“The Crucible,” by Arthur Miller, is a horrible tale of a great injustice done unto the innocent people of Salem, Maine. It is a tale of a prosperous town torn apart by the whim of a group of young girls; ultimately sentencing twenty-five innocent persons to their deaths. Throughout the play, Arthur Miller makes it known to the reader that there are natural explanations, not supernatural ones, for the tragedy that occurred in Salem in 1691. There were no witches, talking yellow birds, nor red cats. Nary had a man with white hair bid unto the townsfolk to sign his black book. Arthur Miller makes it perfectly clear that it is out of pure fear and vengeance that the witch hunts began and continued for such a tremendous period of time.

“I’ll tell you what’s walking in Salem; vengeance…is walking in Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the crazy little children are jangling the keys of the kingdom and common vengeance writes the law. This warrants vengeance!” This quote said by the good John Proctor clearly states the main motive for the trials in Salem. Vengeance. The first and most obvious form of vengeance in the story occurs b

Not only do fear and vengeance reflect the characters’ conflicts, but they also prove to develop significant themes in the play. It is pure fear that causes the good people of Salem to believe that their righteous, upstanding neighbors are capable of witchcraft. Had these people not been so pious and fearful of the work of the devil, they would have been hesitant to believe the cries of Satan. But, since the puritans at the time were some of the most religious people in the world at that time, they were easily led by fear of the devil. Vengeance also proves to be a main theme in the play because it allows the characters in the play to dig down and find their most heinous action, and blame it on someone else who they have cause to grudge “her spirit lye on top of me in the night,” “you drank blood to kill John Proctor’s wife,” etc.

The second main motive for the accusations and prolonged continuance of the trials in Salem is ice cold fear. The fear not only strikes the hearts of both the innocent and guilty in Salem, but also that of the most revered citizen; the Reverend. The play opens on Reverend Parris looking completely impressionable and alone. Parris’s only daughter is very ill and the town is speaking witchcraft. It is Parris’s fear that now begins the Salem witch hunt. In fear that the townspeople would no longer respect him if witchcraft was found in his house, Parris desperately searches for a way out. When Thomas Putnam arrives at his home, the solution to his fear is found. “Now look you, sir,” Putnam says, “Let you strike out against the Devil, and the village will bless you for it! Come down, speak to them-pray with them. They’re thirsting for your word, Mister! Surely you’ll pray with them.” Putnam convinces the reverend that if he speaks out about the presence of witchcraft in Salem and wishes to seek it out that he will be admired and praised beyond his wildest desires. Thrilled that he no longer has to be frightened, Parris takes the easy way out and tells the townsfolk that there is disastrous witchcraft afoot in Salem and that he wi

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