Good and evil have become famous because of the Bible - God's will being good, and evil being against it. In the town of Salem this notion was more potent and accepted than in today's society; nobody wants to be the intolerant one now. But an interesting idea is introduced in The Crucible by John Proctor: "I wish you had some evil in you so you might know me!" (p. 220). It seems as though he's suggesting, maybe for the first time, that evil can exist in anyone. Francis, to whom Proctor was talking, probably wasn't the perfect example of a Puritan, but then again, a lot of Puritans seem to have either ignored or subconsciously rejected any thought of themselves being evil. So from that, Proctor finds it hard to get the people of the court to relate to him and understand his story.
As many people today are adamant on equality, they often forget what they're trying to preach to everyone else: there is no cookie-cutter human. The same perfect person cannot be manufactured, and no living human can expect to fully fit into that sharp image. Protesters against racism often find themselves developing a hatred for people who were raised to belittle minorities. In Salem, the accusation of witchcraft became a weapon. Terms like 'homophobic' or 'narrow-minded' are used very similarly now. The suggestion that there was pure evil in Salem is a far fetched one, but the idea of evil spreading thin, maybe even transparent, enough to cover all its citizens wouldn't be too far off.
