Opponents argue that fear is not a harmful emotion. In the story, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, many people who believed witchcraft was occurring throughout the village wanted to put an end to it. For example, when some of the girls were killed, many people found comfort in it because it helped stop the outbreak of witchcraft. The townspeople knew that they could not avoid confronting their fear of it because if they were afraid of the witchcraft, then it never would have ended. Another example is that John Proctor could not have feared witchcraft because of his wife, Elizabeth. Proctor had to be brave when he stood up in front of the court attempting to defent protect her. …show more content…
In the beginning of The Crucible there are girls who are dancing around a fire and wishing for things to happen. The young girls feared people would find out and accuse them of witchcraft. Reverend Parris witnessed what the girls had done and the girls scrammed. Parris did not say anything to anyone, but he privately confronted Abigail about it. Parris only asked Abigail what happened because something happened to Betty following that night. After the night in the woods, Betty had fallen asleep, but she did not wake up. When Parris saw Betty he feared something terrible had happened to her. Because he feared so much, his emotions changed. He was driven to begin blaming everything on Abigail because he was terrified Betty would never wake up and that his reputation would be