In the play "The Crucible," by Arthur Miller, the language is used to intensify the struggle between individual morality and social law. Set in the puritanical 'black and white' society of Salem, Massachusetts during the witch trials in the1600s, there is the idea that there is a serious danger in handing over too much power to a society with a mob-mentality. .
Miller utilizes powerful color imagery to emphasize the struggle to conform to a society. The town portrays good and evil as a dichotomy, white or black. The color black is used traditionally to represent evil, taking the form of sin and the Devil in 'The Crucible.' Black can be interpreted as to represent the entire spectrum of corrupt behavior, where a character such as Abigail is often associated with darkness, threatening to attack the other girls "in the black of night," and the stain on her name and reputation. In direct contrast, the color white is associated particularly in this setting with moral and religious purity. "I see no light of God in that man," is Parris being described as devoid of light. Throughout the play, there is a distinct boundary with which people are associated, either being with God or against God. At the end of Act three Proctor exclaims, "When you know all in your black hearts God damns our kind especially, and we will burn, we will burn together!" Proctor is suggesting that all present within the town as those present in the court are guilty of equal sin. The townspeople suppressed by the fear and hysteria of the trials, retreated within themselves and giving up their social power conformed to maintain their purity. As a group, their willingness to go along with the other 'mobs' allows the tragedy to occur within Salem. In exchange for safety they thereby implicitly endorse the accusations and killings. Had they refused to support the trials, the courts would have not have had any real power in Salem.
