Authors often have underlying reasons for giving their stories certain themes or settings. Arthur Millers masterpiece, The Crucible, is a work of art inspired by actual events as a responseto political and moral issues. Set in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692, The Crucible proves to haveits roots in events of the 1950s and 1960s, such as the activities of the House Un-AmericanCommittee and the Red Scare. Though the play provides an accurate account of the Salemwitch trials, its real achievement lies in the many important issues of Millers time that it dealswith. Throughout The Crucible, Miller is concerned with conscience and guilt. Through thecharacter Abigail Williams, he shows how people are willing to abandon their firmly-established values in order to conform with the majority and protect themselves. Those who refuse to part with their conscience, such as the character of John Proctor, are chastised for it. For this reason,the Salem witch trials raise a question of the administration of justice. During this time in the late1600s, people were peroccupied by a fear of the devil, due to their severe Puritan belief system. Nineteen innocent people are hanged on the signature of Deputy Governor Danforth, who has the authority to try, convict, and execute anyone he deems appropriate. However, we as readerssense little to no real malice in Danworth. Rather, ignorance and fear plague him. The masshysteria brought about by the witchcraft scare in The Crucible leads to the upheaval in peoplesdifferentiation between right and wrong, fogging their sense of true justice.When Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in the early 1950s, the United States wasexperiencing a modern witch hunt of its own. Senator Joseph McCarthy, provoked by the ColdWar, became fearfully convinced that Communists, or Reds, were polluting Americangovernment. He intended to hunt them out, force them to confess, and make them name theirassociates, almost as the Salem ...
