Mass Hysteria in The Crucible Essay Sample

Did you know that 14 of the 19 “witches” killed during the Salem witch trials were women?  During the mass hysteria shown in The Crucible by Arthur Miller many people were targets even though many were innocent.  This is also shown during the Red Scare and the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.  These targets are often minorities who share different traditions, lack power, and have rumors spreading about them.  Mass hysteria often targets minorities in a society, as seen in the Crucible, the red scare, and the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. 

First of all, minorities are often targets due to their traditions being different from the community around them.  Oftentimes in society people see someone different and they immediately try to change it.  We saw this with Native Americans and boarding schools, as well as in the Crucible and with Muslims after 9/11.  When people don’t change they target them, even for something as small as speaking in a different language.  For example, Anan Hafez “ remembers hate crimes against Muslim friends: houses spray-painted, car windows broken, women and girls’ hijabs, or headscarves, torn from their heads by strangers.”  Many Muslim women are attacked, especially those who wear a hijab.  They are attacked due to the fact that wearing a hijab is not “normalized” in society.  Many people believe that the women are forced to wear one, and claim they are oppressed by their religion, when this is simply not true.  However this is not the only thing they get hated on.  The acts of hate crimes against Muslims increased by a significant amount after 9/11 due to their religion being shared with the terrorists who caused the attacks.  Traditions in the religion of Islam are different than those of other religions, making them a target in many cases.  This would be different if Muslims were the majority in society, as their culture would be more engraved in society.  It’s impossible to characterize all Catholics as terrorists because of one person who was.   Therefore Muslims are only targeted because they are the minority in society, not because they are actually a threat.

Secondly, minorities often lack power which makes them easy targets.   Many times this fear may stem from something true, however all members of a minority group are not the same, so the fear is almost always irrational.  These people lack power in the government which allows the fear to grow and grow until someone from within the government finally ends it.  For instance, the red scare was a time in American history when Americans were afraid of communists invading the US government.  During this time many feared “that immigrants, particularly from Russia, southern Europe, and eastern Europe, intended to overthrow the United States government.” (mass.gov) However, many of these immigrants were likely coming to America to escape communism.  This is because right before the first red scare, Russia was overtaken by socialists which resulted in a lot of Russians trying to flee to other countries before it was too late.  Despite this being the reason many come to America, many Americans were untrusting of these immigrants due to the fear of communists taking over.  Many of these immigrants got deported back to Russia due to this fear.  Since immigrants lack power in the government they couldn’t do anything to stop the deportations from happening.  Another example of this is seen during the witch trials in New England.  Although gender was not necessarily the only factor that went into who was alleged, “78% of 344 alleged witches in New England were female.” (activelylearn.com)  Even with this statistic, many of the men who were alleged as witches were only alleged due to a connection to a woman who was alleged.  This is because during this time period men had all power over women, so doing something as simple as arguing with her husband could flag a woman as being a witch.   In Puritan society women weren't necessarily a minority in society, however they were in power positions, in fact there were likely no women in any positions of power.  Therefore they were easy to target because they have no representation in power and were seen as less than.  Overall, minorities are often targets of mass hysteria because of their lack of power to stop it.

Lastly, rumors about minorities spread throughout different areas.  In society people often listen to rumors and follow the people who make them.  The more people agree with a rumor the faster it spreads, making for more mass hysteria.  In The Crucible a lot of women started to get accused of being witches, and Abigail makes it worse by saying “I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (Act 1) Abigail was a leader to all the girls in Salem, so she knew she would have a group of people agreeing with whatever she said. It is mentioned multiple times that many of the girls were scared of her and what she could do.  This made it so she knew that anything she said would be trusted, so any rumors she started would spread fast.  She used this power to accuse everyone she did not like, like Sarah Good and Goody Osburn.  Abigail also says, “She made me do it!  She made Betty do it!” (Act 1)  This quote is directed towards Tituba, who is her uncle's slave.  Abigail is trying to convince everyone that she is not a witch and that what happened in the woods is not her fault.  She targets Tituba because she is a minority, a slave, so a rumor about her is likely to spread around Salem.  Even though Tituba originally tried to defend herself, she ultimately went along with it due to the rumor.  Overall, rumors about minorities spread fast leading to mass hysteria.

Mass Hysteria often targets minorities in a society, as seen in the Crucible, the red scare, and the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  Minorities often have different traditions, lack power, and are subjects of rumors, which make them perfect targets for mass hysteria.  However these reasons are mainly not true because many of them stem from stereotypes.  In order to stop things like this from happening we, as a society, must come together so minorities don’t fall victim to mass hysteria for little things.