The fear whipped up by witch hunts has the might to change the social fabric, there needing to be an ‘enemy’ to defeat, the root of this phenomena that we’ve repetitively seen play out throughout history. Influenced by the Salem witch trials of 1692/1693 and the McCarthyism of 40s and 50s America, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible instils what it is for hysteria to very gradually take over a community, a nation, a population.