Paranoia is self inflicted fear, pride, and confusion to a person, or a group of people too confused to understand the truth or meaning behind a certain topic. Arthur Miller’s The Crucible personifies paranoia in its characters perfectly and really is the platform for the play's main story. In the 1690’s British and Colonial superstition was a common thing, you would avoid a black cat crossing in front of you, knocking on wood to make something bad you say not come true, and the rising belief of witchcraft. The first hanging of a witch in the US colonies was in Salem Massachusetts, 1692; A colonist was tried and hanged for witchcraft. This was the first American hanging, but the first witch trial, or hunt, was in Britain earlier that century.
