He now looks into his ain bosom for the solutions to the cause of the tests, and he does what he can to salvage the accused from falling victim to the unfairnesss of the tribunal. His defeat in seeking to ground with tribunal functionaries about the tests opens Hale s eyes and makes him recognize that it his responsibility to halt the tribunals from killing guiltless people.
In 1692, an eruption of mass craze, which struck the small town of Salem, Massachusetts, brought the people of the town to recognize and accept their personal duties. Through the development of fright, intolerance, and defeat within John Proctor and Reverend Hale, Miller portrays the cardinal subject that human nature is really good, although it can easy be influenced by the spread of immorality. This clip of hiatus lead Proctor to protest against the tests in an attempt to salvage his married woman, and Reverend Hale to look indoors himself to salvage the victims from the pandemonium that spread through the town. This craze illustrates how a individual s penetration into the witchery tests can uncover one s ain responsibilities and duties to themselves. And although a little, spiritual town can fall victim to an eruption of mass craze, Arthur Miller displays how worlds can happen their errors and learn from them, therefore uncovering the overall goodness of world.
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