Some citizens of Salem use the charge of witchcraft willfully and for personal gain, but most are genuinely overcome by the town's collective hysteria: they believe the devil is attacking Salem. In The Crucible, hysterical fear becomes an unconscious means of expressing the resentment and anger suppressed by strict Puritan society. Fear feeds fear: in order to explain to itself why so many people are afraid, the community begins to believe that the fear must have legitimate origins. The town of Salem falls into mass hysteria, a condition in which community-wide fear overwhelms logic and individual thought and ends up justifying its own existence. These rumors are largely encouraged by Abigail, a 17-year-old girl, in order to frame Elizabeth Proctor as a witch, so that she can win over her husband John Proctor.In The Crucible, neighbors suddenly turn on each other and accuse people they've known for years of practicing witchcraft and devil-worship.

In 1962, accusations of witchcraft wreak havoc in the isolated and theocratic society of Salem. It premiered in Germany in 1949 and in the U.S. exile Lion Feuchtwanger wrote Wahn, Oder der Teufel in Boston in 1947, and he used the witch trials as an allegory for persecutions against suspected communists. Fun Fact: Another Salem-themed play was circulating when The Crucible premiered.Notable Adaptations: 1996 movie with a screenplay by Miller himself, starring Winona Ryder as Abigail Williams and Daniel Day Lewis as John Proctor Ivo van Hove’s 2016 Broadway revival set in a classroom, with Saoirse Ronan as Abigail Williams.Major Characters: John Proctor, Abigail Williams, Elizabeth Proctor, John Hathorne, Jonathan Danforth.Themes: Mass hysteria and fear, reputation, conflict with authority, faith vs.

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