It is a part of human nature that people are influenced by their peers and feel more confident when they are not sticking out among a group. This idea is shown throughout both the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller and the movie Goodnight and Goodluck directed by George Clooney. In times of fear, people will disregard their personal values and level-headedness to do what their peers are doing. It is shown throughout both pieces that fear drives people to react questionably to events regardless of how preposterous it may seem. In the Crucible, it is obvious to the audience that it is not witchery that is causing disorder, but it is instead the characters. Namely, Abigail Williams attempts to convince the court that Mary Warren’s spirit has taken the form of a bird and is preparing…show more content… The fear of Satan and the unknown drove the jury to become fearful and dash out of the court, even though they saw nothing. Goodnight and Goodluck illustrate a similar situation. Milo Radulovich was employed by the airforce but kicked out due to his father reading a communist paper (Clooney). Though there was a lack of evidence that Milo himself was a communist, he lost his job over it. The fear of communism drove the United States into a desperate state in which the citizens were put at stake. In both pieces, there are characters that take advantage of their despairing surroundings in order to get what they want. In the Crucible, Abigail Williams is able to take advantage of her fragile town in order to set up Elizabeth Proctor in because Abigail fancied her husband. Abigail knew that Elizabeth sewed as a hobby, so she set up a plan to plant a needle into a poppet Elizabeth had been working on. Abigail then stabbed herself with a needle and claimed that it was Elizabeth’s spirit who had done this to
