In times of stress or in times of incredible events, mass hysteria can play a role in all of this, it really only takes a lot of people being angry for this one thing. Mass hysteria can happen at any time and is happening. All you need is a group of people who are crazy, scared, or really emotional. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the book The Crucible many people really believed in witchcraft and they really believed that witches who love the devil, the people of Salem really believed that it was TRUE. So when there is a person who claims that the girls in the forest were dancing and contacting the devil, everyone goes crazy. In Salem anyone accused of being a witch was killed if found guilty. So the whole town believes that the girls, or at least one of them, is a witch, so in the end, usually, always a person. So in the end the hysteria caused was only death. Arthur Miller intended the play to be an analogy to the McCarthy trials taking place in the 1950s. The Crucible and McCarthy hearings were very similar, as we saw in Salem, you didn't really need any proof that someone was guilty, you could just call someone a witch and there was already a good chance they would die. It really creates ties to McCarthyism at the time. In McCarthyism everyone was afraid of anti-communists, so people were always on their guard and it was just like in Salem, all you had to do was call someone and the way people used power back then was just very violent and threatening. A recent example of mass hysteria was the attacks of September 11, 2001. In the September 11 attacks where the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda attacked the Twin Towers, the fact that the people who attacked the America came from Islam this made it really bad for anyone who was Muslim or Middle Eastern in the United States. With the attacks came mass hysteria where the American populace immediately branded all Muslims as terrorists or basically anyone seen in a hijab was bad. The situation became so serious that some Muslims were even lynched. Everyone blamed the attacks on random Muslims who had nothing to do with it. Everyone in America was really excited and scared and this led to mass hysteria. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay All in all mass hysteria is an event that can truly be caused at any time and at any time in history. It has been going on for centuries and, under the right circumstances, will continue to happen in the future. The Crucible is a prime example of hysteria at its worst.