The play “The Crucible,” written by Arthur Miller, used the Salem witch hunt trials as an allegory for the McCarthy hearings and the real horrors behind the way America dealt with attempted communism. The tension is evident throughout the work, and each character participates in intensifying it, which traps them in the extreme consequences of the tension they helped circulate. The significance of Salem is that tension can arise from within each character as they are embroiled in hidden and publicly known feuds. Tension must be created, but the audience decides who is to blame. Some excerpts are more explosive than others in the tension they channel and the hysteria they spread; so I will explore these excerpts in depth to show how tension is a key aspect of this play. An interesting extract of dramatic tension is found in the first act of the play and sees Miller amplify the tension by using Abigail's struggle to evade the consequences of her actions and her frantic attempts to shift the blame from herself to others. She hesitates repeatedly as her answers differ and contradict each other in response to her uncle admitting to Abigail that he is involved with sinners. Abigail betrays Tituba, and so increases the tension on stage, as a confused Tituba is whipped and punished after Abigail accuses her of witchcraft. Abigail stammers that it was "Tituba, Tituba..." and nervously pauses to see if the men believe her accusations of witchcraft. The tension in this excerpt reaches a climax when we see Tituba being violently interrogated with questions such as "Donna, did you enlist?" these children for the devil? This is a key episode in the play as it is the first accusation of witchcraft,......middle of paper......hysteria i.e. when John dies. Hidden sins and family secrets provide a good foundation for the tension in Salem to which feuds and bitterness are added in situations to increase it to substantial levels. It can be seen that tension is created by the themes of betrayal, self-importance, and reputation in Salem as they are the reason why there are feuds and friction in the town. Tension may not be created by hysteria but hysteria can be seen as a great fuel as in scenes where tension peaks, hysteria is evident with people shouting, fighting and screaming and this is shown through Miller's use of caesuras which emphasizes the screams and abrupt sentences that accompany hysteria. However, the tension is finally resolved with the death of John Proctor which not only erases the sins of Salem but also the feuds and tensions that reached their peak around his death..