Lindsey Ferrante

December 12,2016
English C
Crucible Essay
Intolerance and Fear
Intolerance is the unwillingness to accept views, beliefs, or behavior that differ
from one's own. Fear is the unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or
something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. In the Crucible the fear of
witches and intolerance of others religious morals are similar to police brutality and
intolerance to others races and religions in todays society.
Some examples in the Crucible of fear and intolerance are the fear of witches and
the intolerance to others who are not as religious as the norm. The fear of witches stems
from the belief that witches are evil and will kill you. This is a common fear in the
crucible. This causes hysteria in Salem, that everyones a witch and if you get pointed as
a witch you are one. This leads to tons of chaos, backstabbing and other manipulative
behaviors throughout the book. Another theme is the book is the intolerance of others
religious principals and how they practice. In the book, Elizabeth and John Proctor were
accused of being witches and practicing witchcraft. The fact that they did not go to
church every single day furthered the fact that they were witches. In the book, it says,
Hale: Twenty-six time in seventeen month, sir. I must call that rare. Will you tell me
why you are so absent (Miller) page 61. This furthers Hale suspicion that there is some
witchcraft going on between the two of them. Later, Hale asks John to recite the ten

commandments. He forgets one, the one about adultery. Extremely ironic because of his
secret affair with Abagail.
Some examples of fear and intolerance in todays society are police brutality and
the intolerance to others races and religions. Police brutality is a huge issue today. Many
people have been murdered and beaten by police officers for no apparent reason. This
has led to mass hysteria that all police are bad and out to kill you. This issues have been
in the media and on national television and are a country-wide problem. Also, people
are intolerant to others due to their religions and races. People get killed and murdered
due to the color of the skin or their religion. Their difference in religion and race has
made them a target of hate crimes.
The issues of fear in the Crucible and fear today are not the exact same, however,
they are very similar. The issues of fear in the Crucible are the fear/ hysteria of witches,
and now the issues are the fear/hysteria of police brutality. These two ideas relate to
one another by, most women (sometimes a man, but not usually) were painted as being
a witch because a girl in the town starting behaving like she had practiced witchcraft.
Then, this leads to major hysteria in the town that people starting painting most women
as witches. This relates to the police brutality now because there were a few cops that
did abuse the people. Then since that incident, there has been a mass hysteria that every
cop in bad and is out to kill you. The major theme that connects these two is that one
person was a witch and one person abused someone and all women were accused of

witches and all police officers were accused of being abusive and leading to a big
hysteria and fear. It all started with one issue that leads to a major fear breakout.
The issues of intolerance in the Crucible and the issues of intolerance today are
not the exact same but very similar. The issues of intolerance in the crucible is the
intolerance to people who do not participate in church and the ones who break one of
the commandments. In act two Elizabeth and John were accused of witchcraft and the
fact that they havent been going to church a lot and the fact that John couldnt say all of
the ten commandments proves the fact that they are guilty. In todays day and age, there
is a similar theme but with the intolerance of others religions and races. One could be
proven guilty because the color of their skin or the religion they practice. They could
also be racial- profiled because the color of their skin or the religion they chose to
practice. These two relate to each other because they both suffer because of the religion
and races.
It is interesting because this book took place in the 1600s and now was are still
having the same issues with fear and intolerance but they have developed into
something different modernized. In the Crucible the fear of witches and intolerance of
others religious morals are similar to police brutality and intolerance to others races and
religions in todays society.