One of the social issues affecting the Salem community is gender inequality. Women, particularly young females, are marginalized in the highly patriarchal Puritan society. Young females are expected to be obedient, quiet, soft-spoken members of the community, who have no authority and are assigned strict gender roles. One could argue that Abigail and her followers are motivated to continue falsely accusing innocent citizens of witchcraft because Salem's court offers them a rare opportunity to wield authority and gain recognition from their community members.
Corruption is another social issue affecting Salem's community throughout the play. Judge Hathorne and Deputy Governor Danforth refuse to reverse their rulings and continue arresting innocent citizens because they do not want to appear weak or indecisive. Despite the evidence against Abigail and her followers, both court officials refuse to relinquish their authority and continue unjustly sentencing innocent citizens. Any citizen who questions their rulings or procedures is deemed an enemy of the court and arrested. Both Giles Corey and John Proctor end up losing their lives because they refuse to capitulate with the court officials and attempt to expose its corrupt nature. Corrupt citizens like Thomas Putnam also manipulate the court system by using the witch trials as a way to increase their wealth, while Reverend Parris uses the trials to ensure his position of authority in the community.
One major social issue evident in The Crucible is the racism that makes Tituba such an easy target. Despite the fact that Reverend Parris doubts the spotlessness of Abigail's reputation, especially given the rumor that Goody Proctor called her "soiled," as well as the fact that he has known Abigail to laugh during prayer, and so on, she is believed the moment she names Tituba as the witch who tempted her to conjure spirits in the forest. Because Tituba is a slave from Barbados, everyone immediately believes Abigail's accusations.
Another issue is class: Sarah Good is a beggar, and so she is likewise an easy target for the girls' accusations. When she is accused, it is no trouble for others to believe that she is guilty. Then, when she is caught in a lie about saying her commandments, she ends up confessing to witchcraft, likely understanding—after the conviction of Goody Osburn—that she will never escape a guilty verdict.
Further, social posturing and community politics present another issue. The Putnams have supported Reverend Parris and his position in the community, though they are angry that other candidates were initially selected over their own: now, Giles Corey and John Proctor deny him the deed to the house and they squabble with him over his salary and entitlement to firewood. The Nurses conflict with the Putnams, as do Corey and Proctor; grudges go back a long way, and they all seem to have long memories.
There are a great many social issues in this play, and because the play is a metaphorical expression of McCarthyism, the social issues can be interpreted through the lens of two eras: the 1950s, and the late seventeenth century. Social issues such as sexism, religious fanaticism, corruption in the church, feudalism, and problems with the legal and justice system, which was newly created for the early colonists, all were part of the situation in Salem Village that led to the execution of a number of innocent people for witchcraft. Perhaps one of the most significant social issues was that of class division, which caused tension between the wealthy merchant class and the poor farmers whose devotion to Puritan beliefs made the accumulation of wealth a source of conflict.
Part of Miller's purpose in using this historical context to explore the current political situation was to show that McCarthy's tactics and the paranoia and manipulation surrounding the hearings were not only similar to the Salem Witch Trials, but also to portray the timeless quality that such dark chapters of human history possess. In other words, the social issues in the play are issues that were pertinent in 1692, but that take on another level of significance when one considers the events of the early 1950s in the United States.
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