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Essay English 11 p4

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5 views3 pages

Essay English 11 p4

Uploaded by

edissonzumba67
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Estefany Zumba

Brittany Guerrero

English 11 P4

10 October 2024

The Crucible Theme Essay


The paranoia in Salem, much like mass panic in real-world situations, showcases

humanity’s susceptibility to irrational behavior when fear takes control. This fear-driven hysteria

leads to manipulation, corruption, and ultimately, the collapse of morality. As we see through the

events in The Crucible, fear can have destructive consequences on society. A prominent theme

in Arthur's Miller’s Play of The Crucible illustrates how fear of witchcraft creates irrational

behavior and fuels the spread of hysteria.

In The Crucible, fear leads to irrational behavior as the town’s people abandon reason.

Salem’s citizens quickly jump to conclusions about witchcraft, accusing their neighbors with no

evidence. Abigail Williams, sensing this irrational fear, takes advantage by accusing innocent

people, saying, “I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil” (Miller 598). The court accepts these

claims without question, acting irrationally as fear drives their decisions. Instead of seeking the

truth, they follow the hysteria, blindly trusting accusations over logic. This proves that when fear

dominates a society, irrational behavior becomes the norm, leading to chaos.

As fear takes hold, manipulation becomes a powerful tool for control. Abigail uses the

town’s fear of witchcraft to manipulate those in authority, increasing her own power. In Act 3,

she feigns seeing a bird attack her, crying, “It’s on me, I can’t see it!” (Miller 627). The judges,

fully gripped by fear, are easily deceived and take her word as truth. The irrational fear gripping

Salem allows Abigail to manipulate the situation, turning hysteria into a weapon. This
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demonstrates that fear creates an environment where manipulation thrives, allowing those who

spread lies to control and further fuel the hysteria.

Finally, the fear of witchcraft causes the complete collapse of morality within Salem.

Even honorable individuals like John Proctor are pressured to betray their values. In the climax

of the play, Proctor wrestles with confessing to witchcraft to save his life, saying, “God sees my

name; God knows how black my sins are!” (Miller 845). Fear has pushed him to consider lying

to survive, showing how deeply the town’s moral structure has collapsed under hysteria. The

court, rather than seeking justice, prioritizes confessions—whether true or false—over integrity.

This collapse of morality illustrates how fear can erode a community’s ethical foundation,

replacing truth and justice with lies and survival.

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller uses the fear of witchcraft to show how hysteria leads to

irrational behavior, manipulation, and the collapse of morality. The events in Salem serve as a

cautionary tale about the dangers of allowing fear to control our actions. When irrational

behavior takes hold, as it did in Salem, the consequences are far-reaching and destructive, not

only to individuals but to the fabric of society itself.


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Works Cited

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. My Perspectives Student Edition Grade 11. vol, 2, edited by Savvas

Learning Company, 2022, pp_563-679.

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