Common sense in ‘The Crucible’ Essay

The Crucible How does Miller make vivid the triumph of fanaticism over spring and common sense?In The Crucible, Miller creates an melody in Salem where hysteria rules the village while priming and common sense be put aside. The superstitions of a fewer young teenage girls are taken seriously by the largely Christian village to the point of a broken theocracy and where all reason is lost.In Act III, there are many dramatic scenes in the courtroom which show the power of the girls overbearing superstitions. At the beginning of the play, Mary Warren joined in with the other girls in the forest with their hysteria and witchcraft. However, she converts to Proctors side and in court says It were pretence, sir to Danforth. She tries to save Proctor by turning in the girls and admitting that Abigail had been telling lies. This comes to no proceeds and then Abigail, with the other girls, puts on an mold and starts copying Mary Warren as if Mary had bewitched her. Mary gives in and t urns on Proctor give tongue to Youre the Devils Man Mary tried to have reason and common sense by defying the girls exactly the way she gave in to their act of hysteria shows how superstition triumphs over reason and common sense.As mentioned previously, Mary Warren initially testifies against Abigail and the other girls in Act III. To this point, Danforth was fully behind Abigail and believed her but now questions her to tell the truth. Abigail forcefully confronts him and says angrily, I have been hurt, Mr DanforthTo be mistrusted, denied, questioned like a -. Miller describes Danforths retorts as weakening in the stage directions and Abigail presses on to further threaten Danforth in the words Let you beware, Mr Danforth.With most other people in the play, Danforth simply dismisses their stories but he is incapable of a keen-sighted argument against Abigail. Danforth is meant to be a man of reason and common sense he is a judge after all but Abigails usage of him causes him to lose all reason and he lets her continue to wreck havoc. Abigail is the source of all the superstitions in The Crucible so her control over Danforth signifies the triumph of superstition over good reason and common sense.Throughout the play, John Proctor is a respectful man the only one with a sense of reason and not fooled by the witchcraft hysteria. In Act IV, Proctor chooses to die instead of giving away his good name to witchcraft. After choosing to die he says I see some goodness in John Proctor. If he had confessed, he would have lost his common sense and given in to foolish superstitions. In this way, Proctor not only keeps his name but doesnt let superstitions get the better of him one of the few parts of the play where reason and common sense prevail.Salem is a community filled with hardworking people who have good reason and sense about them. A few lies and superstitions cause all their lives to crumble down and good values vanish. The one man not fooled by the witchcraf t nonsense, John Proctor, keeps common sense alive in Salem but is hanged to die leaving the village ruled by superstition.