Hysteria

Hysteria

1. An overwhelming fear and excitement that overrides all logic, and is often enhanced and intensified by the presence of others who are acting out on that fear.

   • Mass hysteria costs innocent lives in Salem, Massachusetts, much as mass hysteria was destroying livelihoods during the Red Scare in author Arthur Miller’s day.
   • Hysteria leads people to believe their friends are committing absurd and unbelievable crimes—communing with the devil, killing babies, and so on.
   • The townsfolk accept and become active in the hysterical climate not only out of genuine religious piety but also because it gives them a chance to express repressed sentiments and to act on long-held grudges due to being strictly contained in Puritan society
     • Parris uses hysteria (and his power) to strengthen his position in society by condemning people who question his authority (Proctor)

2. ACT 1

   • Tituba starts naming people who might be witches, and is praised for it. So, Abby figures this is her way out of getting in trouble, and starts naming names. By the end of the act, all of the girls have caught on and are hysterically crying out names.
   • Abigail tells Parris about rumors that witchcraft caused Betty's faint: a crowd has already gathered downstairs in Parris's house. The crowd suggests beginning of hysteria
   • Rumors of witchcraft become belief in witchcraft: hysteria works by building upon irrational fear.
   • It's clear that Abigail wanted to kill Elizabeth Proctor to have Proctor to herself.
   • As the hysteria around witchcraft grows, characters begin to use it to express repressed emotions
   • Proctor and Rebecca, two voices of reason, leave before the investigation begins. Those who can stop hysteria from growing often don't take it seriously until too late.
   • Mrs Putnam blames Goody Osburn for death of her babies.
   • Betty believes she saw witches because authority figures like Hale believe her when she says she did: a vicious cycle of hysteria.

3. ACT 3

   • The girls turn on Mary Warren, pretending she is a little bird come to tear their eyes out. Abigail leads the charge, and all of the other girls follow. Pretty soon the emotion is intense.
     • "(She and all the girls run to one wall, shielding their eyes. And now, as though cornered, they let out a gigantic scream, and Mary, as though infected, opens her mouth and screams with them.)"
   • The court doesn't want evidence: it's already decided that witchcraft exists in Salem
   • Parris supports the court and gives into the hysteria to protect his reputation.
   • Hysteria makes the townspeople actually believe and fear witchcraft. But Abigail and Putnam manipulate that hysteria and the blindness of the court for their own ends.
   • Hale focuses on evidence and logic, but Danforth is no longer interested.
   • The vicious cycle of forced confession gets Mary to turn against Proctor.
   • Saying God is dead is the ultimate act of defiance against Puritan society. Danforth, blinded by absolute faith, thinks Proctor is just confirming his alliance with the devil. Hale, focused on evidence rather than ideology, knows better.
     • Danforth demands that Proctor confess his allegiance to Hell. In response, Proctor says God is dead. Proctor then condemns himself as a devil, because he resisted fighting against what he knew to be false. He also calls Danforth a devil for allowing a fraud to be perpetrated. Danforth orders Proctor arrested. Hale denounces the court.

4. ACT 4

   • Courtroom seems to be ruled by hysteria rather than logic.
   • One girl would pretend to get cold, or see a spirit, or to be attacked by a spirit, and would cry out in fear and pain; the other girls, seeing her do that, caught the emotion), and would imagine they felt or saw the same things, or at least would react to the fear in the room.
     • Mary Warren "I--I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them, and I--It were only sport in the beginning sir, but then the whole world cried spirits, spirits, and I--I promise you, Mr. Danforth, I only thought I saw them but I did not."
   • Tituba and Sarah Good now believe their confessions are real
   • Danforth's rigid ideology makes him vulnerable to hysteria.
     • Danforth won't postpone the hangings because he won't allow himself, his government, or his God, to look weak. Ideology and reputation are more important to him than standing up to hysteria or saving innocent lives.
   • Proctor's choice (integrity) affirms his goodness and reveals the selfish corruption of the ideological forces that condemn him. His death ends Salem's hysteria.

5. ACT 2

   • The wealthy, ambitious Thomas Putnam gains revenge on Francis Nurse by getting Rebecca, Francis’s virtuous wife, convicted of the supernatural murders of Ann Putnam’s babies.
   • It's now clear that hysteria is gripping the town, extending even to the authorities. Proctor can no longer dismiss or ignore it. Yet Proctor still resists going to the court because he fears for his reputation.
   • Mary Warren, who knows there was no witchcraft because she was in the woods that night, now believes witchcraft exists.
   • Hale remains undetatched from hysteria, looks for actual evidence.