When Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in 1953, America was in a state of turmoil. Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee were spreading fear and hysteria with their communist “witch hunts.” Miller wanted to approach the subject in a way that would not openly denounce the hearings, and with his prior knowledge of the Salem witchcraft trials of 1692, he created an allegory, and The Crucible was born. By examining the universality of the play's theme and its tragic elements, it will become clear that The Crucible is Arthur Miller's greatest achievement. The Crucible was not as instantly successful as Death of a Salesman because "its merits were initially overshadowed by the notoriety of its most obvious theme." The Salem witch trials of 1692 were distractingly similar to the so-called witch hunts of the 1950s” (American Writers 156). However, The Crucible has survived and is constantly revived because “the play transcends mere topicality” (Matlaw 175). Although the obvious connection between the Salem witchcraft trials and the "Red Scare" is obvious to anyone reading the play with any knowledge of history, The Crucible is not just an allegory for 1950s America , but a potential allegory for any time and anywhere because the themes of "betrayal, denial, rash judgment, self-justification are not distant in time or space" ( Bigsby xvi). The power of the play lies not in the political or social themes, but rather in "a study of the debilitating power of guilt, the seductions of power, the flawed nature of the individual and the society to which the individual owe allegiance” (Bigsby XXIV). The power of John Proctor's guilt over his adulterous impulses...... middle of paper ......d of Proctor's life is truly tragic. The Crucible is Arthur Miller's greatest tragedy. This is not just an allegory of McCarthyism, but an allegory of all time. The play is also his greatest tragedy because of its strict adherence to the form of classical tragedy described by Aristotle. Ed. Leonard Unger. Flight. III. New York: Scribner's, 1974. 145-169. Bigsby, Christopher. Introduction. The Crucible. By Arthur Miller. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Matlaw, Marion. Drama of the Modern World: An Encyclopedia. New York: EP Dutton & Co., 1972. 175-177. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. Miller, Arthur. "Why I wrote 'The Crucible'." Elements of literature: literature of the United States and literature of the Americas. Austin: Holt, Rhinehart and Winston, 2000. 827.