In Arthur Miller's, The Crucible, there were many themes expressed throughout the play. The themes were the undertone of the story and described exactly what was happening at the time of the narration. In the small town of Salem, hysteria had broken out and charges of witchcraft were brought against many women in the town. There were trials held, at which the only way to be set free was to confess to being guilty of witchcraft, although, in actuality, there were no witches. In the end, many innocent people died from these witchcraft trials. The Crucible uses strong themes to show the events and actions which took place in the year of 1692, in Salem, Massachusetts. .
One major theme in the play was justice. This theme was central throughout the play. In the trials, anyone who confessed to being a witch was set free while anyone who would not confess was jailed and later killed. This was shown in the end of act four when all Proctor had to do was sign a document of confession in order to be set free, but he would not because he did not want to lie and ruin his good name. Therefore, he was killed for being innocent. The courts did not practice justice; they just wanted to show that they were in full control of power and were able to do as they pleased. Also, in the story Salem was a theocracy, which meant that the church and state were separated and the church held control of the courts. In that, Massachusetts was to be governed by God's laws and the church officials held control. The church officials, however, were not fair and listened to the girls as they talked of who they had seen with the Devil. This was shown in act three in the courtroom when Abigail pressured all the girls to lie in court in order to accuse everyone that they didn't get along with of practicing witchcraft.
Two other major themes which go hand in hand were greed and revenge. Some characters found profit in the witch madness and manipulated events for their own ends.