Mob Hysteria In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Mob hysteria is defined as a group of people, characterized by anxiety or excitement, unreasonable behavior or beliefs or peculiar symptoms of sickness. An example of Mob hysteria in history is the 2012 theory. With the 2012 theory, masses of people believed the world was going to end in December of 2012 based on theories scientists had come up with. During the McCarthy Era and The Salem Witch Trials, mob hysteria was present due to the fear of communism spreading to the United States and sickness occurring in Salem due to what they assumed was witches. In The Crucible by. Arthur Miller, Miller compared The McCarthy Era and The Salem Witch Trials to bring to light the positions those involved were in when they were being investigated. Throughout The trials in both Salem and the U.S., …show more content…
Arthur Miller, conveyed us to learn about The Salem Witch Trials and all the betrayal that came with any and all false accusations. In The Crucible, Miller’s character, Parris states, “A wide opinion’s running in the parish that the Devil may be among us, and I would satisfy them that they are wrong”(The Crucible, pg.27). This statement, from The Crucible, creates the sense that those who served the court in Salem and investigated for witches felt that there wasn’t really anything going on in Salem and that the only way to prove this theory was to pursue any accusations given to them. Miller gives us many ideas and examples of false accusations in The Crucible that helped us form the idea that you can’t trust anyone with your life, but yourself. During The Salem Witch Trials, accusations went rampant with everyone falsely accusing others to save themselves and get rid of those who stood in their way of a prized possession that would be up for grabs once they were out of their way. Those who were in the wrong in this situation due to unsubstantial evidence was the court system which didn’t have very much evidence to prove any of the accusations