The author of "The Crucible" Arthur Miller, was influenced by social problems and personal problems. Arthur Miller was experiencing problems in his marriage and was influenced by the events during McCarthyism. One theme in "The Crucible" is that people lied for both good and selfish reasons. In the story "The Crucible" a group of girls were found dancing in the woods. These girls were doing more then dancing, they were conjuring the dead. When they got discovered, they decide to lie about what they were doing because it was illegal in their town. Abigail Williams a character from "The Crucible", decided to be untruthful about what had happened that night. She wanted to save herself from being accused as a witch and didn't want a bad reputation