Arthur Miller's “The Crucible” is based on the concept of mass hysteria, which essentially means that there is a spread of certain signs or symptoms among a large group of people resulting from a change in society. While Arthur Miller was writing The Crucible, a similar spread of hysteria occurred in the United States, the Second Terror of Communism, or the Second Red Scare. Arthur Miller expressed these emerging ideas of mass hysteria in The Crucible as was the case at the time of the Salem witch trials in Massachusetts in 1692, and people, particularly in the novel, blamed others for their salvation and accused them of witchcraft. In Arthur Miller's retelling of these events, some characters used scapegoating as a way to save themselves from punishment, but characters like Abigail Williams, Thomas Putnam, and Judge Hathorne created and pushed Salem's witchcraft further by blaming others and inciting fear. into the small town community and forcing them to be almost remotely responsible for the events in Salem. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Judge Hathorne of Salem, was another figure in the event who had a huge impact on the witch trials. Judge Hathorne, aside from Abigail, doesn't care what happens to those who are convicted. He is very stubborn and even refuses evidence, because he doesn't want people to prove that they are not guilty of what they are accused of. He is responsible for most of the hangings of innocent people and essentially chose what would happen in Salem. The text reads “Enter Judge Hathorne. He is in his sixties and is a bitter and ruthless Salem judge. This shows how Judge Hathorne had no remorse for the people of Salem. All he cared about were his riches and fortune. He was greedy enough to accuse others to take their possessions. With other girls and a slave named Tituba, Abigail Williams is in the forest at the beginning of The Crucible. Abigail had Tituba cast a spell on Goody Proctor, John Proctor's girlfriend, which was later discovered because John was having a secret affair with Abigail, Abigail wanted Proctor's wife to die, and Tituba was the only person who she knew she could bribe to do it for her. Mainly due to her personal status as a slave. Once Abigail's uncle, the small town Reverend Samuel Parris, finds out from the events that Abigail begins her accusations. In the first act, realizing that she is guilty of dabbling in the forest with witchcraft, Abigail says, "whispering: Not me, lord Tituba and Ruth", and in the same scene Abigail is seen talking to the rest of the girls saying, "Now look at you . All of you. We danced. And Tituba evoked Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that's all." Abigail convinces the girls to lie, and so the first arrest is made on Tituba, and she will be the first to be executed, creating a ripple effect of suspicion throughout the city and starting Abigail's eventual devastation of the city . However, not only was Abigail Williams blamed for the events in Salem, Thomas Putnam and the Putnam family were also a major cause of the events that occurred in Salem. In the beginning, Thomas Putnam was a well-known man in the town of Salem and was hungry for land. In the opening of the play he is portrayed as a man who desperately longs for land. He is also described as power-hungry. When Salem began the search for the scapegoat, he had the idea that if people were convicted and hanged, their land would be sold and he could profit.