The main purpose was to protect power when it was challenged and be able to sustain it in the long term. By not being alone, they would be stronger, have more security and be able to survive, because they were frightened that what had happened in Jamestown could have happen to them too, like explained above. However, to create something like this theocracy, they would have to sacrifice many of their civil rights. "Evidently the time came in New England when the repressions of order were heavier than seemed warranted by the dangers against which the order was organized. "(6) This quotation from the play stated that at some point in their history, the population wanted to have more individual rights, to be more independent like the seulement in Topsfield and to separate their moral laws from state laws. The ministers of the community didn't like lies and managed to perversely invoke the witch hunt so that the population would panic, and this way, the theocracy would be able to keep controlling its citizens by pretending to protect them from the threat from within, which were the witches. In the play, we can see how their plan managed to create hysteria throughout their society and how they managed to tear apart a community. (Sparknotes) The best neighbors were suddenly accusing each other, mentioning their names to the authorities and crying them out as witches. Once people were all against each other, the only person they could turn to was the church, and that's exactly what the clergy wanted. As the story unfolds, the main purpose of the population was to get revenge by crying out names of people whom they had always hated or look down upon. Just like Proctor said in The Crucible: "-vengeance is walking Salem. "(73)The best example is the case of Abigail and Elizabeth Proctor, when Abigail mentioned Elizabeth's name to the authorities so she could get rid of her and have John all for herself.