The Crucible: The Concept of Conscience Conscience is the awareness of right and wrong. In The Crucible, the idea of ​​conscience is heavily emphasized. Miller himself said, "No critic seemed to grasp what I was after [which was] the conflict between a man's crude actions and his conception of himself; the question of whether consciousness is actually an organic part of being human, and what happens when it is handed over not only to the state or customs of the time, but also to the friend or wife. right and wrong, secondly the idea of ​​confession of sins, and finally the idea of ​​guilt and penance for sins. Conscience, therefore, as a matter of morality, is very clearly defined at the beginning of the work "...a minister is the Lord's man in the parish; a minister must not be so lightly crossed and contradicted" says Parris in the first act. Here it is established that theologically the minister, in this case Parris, should be the ultimate decider of morality in Salem. The Church, in theocratic Massachusetts, defines conscience . Right and wrong are decided by authority, and here the authority is the Church. The law is based on the doctrines of the Church and Salem is a theocracy. "For good purposes, even noble ones, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combination of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity… but every organization is and must be founded on the idea of ​​exclusion and prohibition, just as no two objects can occupy the same space. Evidently the time came in New England when the repressions of the order were heavier than seemed justified by the dangers against which the order was organized." Thus, in the first place Salem was a place where the conscience 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 buckle under this rigid idea of ​​conscience, this repression. Abigail tells John, “I seek John Proctor who has me snatched from sleep and put knowledge in my heart! I never knew what Salem was, I never knew the lessons of lies I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenant men. ! And now you order me to tear the light from my eyes?