Theme Development in The Crucible Arthur Miller's The Crucible is a historical work, but above all a social and psychological drama. The various ways in which themes are developed throughout The Crucible are through characters, plot, setting, and dialogue. The importance of the witch trials lies, according to Raymond Williams, in the fact that in them "the moral crisis of a society is explicit, is directly represented and declared, in such a way that the quality of the entire lifestyle is organically present and evident in the qualities of people" (Drama from Ibsen to Brecht, 1968). For Williams this is a dramatic device that allows the playwright to explore the forces of evil in Salem society unleashed by the revelation of witchcraft. there is prodigious danger in the search for loose spirits." I fear it. I fear it. Let us rather blame ourselves!». But his warning is not heeded and Pandora's box is opened. We see the greed of Thomas Putnam; the seeking revenge on those who have harmed them, carried out by Martha Corey and Abigail Williams; Ann Putnam's jealousy of the fertile Rebecca Nurse and Abigail's jealousy of Elizabeth Proctor; the ambition of Hale and Parris, both seeking public approval; the fear of punishment that initially motivates Abigail and the other girls; then the joy of power they demonstrate during the trial. Above all, The Crucible investigates the mass hysteria that infects the entire community. The notion of evil is central to The Crucible. It is not possible to understand the work without thinking about what Miller is trying to say about the subject. It's obvious that we're looking at evil as it is, after all, the story of a witch trial, and it involves a good deal of both physical and spiritual cruelty. What is not so obvious is that the playwright is creating two different models of evil. It shows us what people think it is, and then proves them largely wrong. They look in the wrong places, they chase the wrong symptoms, they pursue those supposedly evil, and they leave untouched what is truly evil. The false pattern of evil is something defined by a set of external rules: not going to church regularly, not knowing the commandments, swearing, and living outside of marriage. . These were the tests that were subjected to the accused in witchcraft trials and they were found guilty. The model of good, which is still false, is that obeying these same rules equals good. According to this false model, Parris, the Putnams, and the girls are all pure. We stereotype and ignore individual variations. We confuse the external spectacle with the internal truth and fall into a kind of nightmarish farce that