Fear in The Crucible

Fear is a major theme in The Crucible. Fear of being caught conjuring in the woods caused the young girls to lie about what was really going on out there. Among the girls there were many different versions of the same story and no one really knew who to believe. Fear also caused Tituba to admit to be using witchcraft in the woods. This is because she was afraid of being whipped if they found out that she was lying to them. Fear can also be used to your advantage though. Abigail used the people's fear of witches to prove her own innocence.

Fear is also used in modern day America. One example of how this happens is how the fear of being caught for committing a crime causes criminals to run from the law. Another example is how teachers tell students that if they are disobedient in class, they will be sent to the principals office. This, in turn, causes the students to obey the rules out of fear of getting in trouble.

I'm sure that in Act Two we will see many more instances of how the characters in the story use fear to achieve their goals of staying out of trouble. Miller is very clever in using fear in this play to distort how we feel about the characters and how they feel about each other. Fear can be a very bad way to get what you want, but it can also be a very clever way to achieve your goals. I hope that later on in this play we see how the conflicts will be resolved and if fear will continue to be a major theme in the story.