The Crucible is a great play written by Arthur Miller. I am going to write about Arthur Miller's representation of good and evil in his play the Crucible, paying particular attention to his characterisation. The Crucible's main purpose was to show the mass hysteria, which led to the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials. The Crucible concentrates on the fate of some of the key characters caught up in the persecution. It shows people under pressure and what were the issues and motivations involved. The play is an allegory of the communists trials in 1950s USA. This play is actually a criticism of the American government. .
In Salem 1692, people believed in the existence of witches. In a society of strong Christian beliefs. Anyone who acted differently from the rest was accused of being a witch and then the court would actually forgive the accused if they blamed their accusations on another individual. This was the main idea of the play. In this play a group of young girls are caught dancing in the woods and are then accused of being witches. These girls then blame other people in order to get out of trouble and even pretend to be "bewitched" in front of the court during a trial. This leads into the deaths of some innocent people who were accused and automatically found guilty. I believe, in many ways the people of Salem were responsible for the witch hysteria.
In act 1, we meet the characters for the first time. The first of these is Abigail. We would expect her to be good because she was the minister's niece. However, she is not. She has lied, danced naked and drunk blood in attempt to kill Elizabeth. Abigail has been having an affair with Elizabeth's husband (John Proctor). She threatens to kill the girls and tries to persuade John Proctor to resume the affair. " John - I am waiting for you every night." " I will bring a pointy reckoning and that will shudder you. And you know I can do it." This shows that Abigail has shown some evidence in the past of violence; the girls would not be so scared otherwise.