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The Crucible; Themes

Uploaded by kelizabeth on Sep 04, 2008

In the play, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, many themes are displayed in each act. The largest and most prominent theme displayed throughout the play is the theme of mass hysteria. Mass hysteria is defined as, “A socially contagious frenzy of irrational behavior in a group of people as a reaction to an event.” (The American Heritage Dictionary/ Dictionary.com). It is very easy to see this displayed in each act and through a variety of different characters- some you really wouldn’t expect….
In Act I, Abigail Williams shows hysteria when she threatens Mary Warren and Mercy Owens saying, “Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sister. And that is all. And mark this. 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 night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you…I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down” (Miller 19). This is a good show of hysteria because we can see that Abigail is beginning to get nervous that someone might realize she is lying. In order to ensure that she won’t be found out, Abigail must make sure those who do know her secret are too scared to do anything about it. Abigail is showing imprudent behavior in response to the event of her lying.
Another time this kind of behavior in reaction to Abigail's deceit can be seen is when Mary Warren turns against John Procter while in the midst prosecuting Abigail and the girls in court. Abigail Williams and the girls are pretending that Mary Warren is sending her "evil spirit” down at them in the form of a bird. To save herself, Mary Warren says, “Pointing at Procter: You’re the devil’s man! ...hysterically indicating Procter: He come to me by night and every day to sign, to sign, to-” (Miller 110). Mary Warren realizes that Reverend Parris does not believe that Abigail and the girls are making everything up, so she reacts to Abigail's lies and Parris’s close-mindedness by lying and saying that John was forcing her to go against them.
Another example of hysteria is when, in Act II, John begins to become angry towards...

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Uploaded by:   kelizabeth

Date:   09/04/2008

Category:   Literature

Length:   3 pages (683 words)

Views:   7290

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