Hannah Beck

Hannah BeckMrs.

StiffHonors English 101/12/17 Hysteria is known to have devastated countless communities, and in misfortune it had come across the city of Salem; an estimated 200 people were accused of witchcraft and over 20 people were killed due to the rampant rage throughout the city. “The Crucible” written by Arthur Miller depicts the untold truth of Salem, Massachusetts, and the obligation for a in just religious society during the tragic events of the witch trials. The term hysteria generally refers to as (MPI), mass psychogenic illness, but this can be just as sociological as well as a psychological phenomenon that occurs in almost all universal traits in us as humans. Many have looked to Salem as an example of hysteria, in which they had experienced a massive collective panic that swept through the city, as their hunt for witches became a matter of life or death. Why did a kept Puritan society quickly overnight turn into the hustle for finding, and making accusations of witches? Well it is in our human nature, us as humans can quickly believe almost anything when we encounter it firsthand, even though as absurd as it seems.

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As Arthur Miller says, “Salem was like looking into a petri dish, an embalmed stasis with its principal moving forces caught into stillness. One had to wonder what the human imagination fed on that could inspire neighbors and old friends emerge overnight as furies secretly bent on the torture and the destruction of Christians” (Miller, 3).

In the Crucible, hysteria is most clearly seen in the villagers’ irrational acceptance of the girls’ fabricated claims of witchcraft. As most people in the city had experienced witchcraft firsthand their minds had told them that it was indeed happening and for them to quickly panic in the scenario of life or death. Now going back to what Arthur Miller had said, I believe that our imaginations are fed on the fact of life or death. In a specific scenario, where it was your life and reputation on the line per say and your neighbor’s life on the line, would you either make a claim to make your neighbor look guilty, or would you not? Many people were accused of witchcraft because of hysteria, and as I said hysteria is also psychological illness. I believe that their minds had kept telling them to get out of the situation and for them to save themselves, rather than keep themselves in the dangerous panic of the trials.