Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is the story of two times in our country’s history in which we gave in completely to our paranoia, causing mass hysteria. Although The Crucible takes place in Salem Massachusetts during the colonial era, Arthur miller wrote the play as a reflection of the social and political situation happening in his time of McCarthyism and the Second Red Scare. The universal theme of religion, and how far people are willing to go when they believe they are carrying out their god’s will, is represented in the conflict between religious-based decisions of the court in Salem and the people in town who were accused and prosecuted due to rash, religious, decisions, complete blind faith in God, and the ability to justify one's actions …show more content…
Abigail and the other girls got away with accusing several people of witchcraft, securing their downfall, because they did so by saying that it was the will of god and that they were protection the town from the devil, convincing the town that the accused had sent their “spirits out to attack [her]”. This theme also applies to McCarthyism and how, because so many americans believed communism was the devil’s work, people began taking advantage of the paranoia and accused people they did not favor and were able to get away with it, because they said that they were working under God to protect democracy. The universal theme of religion and the great lengths people are willing to go to follow it is applicable to not only the two time periods surrounding The Crucible , but also to modern times. Along with the beginning of “the war on terror” with the attacks on 9/11 came a new wave of mass hysteria which is accompanied with the illusion religious justification. The terrorists who attacked the U.S. believed that they were serving the will of their god and used that to justify