The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, a four-act dramatic play based on the events of the Salem witch trials, is set in a small Puritan village in Massachusetts in 1692. The witch trials they arose from the particular moral system of the Puritans, which promoted a repressive code of conduct that frowned upon any deviation from norms of behavior. The show opens with the reader learning about a young girl limp in her bed. The villagers automatically suspect witchcraft. However, they do not know that the night before all the girls in the village ran away into the woods where they prepared a potion to allow them to have the man they love. The black slave girl who helped the girls prepare this potion was Tituba. This was fine until Abigail went too far and wished death on John Proctor's wife. The girls go crazy, dancing and undressing but then Abigail's uncle comes in and finds them. This is the real reason why the girl can't move, she's scared. The girls turn against the rest of the village and blame them for witchcraft. John Proctor is the tragic hero as he has many positive traits in him, such as his noble characteristics and his honorable and righteous qualities. He also has a dark side to his otherwise pure nature by having an affair with Abigail Williams. Proctor's actions lead to his fatal fall and the fall of others as a result of his sin. However, he was very willing to reverse the effects of his actions to save others around him. The most shocking reality is that these events were real, which only further fuels the tragedy of the play, especially towards John Proctor. Arthur Miller was born on October 17, 1915 in Harlem, New York. The early years of Miller's life did not go well. Miller wasn't in... middle of paper... Puritans disapproved of Quakers because they believed that God could speak to individuals and inspire them to communicate on his behalf. As a result, Quakers avoided hierarchical forms of church government. The Puritans, in contrast, believed that God would speak only through his ordained ministers and consequently placed great importance on their work. In the hysteria of the city at the beginning of the play there is a parallel to the frenzy that the communist "witch hunt" caused in America in the 1950s. And in John Proctor's trial, the confession, recantation, and refusal to name his associates are incidents that occurred regularly before the House Un-American Activities Committee. However, due to its broad scope of moral themes, the work also has an underlying meaning that goes beyond the immediate and specific historical circumstances for which it was written..