The Crucible 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 …showed first 75 words of 660 total…

…showed last 75 words of 660 total…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.