Arthur Miller's "The Crucible- is set in the late 17th Century in a puritan settlement called Salem in the State of Massachusetts and is based on a true story of the Salem Witch-hunts.
Salem is a small claustrophobic in the heart of the new expanding white America. Their small tight community surrounded by the looming forest is riddled with fears and insecurities and because of this they turn to their unquestioning belief in the faith to help them. This then turned places at such as the forest into places of great terror and with good reason. But however the wrong reasons. In this atmosphere of paranoia it would have been all but impossible for a girl with Abigail's reputation to manipulate or gain any favour whatsoever especially with others in the communities literal belief in God. The fact that she not only manages to manipulate but to do it so powerfully proves that some level that she is an instinctive manipulator. The play was written for a reason. At the time America was plunged into a witch hunt of it's own. It was 1950's and the McCarthy trials were tearing through America and innocent American citizens on trial doubted in their allegiance to their own country for being communists. Miller wrote the play to show his country that the atmospheres of complete paranoia of your fellow man and to show "the mystery of handing over conscience-. This was due to the similarities of the McCarthy trials and the Salem Witch trials. Such as the belief that they were blessed and watched over by God, the fear of the enemy within and the contempt of people who chose different beliefs. These connections show in each situation, both escalated into complete and undoubted paranoia.
However Miller changed a number of things about the story to make it into an engaging and thought provoking play. He creates a much more intense sense of paranoia and fear than it would have been at the time.