Aristotle once said, "Men are influenced more by fear than by reverence." It is generally known that fear is a motivating factor in any situation. This is evident in many real life situations such as the Red Scare or the Salem witch trials of 1962. Arthur Miller was a playwright who was a victim of McCarthyism in the Second Red Scare who related his experience to the Salem witch trials. He was oppressed because he had communist sympathies. In the midst of this oppression, he examined the Salem witch trials and saw similarities to the Red Scare. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows his belief that humanity is driven by fear and self-preservation, which often leads people to abandon their morals. One of the fears that comes up quite often in The Crucible is the fear of a bad reputation. People fear that others will think badly of them and often act to avoid being seen as "different" or bad by others, regardless of their morals. An example of this is Reverend Parris when he speaks to Abigail after Betty becomes ill: "But if you trafficked with spirits in the forest I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and ruin me with it" (10). Parris sees the girls attempting witchcraft in the woods, but as the play progresses, he says nothing about it for fear that his enemies will ruin him and take away his reputation as a minister. If he had admitted that his family was involved, many fewer people would have died. He knew it, yet he continued to hide the truth to protect himself. It also comes up when Reverend Hale talks to John Proctor about the trials. Proctor asks Hale if he thinks the reason so many confess to witchcraft might be because they are hanged if t... middle of paper... n often enough in places like Ghana. Often the belief in witchcraft is deeply ingrained in society and witches are believed to curse and kill people purely for entertainment purposes. This causes fear of being cursed or killed by a witch and ultimately leads to trials without adequate evidence and people torturing or killing the accused. The fear of witchcraft pushes these people to abandon their morals and kill or seriously harm someone who has the slightest possibility of posing a threat to them. People will do anything to prevent their fears from becoming reality and to save themselves. Maybe it's just a natural instinct: "survival of the fittest". Or maybe it's something darker, something that makes us willing to hurt others out of petty fear. The human mind is full of complexity and Arthur Miller tells it simply.