The Crucible

What is hysteria? By definition, it is the behavior exhibiting overwhelming or unmanageable fear or emotional excess. In history, hysteria has always created problems. The Salem witch trials are great examples of the effects of hysteria. Hysteria is much like a disease; it is very contagious and it is hard to get rid of it. In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, the witch trials were reenacted; however, Miller took it to an extreme and created more chaos by making scenes that did not take place in the real witch trials.

Reverend Parris is the man who found the girls and Tituba in the woods dancing. It was very uncommon for anyone to be dancing, let alone in the woods chanting and screaming. This made Parris furious and the all the girls ran, except for a few. Those girls acted as if they passed out. This worried the Reverend more than anything because his reputation was in danger of being ruined. He panicked and decided to bring in Reverend Hale to determine if witchcraft was afoot.

Hysteria is not created until people begin to spread it around. When only a few people knew of Abigail and the other girl's activities, there was no panic or rush to condemn all the witches. Once word got out about villagers practicing witchcraft, many people panicked and wanted the witches to be stopped. This forced the higher officials to make twelve very rash decisions. Those twelve people were put to death, mainly to ease the minds of the people. "I hear the boot of Lucifer, I see his filthy face! And it is my face, and yours, Danforth!" (115) John Proctor said this when they came to take his falsely accuses wife, Elizabeth, away for allegedly practicing witchcraft. His wife would be sentenced to hang at a later date because she was pregnant. This marked a turning point in the play when Reverend Hale and John Proctor knew that Abigail was full of lies and hatred.

Abigail was the main leader of this lying group of teenagers. She would say anything to save herself or to gain land for her family. If anyone got in her way she would make them pay tenfold. She was the devil herself and she brought many innocent lives to an end. The main point of hysteria in Salem started in her head. Many people were being accused of witchcraft and Reverend Hale knew something was not right. He spoke out against the court and later quit. Once the twelve individuals were hung, the court officials knew they could not go back