The Fear Of Fear In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

Great Essays
Fear is the unpleasant feeling when a person feel like an impending force of danger is coming. This is a feeling that no one wants to receive from their peers. Despite the fact that this feeling is wanted, there are many people abuse this power. Why? Simply because it is a one of the best source for the bullies used to motivate people to do their bidding. Fear can comes in many shapes. One of the best shown fears are illustrated in the play “Crucible”. This play is about a group of girls who claim that they can see evil spirit haunting them. As the result, they turn their town into a prison filled with witches by accusing people of witchcraft because they send their spirits and haunt them. Throughout the play, the author, Arthur Miller embedded …show more content…
One type of social fear is fear of a big group. In modern society, teenagers and also adults form groups. Every group come with a set of rule, which usually asks for dedication and commitment to the organization. As the result, people fear that if they do something that have a negative effect on the group, then mostly likely that the group will do something that will negatively impact that person. Arthur Miller shows a good example of fear of peer pressure in the play. In the play, the character Mary Warren knows that they were only faking it, but one of her loved one’s life is in danger and she is scared that the group will turn against her. In the play , it stated, “ I cannot, they’ll turn on me—I cannot do it, I cannot!” (Miller,). This illustrate that Mary Warren is in big internal conflict between choosing her group and her family. She knows if she goes against her group, she will face the same consequent as her closed one. However, she just couldn’t facing one of her family member to be thrown in jail because of an act that is not real. This show that everything comes with a price. Another type of social fear of the modern world is exemplified in the “Crucible” is the fear of losing pride. Everyone has his own pride. Pride is what makes a person unique and different from other people. In another word, pride is one ‘s identity. Identity is a man’s treasure. Pride is major component of the play. In the play, the character John Proctor is hesitating between signing his name on a document that will ruins his life forever or denied and die an honorable death. In the book, it stated, “ Proctor has just finished signing...But Proctor snatches it up, and now a wild terror is rising in him, and a boundless anger.” This shows that Proctor threw away his good name, however he wants to able to see and talk to other people without being judged. Not only he worries about his own title, he fears that his family

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Fear can impact and control you making you do things that you shouldn’t be doing. What is fear? Fear can be used in many ways in movies, plays, and real life. People either fear too much or not much in today’s society. As in Good Night and Good Luck and The Crucible, fear was a factor in both Salem witch trials and the search for the communist the in 1950s, it is still a factor in today’s society.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible’s hidden meaning An allegory is a narrative story which is similar in events, characters, and settings to another situation (Abrams 4). Many people in the world are afraid that history will repeat itself. During the 1950’s it was known as The Communist Red Scare. Many of the characters and events that happened during this time period, are similar to what happened during The Salem Witchcraft Trials in Massachusetts in the year 1692.…

    • 1174 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Crucible > The Red Scare “...141 people imprisoned, 19 people executed, and two more died from other causes directly related to the investigations.” (Callis, “The Aftermath of The Salem Witch Trials in Colonial America”). The Communist Red-Scare (Began in September 1945 when the U.S. and Canada thought that the Soviet Union was going to infiltrate our government with the idea of obtaining information about the atomic bomb.) and The Crucible/Salem Witch Trials (A wave of hysteria overtook the town of Salem, almost everyone, young and old, was accused of being a witch. They were almost always put to death.) are both widely known for the number of innocent people who were wrongly accused and the accusers of their times.…

    • 1932 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout this play all kinds of feelings are thrown at us so when showing revenge as a way to get back at people , fear through scaring a town into only rumors , and hysteria through the whole aspect of the play a town that hears something and accuse their own neighbors of being deceitful always be careful with emotions people take them to the…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Miller’s use of a play really allows him to show the audience the power of fear and it affects on the townspeople. We can see that there is fear in Salem when Danforth responds to Hale about the state of fear in the country saying “Reproach me not with the fear in the country; there is fear in the country because there is a moving plot to topple Christ in the country!”(Miller 97) Danforth tells Hale that the people are scared the witches are going to destroy Salem. John Hoerr uses Harry, Tom, and Father to show how hysteria can have an effect in the lives of real people. Arthur Miller uses The Crucible as a way to convey the power…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Looking back at the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692, and later on in the McCarthy trials, you can determine that fear was a ruling factor in the behavior of those involved. Arthur Miller was unmistaken when he stated in Why I wrote The Crucible: An Artist’s Answer to Politics by Arthur Miller that “fear doesn’t travel well; …it can warp judgment” (1). The fear that was instilled upon the people of Salem was that if anyone opposed the trials they were not only accused of overthrowing the court, they were also accused of overthrowing God – provoking charges of witchcraft. By using biblical allusions, Parris’ eager pursuit for “justice,” and Abigail’s vindictive actions Miller demonstrates through The Crucible that the application of power can instill so much fear in others that they succumb to submitting to immoral…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Fear in The Crucible Fear in today 's society causes you to become anxious and emotional. Fear is only in your mind. It can cause people to be lead in the wrong direction. In the story The Crucible, people act out of fear. Basically anyone could get accused of being witches.…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hysteria. Misunderstanding. Paranoia. Puritan colonists living in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692 felt these emotions, especially during the Salem witch trials. In the play The Crucible, hysteria and paranoia are two clear character feelings.…

    • 1414 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the author uses the main character John Proctor to portray courage in times of adversity while others cower. Miller uses Proctor's character shows that standing for what you believe in is the right thing to do, even if personal sacrifices have to be made. With all the different trials that the characters have to overcome with many of the towns people in jail and the trial of Salem, Miller shows how to be courageous during hard times and how there will always be people that will cower. John proctor shows great courage in the play when he sacrifices his life and reputation for the one he loves. In Act 3, Scene 3 the townspeople are in the courtroom to determine what will happen to the ones accused, While Proctors trying to convince the people that his wife is a good woman and she does not lie, he has Mary Warren to back him, but that backfires when all the girls turn against Mary, saying she was the cause of the witchcraft in the court, Proctor being…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the play “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller we see many themes and lessons in the story. The main theme is focussed on deceit and lying and how lies can lead down a dark road which results in the ruin of many. The Crucible is a fictional play based on the Salem Witch Trials which occurred between February 1692 and May 1693 and resulted in over 150 people being accused of witchcraft and 20 executed. The story focusses on the story of John Proctor and Abigail Williams, his niece, and how lies, jealousy, revenge, and deep seated feuds caused a community to turn on each other in a vicious circle of accusations and misunderstandings. The characters in the play who lie significantly are Abigail, John Proctor, and Mary Warren…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was a devastatingly sad, yet intensely interesting study about religious persecution, hysteria, and society. Throughout the world man has seen many cases of these types of phenomena. Some of these cases include, but are not limited to, the Holocaust, the Inquisition, and McCarthyism. Unfortunately, a lot of these beliefs stem from lack of education and antiquated beliefs.…

    • 1010 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Fear In The Crucible

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Salem Witch Trials in the 1690’s brought sweeping fear across the state of Massachusetts. The fear that satan could be lurking around every corner plagued many, but there was no greater fear than that of being accused of witchcraft. The crime of witchcraft was so horrendous that it was punishable by death. This constant scare caused many to turn on one another, in the hopes of saving themselves. Arthur Miller 's play, The Crucible highlights this deceitful society, and portrayed how many characters responded to fear.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The following statement, “The crucible is essentially about courage, weakness, and truth,” is correct. In the crucible the attributes that the characters show/have aren't necessarily the best, yet some show the attribute of courage, Mary Warren and John Proctor show this attribute. Other times some characters show the trait of weakness, those characters are John Proctor, Mary Warren, and Ann Putnam. There is a lot of both those characteristics, but what mostly lacks in this play is one simple thing, the truth. Abigail Williams is a perfect example of this.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Arthur Miller knew about how fear could eat away at the mind until only panic and stress were left, and he incorporated that into The Crucible through Mary Warren’s actions as well as the townspeople’s. The thought of witches in their own town scared the…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Reputation plays a large role in everyone’s life. Because of this, people act irrationally to defend it. Some even go as far as to betray their morals or put themselves in danger to protect their reputation. A large part of defending reputation is the fear of becoming a social outcast. The unprincipled characters within The Crucible manipulate the truth out of fear in order to safeguard their reputation.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays