The deterioration of Salem’s social structure precipitated the murders of many 
innocent people. Arthur Miller’s depiction of the Salem witch trials, The Crucible, deals 
with a community that starts out looking like it is tightly knit and church loving. It turns 
out that once Tituba starts pointing her finger at the witches, the community starts 
pointing their fingers at each other. Hysteria and hidden agendas break down the social 
structure and then everyone must protect themselves from the people that they thought 
were their friends. The church, legal system and the togetherness of the community died 
so that children could protect their families’ social status.
	Being isolated from any other group of people with different beliefs created a 
church led Puritan society that was not able to accept a lot of change. The church was 
against the devil, at the same time it was against such things as dancing and other 
premature acts. The reputation of the family was very important to the members of the 
community. When the girls were caught dancing in the woods, they lied to protect not just 
themselves but the reputation of their families. They claimed that the devil took them over 
and influenced them to dance. The girls also said that they saw members of the town 
standing with the devil. A community living in a puritan society like Salem could easily go 
into a chaotic state and have a difficult time dealing with what they consider to be the 
largest form of evil.
	Salem’s hysteria made the community lose faith in the spiritual beliefs that they 
were trying to strictly enforce. The church lost many of its parishioners because the 
interest of the town was now on Abigail because people wanted to know who was going 
to be named next. When the church was trying to excommunicate John Proctor, there 
were not enough people at church to do it. The people were getting misled so far as to 
leave a dagger stuck in the door of their minister’s house: “Tonight, when I open my door 
to leave my house--a dagger clattered to the ground...There is danger for me.”(128) were 
Parris’ exact words. With the conveyer of God fearing for his life there was no longer 
anyone but Abigail to lead the community.
	The justice system is designed to protect the people that it serves but during the 
trials the accused witch had two choices, death or imprisonment. The punishment of death 
was given to all people that pleaded not guilty; the other punishment was to plead guilty 
and go to jail. John Proctor gave his view of the justice system when he said “I like not the 
smell of this ‘authority’ ”(29). “And do you know that near to four hundred are in the jails 
from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature?”(85) said Danforth, describing the 
number of people that were in jail on charges of witchcraft. There were so many people 
executed that Hale commented “there are orphans wandering from house to house; 
abandoned cattle bellow on the highroads, the stink of rotting crops hangs 
everywhere...”(130) Salem was turning into a ghost town. With Abigail controlling the 
community, the church no longer getting the whole town to prayer, and an unjust legal 
system, it is natural that the people were in a state of total chaos.
	The unexplained was caused by the devil, so some members of Salem used the 
unexplained to their advantage. Mrs. Putnam told the truth when she said, “There are 
wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!”(26)  Mrs. Putnam did her share 
of spreading rumors after she heard that the girls were flying, so she asked Parris “How 
high did she (Abigail) fly, how high?”(11). These rumors happened because people did not 
want any blame put on to themselves. This ‘passing the buck’ made people start fighting 
with one another such as Corey charging Putnam of having his daughter accuse a resident 
of witchcraft in order to get Corey’s land. Abigail used her power of getting people to 
listen to her to her advantage when she charged Proctor’s spouse with being a witch so 
Abigail could live with John. This again proves that Abigail had control of the town and 
the unexplained turned neighbor against neighbor.
	The social breakdown in Salem was the major factor in the tragedy that took the 
lives of many innocent people. There was more than one tragedy in The Crucible. The first 
was the murdering of many innocent people, and the second was that a community that 
was once very close had been broken apart. It appeared that the people of Salem were like 
a family but isolation actually made them unable to adapt to a troublesome situation. If the 
community could have had a greater influence from another group of people then the 
social structure would have been able to adapt.

















Tragedy: The Deterioration of Salem During the Witch Trials
The Crucible by Arthur Miller

















John Hudson		
Mrs. Phillips		
Eng 0A0		
Due April 12, 1996