The Crucible

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• Irrational Fear

1. Irrational Fear
   1. An irrational fear is called a phobia now. An irrational fear generally occurs for no reason which is why it is an irrational fear. The person with the fear usually knows or is told that what they are afraid of is harmless, but they are still afraid.
      1. All the citizens who displayed a fear of witch craft had an irrational fear. Reverend Hale and Reverend Parris display an irrational fear of witches by believing Abigail.
         1. An irrational fear is something that a person should not be afraid of. this can be anything as shown in the image. The person is simply afraid, but we don't know what they are afraid of. In The Crucible, they were afraid of witchcraft which they had never experienced and the townsfolk had never even seen.
         2. Despite the fact the elephant is bigger than the mouse, it is still afraid of the mouse. The townsfolk were afraid of the Devil when they couldn't see it, and nobody who they thought was possessed had done any actually damage.
         3. The fear is controlling this person just as fear controlled the citizens of Salem. They allowed a little girl telling fables to save herself, rule them and their actions simply because she claimed she could help rid the town of a force they were all afraid of: witchcraft.
         4. The zombie bunny does not seem like a likely fear, but to others it may just be. To the Puritans, the Devil was a very real fear that would leave many people today quite skeptical.
2. Mob Mentality
   1. Mob Mentality is when people are influenced by other people to behave a certain way, follow certain trends and purchase different things. People are only doing it because everyone else is.
      1. The whole town exhibits a mob mentality where they start accusing people of being witches. However, Abby and her friends are the start of the mob mentality. Everyone does what Abby does so as to not get in trouble. During the trials if Abby starts to experience the feelings of being bewitched, all the other girls follow suit.
         1. All of the girls are frightened and following each other. The townsfolk then follow the frightened girls without a second thought and buy into their hysteria.
         2. They are all together going after a common thing even if they don't agree with it. They are being influenced with each other and act as one rather than individual people.
         3. The citizens are caught up in what everyone else is doing and are only doing things because that is what everyone else is doing. They are not thinking and acting for themselves, but rather as a group which can lead to hysteria and violence.
         4. They're all going after the same thing, like zombies do. The do it without any thought. They only want one thing and only care about themselves. They won't stop until they get whatever they are after.
3. Vengeance
   1. The townsfolk of Salem were more interested in getting back at each other than trying to do any good by ridding the world of witches. They used the hysteria to settle disputes and charged innocent people with witchcraft.
      1. The girls wanted vengeance so they didn't get in trouble. Abby sought vengeance on Elizabeth Proctor because she was in love with her husband, John Proctor. Ann Putnam sought vengeance on Rebecca Nurse because she was the midwife when seven of the eight children she gave birth to died. Thomas Putnam accuses citizens of Salem for his daughter, Ruth, being sick. He takes vengeance on them for her illness.
         1. This woman is getting vengeance on her husband. He wronged her and now she's embarrassing him and telling everyone of his misdeeds.
         2. This person's father did not change the toilet paper for them, so they sought vengeance and did not change it for their dad.
         3. Emily is pretty clever and took action against her cheating husband. She got her vengeance on him for cheating and di it in a creative and clever manner because she's an Emily and Emily's are clever.
         4. This image is from the TV show Revenge where Emily is getting vengeance on Daniel's (the man) mother by marrying Daniel. His mother does not approve of her. His mother broke Emily's father's heart and Emily is getting revenger for her dad.
4. McCarthyism
   1. McCarthyism is when people are blamed for disloyalty, subversion, or treason without actual evidence. In 1950, Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy began making his claims that there were communists in the government. It was a crime at the time, and the people would be put on trial. Generally they were unfair.
      1. McCarthyism is showed by all the girls and any townsfolk that accused a person of being a witch. Abigail displayed it the best as she was the one who did most of the accusing. The people she accused would have an unfair trial as spectral evidence was considered and there was no real way to defend themselves.
         1. Just as being a witch in The Crucible was shameful, being a communist during the '50s was shameful. Joseph McCarthy helped to make the hate greater through the trials.
         2. Basically, McCarthy was profiling people. He was declaring people to be communists on no real evidence, but on what he thought a communist might look and act like, and people trusted his judgment.
         3. Joseph McCarthy was an incredibly convincing speaker and managed to convince people that a law abiding citizen or even government official was a member of the communist party. He was a good speaker who was able to be a leader too.
         4. This is a typical courtroom for a trial during the '50s. It's bland just like the courtroom was for the Puritans. The parallels between the courtrooms was reat and further shows Arthur Miller's intentions of having The Crucible actually be an account of the McCarthy hearings.