Hatim Mohamed October 29, 2013

Mr. Baldwin Period 2

Fear in The Crucible
Fear is a powerful emotion. It defines humanity. The sole reason humans continue to

progress and invent is due to the fear of the unknown. Humans have feared the unknown since

the beginning of time. Therefore, it is logical that knowledge creates security. In scientifically

ignorant societies such as puritan Salem in 1692, fear runs rampant when dozens of innocent

people are accused of witchcraft and some hanged. In Arthur Miller’s famous play The Crucible,

mass hysteria leads to the wrongful accusation and hanging of dozens of Salem citizens for

witchcraft. When fear becomes widespread and delusional as it has in Salem, it is not fear

anymore; it is mass hysteria, a collective anxiety. In a climate of mass hysteria, fear can be more

than fear: it can be used as a tool for personal enrichment; it can be used as a bludgeon to gain

political advantage; it can be used as a weapon for revenge.

Thomas Putnam is a perfect example of taking advantage of fear for personal enrichment.

Putnam was a wealthy land owner who sought to add to his wealth by accusing others of

witchcraft and buying their land. The convicted are usually forced to sell their land at second-rate

prices. Putnam’s agenda is exposed when Giles Corey, a prosperous farmer, testifies on behalf of

his wife to the court. According to Giles, Putnam was overheard telling his daughter Ruth that

she had gotten him a lot of land by accusing people of witchcraft that morning. This is not a

random groundless accusation. Giles attained this information from an anonymous source that he

refused to name because the source would have been imprisoned. Without a name to support his

claim, Giles’ evidence was not considered. At the beginning of Act 3, Giles says, “I have

evidence for the court! ...Thomas Putnam is reaching out for land!” (84). Later in Act 3, Giles

approaches Judge Danforth with his accusation:

“ DANFORTH: What proof do you submit for your charge, sir?
GILES: My proof is there! Pointing to the paper. If Jacobs hangs for a witch he
forfeit up his property - that’s law! And there is none but Putnam with the coin
to buy so great a piece. This man is killing his neighbors for their land!
DANFORTH: But proof, sir, proof.
GILES , pointing at his deposition: The proof is there! I have it from an honest
man who heard Putnam say it! The day his daughter cried out on Jacobs, he said
she’d given him a fair gift of land.
”

This is a significant part of the play because Giles reveals Putnam’s agenda to acquire more land.

Giles claims to have a trustworthy witness who overheard a conversation between Putnam and

his daughter. This is also an important occurrence because Giles is the only one who understands

Putnam’s feeling of entitlement to certain prerogatives due to his social class. Putnam portrays

the use hysteria as a tool for personal gain because he uses it to gain land. Fear clouds judgment,

which is why Danforth was unable to identify Putnam as a bargain hunter. Danforth already

assumed that all the people being accused of witchcraft were guilty because of the scale at which

the accusations happened. Putnam uses fear as a tool for personal enrichment by taking

advantage of the immense hysteria in Salem to assuage his acquisition of Jacobs’ land.

Fear can also be used as a bludgeon to gain a political advantage. Judge Danforth does

this by refusing to change his judgment that all of the accused were guilty of witchcraft.

Danforth is the head judge in the court, a strict interpreter of the law. At the beginning of the

play, he believes the girls tell the truth about the witches because in his eyes, the young girls

could not be lying about such a remarkable event. He viewed the girls as victims. However,

when Hale confronts Danforth about the unlikeliness of all the accused being involved in

witchcraft, Danforth changes his point of view. He no longer genuinely sees the girls as victims,
but wants to protect his reputation by continuing to prosecute the wrongly accused. Judge

Danforth’s credibility is at stake if he admits to hanging 12 people unjustly. He makes this

message clear in Act Four, when he says to Hale “I will not receive a single plea for pardon or

postponement. Them that will not confess will hang. Twelve are already executed … the village

expects to see them [seven people who were named] die this morning … reprieve or pardon must

cast doubt upon the guilt of them that died till now. While I speak God’s law, I will not crack its

voice with whimpering….” In this passage, Danforth makes it clear that he will not delay or

pardon the case because it will portray him as inconsistent. For him, either the trial could either

advance his career due to his success or it could ruin his reputation due to his unjust judgments.

Danforth is affirming people’s fears about witchcraft in order to score political points. Reverend

Samuel Parris also does this by scapegoating anyone who challenges his authority. As a

reverend, Parris has political influence and power in Salem as a result of theocracy, despite many

people disliking him. People view him as greedy because he convinced the church to pay for

golden candlesticks holders, an unnecessary commodity. Throughout the play, however, Parris

tries to cover up his greed by pushing his ulterior motive on Danforth. To protect his reputation,

Paresis constantly in Danforth’s ear, trying to convince him the girls were innocent. He says to

Danforth “Beware this man, Your Excellency, this man [John Proctor] is mischief … They’ve

come to overthrow the court, sir! ... Excellency, you surely cannot think to let so vile a lie be

spread in open court!” (88-89). John Proctor, a man accused of wizardry, tried to convince the

court that the whole event was a joke, that all of the girls were pretending from the beginning.

Parris, aware that this could ruin his career as a reverend, badgered Danforth about the

incredibility of Proctor’s account. The reason Parris was so successful about convincing the

judge that the girls were innocent at the beginning of the story can be contributed to the mass
hysteria going on at the time. Had Hale, an educated skeptic of the incident, told Danforth the

girls were pretending earlier, Parris might not have gotten away with this because Hale would

have rid Danforth’s fear. The state of hysteria aided Parris’ cause and therefore he used fear as a

tool to gain a political advantage.

In a state of mass hysteria, fear can also be used as a weapon for revenge. Abigail

Williams, the girl that started this whole incident, used the climate of hysteria to get revenge on

Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife. Abigail was Proctor’s former servant, and he had an affair with her.

Elizabeth found out and fired Abigail to protect her relationship with Proctor. To get John back,

Abigail decided to get rid of Elizabeth, even resorting to some psychotic actions. In Act one,

Abigail says, to Betty, Parris’ daughter “…let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word

about the things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a

point reckoning that will shudder you…”(20). This is proof that Abigail is a cold-blooded

psychopath who will do anything to get John back, not excluding murder. To get to Proctor,

Abigail must remove Elizabeth from the situation by having her convicted of witchcraft. When

Abigail sees Mary Warren, Elizabeth and Proctor’s servant, making a doll for Elizabeth in court,

she stabs herself in order to accuse Elizabeth of taking part in voodoo. That is an extremely

clever tactic to use, as the rampant fear in Salem made it particularly easy for Abigail to get

away with all of her lies. Albeit the ingenuity of her schemes, Abigail did not get what she

wanted in the end because Proctor was hanged, and Elizabeth was allowed to live due to her

pregnancy. Abigail is the prime example of the use of fear as a tool for revenge. She not only

used the fear of witchcraft, but also others’ fear of her psychotic tendencies to get revenge on

Elizabeth Proctor.
 The climate of mass hysteria in Salem was an opportunity for all the begrudged citizens

to release their repressed resentments. Fear in Salem could have been used to advance anyone’s

agenda. Some used the opportunity to ruin others’ lives, while others used it to help themselves.

Arthur Miller demonstrates the versatility of fear in The Crucible. Collective fear is mass

hysteria, a type of fear that usually causes mass delusion. Clouded judgment is what allowed the

characters in Arthur Miller’s play to get away with so many injustices.