Hysteria and the Consequences of Mass Paranoia in The Crucible Essay

The Crucible Effectively Demonstrates the study of Hysteria and the Consequences of Mass Paranoia. Discuss this with Reference to the Play and the Time in Which it is Written.The Crucible was written in 1952 by Arthur Miller and was firstperformed in 1953. It is or so a village c every last(predicate)ed Salem in America, setin the seventeenth century, where a suspicion of witchcraft and associationwith the Devil has arisen. This theme of commission and paranoia iscomparable with the period of McCarthyism in the United States ofAmerica, where many people were charge of communism andanti-Ameri potentiometerism. The play was written at about the same clipping as theevents in the 1950s and in many ways reflects the villagers dreadtowards their situation.The community of Salem is a strongly religious one and the villagersall attend the Christian church. The minister is the most importantperson in the village, as he holds a high position in their religion, hence he is expected to giv e a good example. The village is ring by forest and the nearest town is a few miles away. Thiscreates a strong bond in the community as each mortal has to workhard in order to endure the trials of being region of an isolatedsociety. The playw chastise shows the setting and era in the style of thecharacters words - it is in the fashion of late 17th centuryAmeri after part, when the play is set. The Caribbean slave, Tituba, similarly hasher speech modified to suit the Barbados dialect My Betty be hearty shortly? is the opening line of the play.The first act starts in the house of rarefied Parris, where Parris ispraying, in a confused state, for his unconscious daughter. Tituba,his slave, enters and the ensuing conversation reveals that... ... has an easier job creating the right effect foreach scene, so it is more believable for the audience and they create abetter understanding of it. The Crucible demonstrates how easilypeople can be manipulated by belief, and how belief in so mething caneffectively filmdom people, making them think irrationally. Thecharacters are plausible and consistent, and the audience can perk up howthey develop throughout the play. All the events are believable (ifnot probable) and the dustup used is convincing as 17th centuryAmerican. The audience can empathise with the characters, particularlywith John Proctor, as they see early on the problems he has andunderstand the dilemma he faces in Act IV. I think the play should bethought of not as a piece of drama, but as a piece of literatureillustrating how peoples assumption can be exploited to an individualsadvantage.