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The Crucible
This book is written by Arthur Miller. The book is a play or a dialogue. It is comprises of 4 ACTS. The author mainly highlights the issue of Mass Hysteria or Mob Mentality in this story. The story in this book is inspired by true events. The crucible is about the Salem witchcraft. The play takes place in 1962. We learn that before the events of play take place as indicated by the writer. The town minister, Reverrend Parris, caught a group of girls including his niece, Abigail, dancing in the woods. The girls were trying to practice witchcraft and Abigail wanted to curse a woman named Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail had affair with her husband John. And she wants Elizabeth dead. But because the girls were caught practicing witchcraft, they got afraid they will be hanged in punishment. So, they started lying and accusing other people of witchcraft. That’s how the Salem witchcraft trial started. Everyone that the girls blamed of being indulged in witchcraft were arrested and many of those were executed.

Summary
At the beginning of the play Parris, Town Minister, is kneeling besides the bed on which his daughter, Betty, is lying unresponsive. He was worried that is daughter is bewitched because he was the one who discovered the girls including Abigail, Betty his niece and daughter respectively and their friends Ruth, Marry and Mercy dancing in the forest earlier night while Tituba was singing some kind of charm. This act of performing witchcraft somehow fits to definition of Mob Mentality since then girls were indulging in such act despite being part of an extremely religious society of Salem. Although, Parris still didn’t completely realize that they were really trying to practice witchcraft. Parris was afraid that people of the town will find out that his house members are indulged in witchcraft. He was afraid for his reputation in the town since there were still a faction of people who wanted to rid him of his position. Several of those were also gathered downstairs in his house and he didn’t want to face them. Thomas Putnam and his wife Ann Putnam, who are important people of the town, arrive and tell Parris to address people about this witchcraft matter but Parris is afraid to admit of witchcraft in his house. Eventually they persuade him to go downstairs and say psalm- religious song. Abigail was still there with Betty when Mercy and Marry also arrive. Abigail tells them all to keep their mouth shut and threatens to murder them if they don’t comply with her. Here, Abigail tries to force her mentality upon the group of girls. Jon Proctor comes in and later when other girls leave and him and Abigail confront each other, Abigail says that all that happened in the forest was just she and her friends dancing in the forest Parris caught them. She flirts with Jon and tells him that she has always been waiting for him. This is where we learn that Jon and Abigail had an affair and the sole reason for Abigail wanting Elizabeth, John’s Wife, dead. She blames Elizabeth for ending their relationship. Jon tells her to never talk about Elizabeth and to forget him. Meanwhile, Betty starts screaming due to listening to the words of psalm being sung downstairs. People come upstairs and start confirming that Betty is bewitched (The whole townspeople believes in witchcraft) one of them is nurse Rebecca who calms down Betty and says that its some climate change that causing bad health to Betty. The Putnam's, Jon and a guy named Giles Corey get into an argument about the whole scenario being witchcraft. Meanwhile Reverends Hale arrives who is a knowledgeable person in witchcraft. He questions the people at the scene and the answers make Abigail look bad. So, she accuses Tituba for everything. Tituba can’t gather courage to defend herself as it would make her more of suspicious, so she says what everyone wanted to hear, she admits the accusation and finally names the people who practice witchcraft. Abigail sees the opportunity and follows with same accusation of naming people who she doesn’t like. All the named people get arrested (Here we see an example of Crowd Frenzy-type of Mob Mentality). Elizabeth is named in accusations as well and is later arrested and summoned in the court. Jon after facing failure in making Marry speak the truth about Abigail in the court, decides to reveal the Fraud of Abigail by admitting to the sexual relationship he had with Abigail and that she wants his wife dead due to jealousy. Elizabeth denies the argument of her husband because she doesn’t want her husband to be called an adulterer. As a result, Abigail is yet again free of any suspicious. Jon is arrested because Marry, who was afraid of Abigail’s dominance in the court, accuses Jon Proctor as a worker of Satan.

Several months later majority of townspeople turned against trials and also Abigail had stolen all of the Reverends Parris’s money and ran away (This now proves that). Reverends Hale, one of the judges of the trial, tries to make arrested people admit to the accusation because he doesn’t want to feel responsible for all the executions in the past. Meanwhile, Jon deicides to admit to the accusations because he hates himself. But, when it comes to sign the papers of Confession he tears the paper denying the accusations and dies happily knowing his family will not be persecuted for crime of witchcraft since he is dying as an Innocent. In the end, government by the church is essentially broken.

Mob Mentality
The book highlights the negative aspect of Mob Mentality. It shows how mob mentality can lead people to make undesirable actions and decisions in any given situation. What is Mob Mentality? Mob mentality, also called as herd mentality, describes how humans adopt behaviors, ideas and follow trends based on their circle of influence they get benefits like safety, acceptance, and power. It also explains how one’s point of view can be easily altered by those around them. Crowd Frenzy is a Theory of Mob Mentality that is best suited to this play.