Mob Mentality In The Crucible

Words: 755
Pages: 4
Open Document
Shannon Jones said, “In no major industrial country in the world is intellectual and cultural life so constricted.” During the Cold War, people in the United States used communism as an excuse to crucify others, since it was such a feared political stance. Communism had the same societal implications as witchcraft in the way that people accused others to protect themselves. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that a society of hypocrisy is not reasonable in a global society. Arthur Miller proves this type of community is not plausible by explaining self-preservation is a motive for harming others, mob mentality can lead to a lack of justice, and ideologies can lead to conflict. To begin, Arthur Miller’s explanation of self-preservation …show more content…
(Looking to Proctor) I – cannot faint now, sir. (Miller 106).
This excerpt shows that Mary Warren is so confused she cannot even repeat her false act of being possessed. As seen in these quotes, mob mentality is the mentality only when people gather, and as they disperse, this mindset completely fades away. Finally, ideologies can lead to conflict. “This difference in ideology almost led to the wholesale destruction of our planet through large scale nuclear war” (Yeoman 1). This quote is referring to the Cold War, where the difference in the United States and the Soviet Union’s conflicting ideologies nearly led to the deaths of 200 million Americans and Russians. Ideologies often cause conflict, where each side may justify its reasoning with solely its own ideology, as seen in The Crucible, where Danforth says to Francis, “You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time—we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God's grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not light will surely praise it” (Miller 94). Danforth justifies the witch trials using his religion and ideology, and disagreement with him would lead to more conflict, further showing the overshadowing theme of
Show More

Related Documents: Mob Mentality In The Crucible

Joseph Mccarthyism In The Crucible

After reading “The Crucible”, I found that Arthur Miller is trying to show us how we lose sight of what is right and what is wrong. While writing the play, Arthur Miller watched America enter a period of hysteria due to the statements of one man, Joseph McCarthy. During this time, Miller decided to write a story of gangs living in New York. When he presented the story to others, he was asked to make the gang members be Communists. This suggestion proved that Americans had lost their sense of…

Words 963 - Pages 4

The Crucible Religion

Andres Downey Mrs. Bradbury AP Language, Period 1 22 August 2014 The Crucible The saying goes that money is the root of all evil. But could religion also be as corruptible as money? Arthur Miller, in his play The Crucible, shows that religion can be used as a tool for a person to act in his own interest and influence the masses, as well as demonstrate what can a person who is devoutly religious through Abigail’s behavior and through the Proctor’s belief system in order to illustrate the damage religion…

Words 479 - Pages 2

Instances of Mass Hysteria: Witch Trials, Ebola, and the Internment of Japanese Americans Essay

Mass Hysteria English 3 Mrs. Starling 3A 3-25-2015 Have you ever been a part of a type of " mob mentality"? Well the thing is that type of thinking is used every day and most people don't even know it's happening. The great red white and blue has been guilty of using this type of thinking for decades and the play of " The Crucible " is based on one particular mistake made in the 50's. The purpose of the play is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that…

Words 563 - Pages 3

Adolf Hitler Manipulate German Populas

Since the first appearance of mankind humans have used fear as a tool to survive; fear tells people when to run away, fear tells people to be aware of our surroundings to avoid danger, and fear tells people not to repeat harmful mistakes. But just like anything, too much of a good thing can be detrimental, and too much fear is detrimental to society as a whole. When primitive humans began to appear on the African savannas humans used fear to keep them alive,now fear is not used to keep humans alive…

Words 421 - Pages 2

The Penalty Of Death Mencken Analysis

H.L. Mencken, in his 1926 historical piece addressed to the American people, “The Penalty of Death,” satirizes the use of the death penalty as an effective means of punishment. Mencken develops his position by writing from a perspective of a patriotic American and refutes the two most common claims against capital punishment and then proposes a solution with his basis for support being the “gratifying relief” felt by the community and victims. Mencken’s purpose is twofold: he uses his refutations…

Words 773 - Pages 4

Why Did John Proctor Change In The Crucible

Proctor was accused of witchcraft and hung for his crimes. In the Crucible, Miller changed this because he liked him. I think that is why Miller had Proctor make an impact to the story as him being a respected person that the people of Salem looked up to. In real life and the play Proctor was hung,but for two different…

Words 604 - Pages 3

The Crucibal - Symbolism Essay

trial, and being held on the account of accusation, with little to no evidence. It feels like the media and everyone you know suddenly hates you, and there’s no way out of this snowball effect. Play writer Arthur Miller used his playwright "The Crucible" to symbolize the similarities between the Witch Hunts and the Salem Witch Trials in the late 1600s and the threat of Communism, and The Red Scare, in the 1960s. Both incidents used scapegoats in order to relieve tensions and attempt to calm the…

Words 1072 - Pages 5

The Crucible Research Paper

others. There are plenty of ways to forgive one another. How meaningful your forgiveness varies with each individual approach. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, the book characters call for witchcraft on anyone that opposes them, even just for minor inconveniences. In an article written by Kathleen Hylen, she writes about Arthur Miller and his book, “The Crucible”, Hylen states that Miller was right in his description of cancel culture, a giant witch hunt that has become the new norm. Which is true…

Words 1379 - Pages 6