Mass Hysteria In The Crucible Essay

The Crucible was a brilliant representation of mass hysteria. The examples are very limited when it comes to panic on as great a scale of which the Salem Witch Trials created. The reasons for there are not a large amount of examples is because the timing must be perfect to achieve the range of hysteria as seen in The Crucible.The hysteria was only entrenched so deeply in Salem for the following reasons: people urged the panic on for selfish reasons leading to panic, religion and state not being separated as it should turning the panic into mass hysteria, and lastly the mass hysteria led to many well respected and loved people dying to sate the hysterics of the people. The first reason why the panic was able to get off the ground was because
The destructive end in The Crucible just so happened to be hanging. The hanging itself is not the cause of the hysteria but the execution of good people. The people who were hanged were good people that refused to tarnish their names. John Proctor could have been given freedom but he argued “they think to go like saints. I like not to spoil their names”.(Miller Act IV) The mass hysteria only ended because these good people held onto their righteousness and made the village question what they were being told. The effects of the mass hysteria was truly an awful thing with decent people being killed to end it. All of these components and the unfortunate things they bred added up to one of the most hysterical events to be told through a play. The Crucible was the perfect melting pot to create mass hysteria and the awful things that come along with it. The play also showed us the people behind the panic that either helped to stop it or urged it on. It is also a warning to never let people manipulate others to create panic, state and religion be one to move that panic on to mass hysteria, or to let good, decent people die so that the mass hysteria can be