Good Vs. Evil In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

“The Crucible” is a dramatic playwright of the late 1600’s during the salem witch trials, which was written by Arthur Miller, a famous author in the 1900’s. In this book, Miller emphasized the drastic events occurred, and hectic accusations of witchcraft filed towards the two characters-- Betty and Abigail(Betty being Parris’ daughter and Abigail, Parris’ niece).
Salem, in 1692, a population of Puritans who viewed the world in terms of good vs. evil. Having a theocracy government system; God being the true leader of their society, everyone was a follower of his word and cherished the Holy Bible, as Christians. The entire play is about the disagreement on the discussion of the rules of conducts between right and wrong, but in this case, good

and evil. The tone of this play is a ‘lit-crit-pro-tip’ (say that five times fast) tone. He (the author) calls the majority of this characters “snobs” in the first fews paragraphs of the text, encouraging the readers to dislike them.
One of the themes of The Crucible is “good vs.

evil”. The whole village believes in the conflict between good vs, evil, or God vs. Satan. Repeatedly, people are accused of practicing witchcraft. Tituba confesses, claiming she wanted to be a good Christian and stop hurting people, but she had to recant the Devil. Mary Warren accuses Proctor of making her sign the “Devil’s Book” and she’s a true follower of Christ. Another theme is “The Supernatural”. The supernatural is real to the people of the entire village. They see evidence of God’s work and the Devil’s, everywhere, yet nobody has witnessed the spirits, except the girl who claimed they have. The author identifies the Devil as people-- greedy people, good people, misled people, some jealous, some vengeful, and others evil. An additional theme of this play would be Religion, which is interlinked into everyday life in Salem. The townspeople practice christianity centered on a set of clearly defined rules, for example, (1)going to church every Sunday, (2)not working on the Sabbath day, (3)believe the gospel, (4)respect the minister’s word as if it was God’s, and so on. The people accused of practicing witchcraft, even those good and respected, and highly religious like Rebecca Nurse, would be put to death. No one is excluded from such punishments.
John Proctor, the protagonist in the first two Acts of the play, was a disloyal man--he cheats on his wife and he can’t remember the ten commandments even though he attends church

every week. He’s stubborn and mainly angry all the time, yet, he’s a hero. In the beginning of Act 3, his whole character changes. He becomes raged when he learns that Abigail Williams is lying and falsifying stories of witchcraft throughout Salem. He tries to save his wife from the charges, yet she’s still arrested, which results in the increase of his desire to stop the insanity of the witch trials.
Abigail Williams, the antagonist of the play, has the character of the villain(ess). She is vengeful, selfish, manipulative, and a liar. She seems to be gifted at permeating death and destruction everywhere she’s present. She has an excellent skill of manipulating others and gaining control over them, making her a competent antagonist. Her ruthless tactics is a possible result of her troubled social life. She’s an orphan, unmarried teenager (very uncommon at this time) and worst of all, a female in a patriarchal society. She did spearhead the group of girls who saw spirits and pointed out witches in Salem. Abigail accused Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife, of being a witch and she was jailed. These false accusations were never renounced. Elizabeth’s character didn’t fit the memo.
Elizabeth is good, too good. She is noble, honest, confident, and, as described in the playwright “colder than Salem, Massachusetts in early February, but still no one is excluded from punishment. Her positive qualities are also her negative ones. She is a ethical, wholesome woman who is adamant and true. Yet, these traits can also create a cold-hearted “meany”. Reading, first introduced to her, she is suspicious and distant, as she should be, being married to disloyal husband, whom is having an affair with their housekeeper, Abigail Williams.
The conflict of the story starts when Tituba is brought into Betty’s room for questioning.

She confesses to practicing witchcraft and exposes the names of the other girls associating with the Devil. Following Abigail’s orders, the girls make false accusations to other citizen women of Salem. After Abby founds out about Tituba confessing, she threatens the other girls not to tell the truth more of what she already said. She opens up to Proctor and lets him in on a secret that Betty was never really ill, she was just afraid when Parris found out about her being a witch. She then wants him to reveal his love for her, but he denies her and suggests that she forget him. The girls are then instructed to stop blaming the town’s less prominent citizens and point the finger at the religious and respectable women. When Elizabeth hears about this, she tells Proctor to speak about it in court, and Abby gets upset for Elizabeth involving herself, so she frames her for practicing witchcraft. Abby frames her by telling authorities she has tools at her house, which were there when they went to check. Elizabeth was

arrested.
Mary Warren’s failed testimony brings the story to its climax. Proctor, trying to get his wife released from jail confesses to committing adultery with Abigail. She denies his confession and the wife is questioned but sent back for lying and Proctor is arrested after Mary accuses him of forcing her to sign Satan’s book. Instead of continuing to lie about himself and involving his friends, he renounces and goes through his death sentence.