Arthur Miller’s play named The Crucible was one that shows a society turning on itself, accusing one another of false crimes to avoid being suspected of being involved in witchery. The Origin of this mass hysteria was caused by many young girls who were involved with “conjuring spirits” in the woods one night- something banned by the church. The young girls played a powerful part in the play due to the Puritan society where it was known that children were highly susceptible to detecting evil. The girls were brought to the court and had the prevailing determination on who was and was not a witch. It has become theorized over the years that the true purpose of the witch hunts was for individuals to enact revenge on fellow neighbors and gain
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This enacted the fight or flight response in many individuals which caused them to band together and develop a mob mentality. The mob acted in a way that accused others of being witches but kept themselves safe. Mob mentality was created by fear and drove people to falsely accuse others. This created extreme confusion in the courts and caused most individuals to be convicted of witchery and the accusations resulted in hangings. The mob mentality practiced by the girls led by the ring leader Abigail Williams convicted good people such as Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail was seen as showing violence against the other girls of the group by hitting them and scolding them shown in act 1 where Abigail hits Betty to get her to stop acting strange. This is also shown in act 3 where Mary Warren is pleading her case Abigail has the girls scream and cry against Mary that her spirit is flying around scaring them. The main initiation of fear was placed into the girls in act 1 where Abigail warned the girls not to say anything out of place because if they did she would come into their rooms and hurt them just like Indians did to her parents. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will
This enacted the fight or flight response in many individuals which caused them to band together and develop a mob mentality. The mob acted in a way that accused others of being witches but kept themselves safe. Mob mentality was created by fear and drove people to falsely accuse others. This created extreme confusion in the courts and caused most individuals to be convicted of witchery and the accusations resulted in hangings. The mob mentality practiced by the girls led by the ring leader Abigail Williams convicted good people such as Rebecca Nurse, Martha Corey, and Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail was seen as showing violence against the other girls of the group by hitting them and scolding them shown in act 1 where Abigail hits Betty to get her to stop acting strange. This is also shown in act 3 where Mary Warren is pleading her case Abigail has the girls scream and cry against Mary that her spirit is flying around scaring them. The main initiation of fear was placed into the girls in act 1 where Abigail warned the girls not to say anything out of place because if they did she would come into their rooms and hurt them just like Indians did to her parents. “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will