The Crucible Essay: The Crucible as a Warning The witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, in the early 1600s were a time of disquiet and suspicion. Anyone could easily report their neighbor for witchcraft. Someone could simply say that their neighbor's spirit attacked them during the night, which no one can prove. However, as a God-fearing community, they could not dream of denying the evidence, because to deny the existence of Evil is to deny the existence of Good, which is God. The most important scene of the play was act two, scene three, where John Proctor gets to speak one last time with his wife, Elizabeth. He decides that he will “confess” to the crime of witchcraft, thereby avoiding being hanged. However, to accept what he said, the judge also asks him to sign a written confession in which he states that he confessed to the crime of witchcraft. Judge Danforth posted it on the church door, to use Proctor as an example to lead others to confession. This greatly upset Proctor, as people looked down on him with disdain, and it would forever blacken his name. What mattered most to him was taking a stand against the madness in the city, for himself and for God, and using it as a last resort to make people aware of what was happening. This final battle for justice is an example of the Overseer's great character and purpose. Arthur Miller wrote his play, The Crucible, a story about the Salem witch trials and the resulting panic, as an allegory to show people the madness of the McCarthy hearings. He wrote it as an allegory so that, if it was attempted by McCarthy, he could say, "It's just a play about the Salem witch trials." How do you get this communist idea from it? The story illustrates how people respond to mass hysteria, created by a person or group of people desiring fame, as was the case during the McCarthy hearings. Arthur Miller, as a great visionary, warned us that if we were not aware of the repetition of history, our society would be in danger. At the same time, he had to do it for a purpose that would not allow him to be arrested, hence the mechanization of witch trials..