Le Creuset: The concept of conscienceConscience is the awareness of good and evil. In The Crucible, the idea of ​​conscience is strongly emphasized. Miller himself said: “No critic seemed to understand what I was looking for [i.e.] the conflict between a man's raw actions and his conception of himself; the question of whether consciousness is in fact an organic part of the human being, and what is happening. when he is handed over not only to the State or the morals of the time, but to his friend or his wife. good and evil, secondly the idea of ​​confession of sin, and finally the idea of ​​guilt and penance for sins. Conscience, as a matter of morality, is therefore defined very clearly from the beginning of the play. “…a pastor is the Lord’s man in the parish; a pastor should not be thwarted and contradicted lightly,” Parris says in the first act. Here it is established that theologically the minister, in this case Parris, is supposed to be the ultimate decider of morality in Salem. The Church in theocratic Massachusetts defines conscience. Right and wrong are decided by authority, and the authority here is the Church. The law is based on the doctrines of the Church, and Salem is a theocracy. to prevent any form of disunity… but all organization is and must be based on the idea of ​​exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space. Obviously, the time came in New England when the repressions of the order were heavier than they seemed justified. by the dangers against which the order was organized. "So, first, Salem was a place where the consciousness of the people was strictly governed by theocracy, and socially, Salem was repressive. However, at the beginning of the book, we see that the inhabitants of Salem have already begun to comply with this strict idea of ​​conscience, with this repression. Abigail said to John, “I am looking for John Proctor who woke me from my sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what Salem was like, I never knew the lessons of lying that all those Christian women and their allied men taught me. And now you're asking me to take the light out of my eyes?