The Crucible Hysteria
Epidemic hysteria happens when uncontrolled emotion is set into the minds of a group of people over an issue that is happening in the mind but not in reality. When hysteria sets into a group, those who have become "infected" find that their lives are thrown into chaos and ruin. Epidemic hysteria was found evident in the lives of the characters in The Crucible. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a play that retells the events of the Salem Witch Trials. By looking at those "infected" by hysteria in The Crucible and the facts drawn from other outbreaks in a journal by Leslie B. Boss, it can be seen how the concepts of hysteria apply to the characters of this play, including how the "infected" received hysteria, what caused it, factors
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Some enhancing factors in Salem were boredom, poor communication, and labor-management relations, and the presence of officials. The inhibiting factor of boredom can be applied to Abigail Williams and her friends, in The Crucible. Abigail and her friends are Puritans in Salem. Every day of the week they are working, praying, or reading their Bible. These teenage girls were most likely bored and decided to dance in the woods, and when the problem got bigger it was easy to “play along” because “outbreaks provide a temporary escape from stress” (Boss, 237). When the girls were caught, one of them passed out and refused to wake up and another girl walked around and would not respond to anyone. This caused mass panic in Salem. It was at this point that the people of Salem started to suspect witchcraft, which leads to the next enhancing factor: poor communication. Poor communication can include rumors and misinterpretations and both of these can be found in The Crucible. Around the beginning of the play a respectable woman of Salem, Goody Putnam, suggests that witchcraft could be involved in the lives of the girls who are currently unconscious. She believed that “the Devil’s touch is heavier than sick,” (Miller, 11), and since the doctor had no medicine for the girls she automatically assumed witchcraft. This rumor made its way around the town of
Some enhancing factors in Salem were boredom, poor communication, and labor-management relations, and the presence of officials. The inhibiting factor of boredom can be applied to Abigail Williams and her friends, in The Crucible. Abigail and her friends are Puritans in Salem. Every day of the week they are working, praying, or reading their Bible. These teenage girls were most likely bored and decided to dance in the woods, and when the problem got bigger it was easy to “play along” because “outbreaks provide a temporary escape from stress” (Boss, 237). When the girls were caught, one of them passed out and refused to wake up and another girl walked around and would not respond to anyone. This caused mass panic in Salem. It was at this point that the people of Salem started to suspect witchcraft, which leads to the next enhancing factor: poor communication. Poor communication can include rumors and misinterpretations and both of these can be found in The Crucible. Around the beginning of the play a respectable woman of Salem, Goody Putnam, suggests that witchcraft could be involved in the lives of the girls who are currently unconscious. She believed that “the Devil’s touch is heavier than sick,” (Miller, 11), and since the doctor had no medicine for the girls she automatically assumed witchcraft. This rumor made its way around the town of