"The 'Yellow Bird' Spirit" - analysis of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" play. Focuses on the "yellow bird" in Act II and how "mass hysteria is achieved and the effects of such panic."

The "Yellow Bird" Spirit One of the most vibrant, deep, and sagacious screenplays of the 21st century is Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." Miller brilliantly comments on human morals, authority, and mass hysteria. He parallels the events of Salem in 1600's to the blacklisting and the discrimination against those who were labeled as a "communist" in America during the 1950's. He proficiently shows how mass hysteria could sweep an entire community like a tsunami and erase …

…certain events, the rational and calm society that was Salem, Massachusetts quickly turn into one dominated by hysteria. In the yellow bird scene, Arthur Miller used the dialogue, stage direction, and the situation of the scene in to create an atmosphere of irrational panic and hysteria. Miller employs "The Crucible" to comment on McCarthyism and on the tendencies of human nature to follow the crowd, point fingers, and disregard common sense in times of tension.