Psychology and The Crucible - A Literary Analysis

This is an essay written for AP English. I worked hard enough on it that I'd like to get more feedback than just a grade.

Psychology and The Crucible

The human mind is a complex thing. It can do wonders yet can be swayed by the simplest of suggestions and pressure from others. The wording of questions affects answers, peer pressure affects behaviour, and the belief of child innocence clouds rational thinking in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible.

The wording of a question can greatly affect the answer given. This is especially so with children. In The Crucible, the bulk - if not all - of the accusations of witchcraft are brought forth by girls eighteen years of age or younger, which means most of the accused were brought into suspicion by children. For example, when Rev. Hale questions Abigail Williams about what was in the kettle that the girls were using, she denies anything being in it. Though, once he suggests that there might have been a mouse, spider, or even a frog in the soup, Parris pipes in and says he saw something moving (Miller 904). There is a possibility of Parris actually seeing something in the kettle, but he could have fabricated it and convinced himself there was something when there was not just by the suggestion of some kind of animal in that pot. This seems to be common in humans, according to studies. Elizabeth Loftus has shown the faultiness of eyewitness accounts in more than 200 experiments using more than 20,000 test subjects. In these experiments, she played footage of a car wreck. Some of those who had watched it were asked “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” while the rest were asked “How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?” Those who were asked the first question gave significantly higher speed estimates than those asked the second. Another question that was posed was if there had been any broken glass. Again, those who were asked the question with “smashed” in it said that, yes, there was glass, when in reality, there was minimal damage to both cars (Myers 295).

These experiments were conducted on adults. So what about children, whose minds are much more pliable? Children - when having questions or statements that suggest a false answer - will not only say it happened or exaggerate, they will even make a story back up this “very real” memory. In a test conducted by Ceci, children were questioned about false memories such as “...Can you remember going to the hospital with a mousetrap on your finger?” 58% of the preschoolers asked this produced not only false memories, but they were very vivid memories. The girls in The Crucible could easily convince themselves that they were really bewitched when constantly asked if a witch had sent his or her spirit upon them. In these constructed recollections, children who were once very loving of someone can easily turn against that person at the suggestion that the person had hurt them. This is because even false memories can have the same emotional effect as a real one (Myers 296-299).

What could be another explanation for the high number of accusations from the girls? The “leader-follower” mentality is not always a good thing. Peer pressure plays a huge role in their actions. Abigail is the ringleader of these girls and also one of the older girls of the group, which automatically makes the younger girls look to her as an example. Abigail - when Mary Warren starts talking of confessing to what the girls had done - threatens the girls into staying quiet and going along with whatever plan of which she could think (Miller 892). This threat is an extreme example of peer pressure, but is peer pressure nonetheless.

The younger girls then begin to mimic her actions and conform to her ways. In Act One, Abigail gets the idea to put the blame on others and, as she starts crying out names of people, her little cousin - Betty Parris - starts to do the same. She even names the same people as her older cousin (Miller 907).

Mimicking is not always a form of admiration, empathy, or social conformity. Mimicking can be mocking. The scene in Act Three shows a perfect example of both kinds of mimicry when Abigail begins repeating everything Mary Warren would say - mocking mimicry - and the girls would then mimic Abigail - conforming mimicry (Miller 950-951). All these actions of this group of girls govern the judges into ignorant decisions. Group thought can greatly influence individuals’ decisions.

Then - and even now - people have seen children as harmless and innocent. This thinking has been reinforced in the Bible, which states “The truth of God will be told through the mouths of babes (The Holy Bible, Psalm 8:2).” This makes the group belief of child innocence even stronger in a Christian community, such as the Puritans in Salem. Other scripture in the Bible augment this idea of innocence and this thinking has been around since the Greeks. In the book of Matthew Chapter Eighteen, when asked by his disciples who the greatest is in the kingdom of heaven, Jesus calls over a child and says “Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven... but whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea,” (The Holy Bible, Matthew 18:2-18:6). Though, when Jesus says that we should become like children, it is not because of their innocence. It is because of their love and respect of their parents. He was telling his disciples to love and respect God as little children do their parents (“Scripture”). This would explain why such a community that takes whatever their Lord and the Savior has said seriously - even if misunderstood and mistranslated - would believe in the innocence of the girls and spite those who were accused by the girls or would try to discredit the girls.

The Crucible shows the effect of subliminal cues in questions and statements, influence of peer pressure, and impact of mass-beliefs can have on people. By using harsher words or suggesting something had happened that really had not can make a person construct a false memory - and actually believe that constructed memory. Peer pressure and popular beliefs can equally influence a person’s behaviour and make one think irrationally.

Works Cited

Myers, David G. Exploring Psychology Ninth Edition. Worth Publishers, 2014.

Miller, Arthur. Mirrors & Windows Connecting with Literature. EMC Publishing, 2012.

(Holy Bible)