Ryder
Olson
English
III
11/11/13
CRUCIBLE BLOG!
The
Salem Witch Trials and the Laughing of Nshamba both show great signs of mass
hysteria. They both are a bunch of kids that are pretending to have fits, one
of laughing and one of sickness. The kids, mostly girls, would start to have a
fit, and the adults believed it because there were a lot of kids that it was
affecting. In The Crucible, Abigail and Betty start screaming out, “I
saw Goody Bibber with the devil! I saw Goody Hawkins with the devil.” They both
are putting on acts so the adults believe them, and the adults believe it
because they are all afraid of witchcraft. Everyone was convinced it was true
by the huge amounts of people that were having fits and how many people were
being blamed for it and then confessing as well. People believed the laughing
was true for the same reasons. Hundreds of kids were laughing hysterically and
could not stop which caused people that weren’t affected to believe it was
true. “She heard you singin’ and suddenly she was up and screamin’,” Abigail
says this and the adults start to murmur that Betty cannot bear to hear the
Lord’s name which is a sign of witchcraft. Mass hysteria affected many people
and forced several people to believing everything was true of the Salem Witch
Trials and the Laughing of Nshamba.
