People who are bonded closely together, tend to share the same beliefs and reactions. Mass hysteria occurs when a large group of people exhibit a common state of mind, usually violence and anger are included in the package of craziness.
In The Crucible, the whole town falls under the curse of mass hysteria. While innocent people are being sentenced to death, the guilty girls roam free, all because the towns people and court believe Abigail's wretched lies. People in the town seem to have no personal opinion. They always go along with what everyone else does. This causes problems because if people think you're a witch, there is no changing their minds about it. The irony is, all of the people in the town of Salem are bewitched (excuse the pun) by Abigail's condescending power. The court also has immense power over the town, adding to the hysterics. As an example, Proctor shows them proof that the girls are, in fact, lying about the ridiculous Witch accusations and they choose to take the names and question John Proctor himself, rather than justify the proof.
Looking back to our history, The McCarthy Trials are very similar to the Salem Witch Trials in The Crucible. Mainly because Arthur Miller based it on his own experiences in The McCarthy Trials, we see the mass hysteria of the people in Salem relate to the Red Scare. His comparison makes The Crucible seem real because the legacy of false accusations will sadly, never disappear.
I really liked how you talked about how idiotic and stupid the people of salem looked when they were falsely acussing everyone, pun included haha
ReplyDeleteI like how you pointed out that the people of Salem where the the ones bewitched by Abigail, i never thought about it that way!
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