Darrien Ritter
Mrs.Vondran
5/28/12
Hysteria Vs. The Crucible

1

The genocide and the Salem witch trials are two incredibly similar events in history but also very different. They both had significant cases of hysteria involved. Hysteria is defined by
Dictionary.com “ an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear , often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc
.
(Hysteria).” The word hysteria defines both the genocide and the Salem

witch trials. The development of both situations of hysteria were almost the same, they had both developed because of religious views. The Salem witch trials hysteria and the Genocide hysteria had many similarities and differences that showed while comparing the two. The breaking point for each is closely related; the genocide and the Salem witch trials had ended because of societies, lack in belief in what was actually happening and because of a new ruler. The long and short term effects for both situations were exceptionally related. People lost family and many possessions needed to support a healthy lifestyle. The Salem Witch Trials and the Genocide of
1994 were similar in the way they started, the long term and short term effects, and the breaking points. The development of the hysteria in both situations were alike. The Salem Witch trials developed because, “Nine­year­old Betty Paris and eleven­year­old Abigail Williams­ the daughter and niece, respectively, of the Reverend Samuel Paris of Salem Village­ began to display odd behaviors (Lindenauer).” The hysteria’s roots were from the two girls because, the puritan religion thought negatively about the actions of the girls and, therefore, right away related it to witchcraft. The hysteria began to get worse because, if a person had been accused of witchcraft, the only way to live was to confess or become a stronger believer in God. “What followed, was a witch hunt in the original sense, as the girls went on a spree of witch identification…the frenzy spread across the colony as newly identified and confessed witches then turned around and named more witches (Salem Witch Trials).” What really started the hysteria about the Salem witch trials was people’s selfishness. The people that been accused would call out other innocent civilians, endanger the civilians’ life just to save themselves. The whole event was a big game of who likes who.
On the other hand the Genocide of 1994 had started because of their ancient religions, “In
Rwanda, where the genocide took place in the 1990’s, the Hutu majority strongly resented the
Tutsi people. This resentment dated {long} from before 1962, when the Tutsi had been the

2

dominant tribe (Woolf 16).” After WW2 the United Nations became involved in Rwanda.
Although the Tutsis wanted their independence from the government, the Hutu wanted Belgian control to continue. The Hutu believed that the control would help to gain them political and economic equality with the Tutsi’s. After awhile, the Tutsi and the Hutu started to kill civilians from the other tribe, which led to nationwide violence. In the middle of the violence, a Tutsi leader, Paul Kagame, formed a militia called the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) and invaded
Rwanda starting a civil war. In response the Rwandans started a militia called the Interahamwe.
The government radio had then begun telling all Hutu followers to murder all Tutsi’s and any
Hutu that interfered. The hysteria started because people did not want to die, so they decided to listen to the radio and kill who the radio said before the other people killed them. The breaking point for the hysteria in both situations was, for many people, after it was too late.
The Salem Witch Trials and the Genocide of 1994 are similar in many ways. They are both related in the way that they started, the Salem Witch Trials started because of the Puritan beliefs and the Genocide had started because of the