The Crucible Fear

In life, humans have fears and insecurities that change the way they look at the world and feel about their surroundings and what is going on in the world. It is common for man to be curious and in today's world news is spread in seconds through the internet, radio, and TV’s. Technology has made it so that everyone has access to breaking news stories. In the United States the sole purpose of the government to protect the rights and properties of citizens and provide military defense. When Arthur Miller said that Fear lies deep within us, it was a valid statement because terrorist groups like ISIS have threatened peoples safety and rights.
In Syria and Iraq some of the people formed a terrorist group known as ISIS, which is one of the most dangerous
terrorist groups in the world. ISIS is a common fear arising in today’s generation because it is a threat to people’s safety, and it is a deep fear among people all across the world. In a speech delivered by President Obama he said “Let’s be clear about ISIL [ISIS]. They have rampaged across cities and villages, killing innocent,unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence...No just God would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. (CITE)” This quote reveals the president's view on ISIS and is significant because the president is in charge of communicating with other countries and solving problems in the country. ISIS has posted videos through social media, and threatens to kill innocent people that they do not like, and have done so because they have already killed many women and children all across the world. The threats of ISIS links in to what Arthur Miller said in his publication of Why I Wrote The Crucible, and he believes that panic and fear lie deep within all of us.
In The Crucible, the fear that lived in the people of Salem was the idea of witchcraft, and that some women were possessed with the demon, and persecuted.
In the Miller’s Why I wrote the Crucible a quote that he uses is “What terrifies one generation is likely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next.” This quote shows how in The Crucible, witchcraft was an actual problem and fear among the people of Salem, but when looking at the situation today it is amusing because we know that it is impossible for women to act in such a fashion. Personally speaking as well I found it amusing at some points because the court system was corrupt and judge Danforth believed that some of the women like Abigail could see the devil tormenting other women. Another quote that Miller uses is “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties.” This quote shows how even in modern day we all have a fear within us, and specific current events like the Zika virus and ISIS are examples of moral panics among
society.
In Miller’s Tragedy and the Common Man a quote that he uses is “...derives from the underlying fear of being displaced, the disaster inherent in being torn away from our chosen image of what and who we are in this world...Among us this fear is strong, and perhaps stronger,than it ever was.” This quote reveals how the common man wants to keep his or her image balanced and not tampered with. This is evident in The Crucible because the accused women were in reality innocent, and tried to protect their images and roles in society by defending themselves in court and trying to prove that they were innocent until proven guilty.
In an article written by, Paul Krugman he explains how people are fearing fear itself and how these terrorist attacks have had an impact on many, but there are still other problems in this world that should be feared of even more. In the article he says “Finally, terrorism is just one of many dangers in the world, and shouldn’t be allowed to divert our attention from other issues... terrorism can’t and won’t destroy our civilization, but global warming could and might.” (CITE) This quote shows how people ignore other issues that may result in more problems and the writer uses the comparison of terrorism and global warming and how global warming can affect all of humankind. This relates to the Salem witch trials because the issue over witchcraft was one of many issues in society in Salem, but there were other more serious problems that could have been discussed upon. In a Washington Post article, the author uses polls and statistical data to show that after the Paris attacks the fear of American’s has increased, and the author uses this to prove that fear has increased after previous incidents.
The connection between Miller’s works and the fear among people in today’s world is that fear is a feeling that is present in all human beings, and Miller teaches us that as humans we tend to eliminate all issues in the world without examining it closely.
In The Crucible the accused women were persecuted, but in reality witchcraft was a lie and innocent women were killed. This relates to modern issues in society because what we view as a problem in modern day, might be amusing to the future generation, as the witchcraft was to people in today's world. The founders of our nation created this nation for equality among people and to protect the inalienable rights of the citizens, and the activities and problems in society makes people insecure and devours them with fear. Throughout this life man fears what he cannot foresee and fear is a common feeling among all people in the past and in modern
day