enough that most people knew someone whose family had been affected by one.  To the Puritans, the brutal and savage Indians were doing the Devil's work.

In addition, as Reverend Parris tells Abigail, "Abominations are done in the forest."  The forest is a place where people can go to escape rules; they can hide within the trees and engage in whatever terrible or immoral behavior they choose.  This might be a gathering of witches dancing naked and conjuring spells or an unmarried couple retreating to the darkness of the forest in order to have their affair.  The temptation presented by the forest was very much believed to be the handiwork of the Devil.  It is the Devil who tempts us to do bad things, and bad things are easier to do in the forest.

The forest as it is described in The Crucible is the meeting place where the girls, under the direction of Tituba, conjure spirits and dance. The implications is that the forest has spaces hidden from view so that the girls can do these things in secret. But also, being outdoors and closer to nature, the forest represents the wild and untamed aspects of human nature. Reverend Parris refers to his daughter and niece "dancing like heathens" in the forest; heathen is a word for one who does not worship God, and the word "heathen" is derived from "heath dweller" which means one who lives close to nature, and is thereby seen as not following the dominant religious faith. This is an attitude that comes from the the age of superstition that characterized the witch hunts in Europe and America; it has to do with city dwellers being more sophisticated than urban dwellers, since city dwellers are more likely to be literate, and able to read the Bible, etc. 

The forest is generally a symbol that is associated with a primordial archetype like that described by Jung; it represents darkness and possible evil. Different archetypes are connected to different qualities within human thought and emotions; the forest is connected to the "shadow self" and its similarity to untamed nature and animalistic instincts. There is a connection to sex as well, and its expression being linked to our animalistic selves; and elsewhere in the play John Proctor refers to his affair with Abigail as similar to what "beasts" do.

The devil is personified from the beginning of the play. For example, Mrs. Putnam says that Betty is more than just sick. She says that "the Devil's touch is heavier than sick." Later in act one, Parris proclaims, by way of accounting for Betty's sudden illness, that "the Devil may be among us." He also says that he can't understand the constant arguments among the town's people, and admits to wondering "if the Devil be in it somewhere." When Hale enters the scene, he also blames the devil for Betty's illness, declaring that "The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone." From these examples, we can see that the devil is personified as something of a scapegoat for any seemingly inexplicable misfortune. If there is something amiss, and no apparent reason for it, the devil is summoned by way of an explanation.

Later in act 1, Tituba, under pressure from Hale, claims that she has conversed with the devil. She says that the devil spoke to her and told her that "Mr. Parris must be kill," and "You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free!" Hale tells Tituba that "the Devil is out and preying on (Betty) like a beast upon the mesh of the pure lamb." In this scene then, the devil is personified as cunning, manipulative, animalistic and predatory.

The devil is also personified as powerful. Hale proclaims that Betty is "in the Devil's grip" and Tituba says that he came "one stormy night" and told her that he had "white people belong to (him)." Tituba considers it a mark of the devil's power that he can seduce and enslave white people as well as black people. Abigail later says that she "danced for the Devil," implying that the devil also has a power to seduce, or charm. In act two, Hale reminds Proctor that the devil is also powerful because he is "a wily one." Indeed, "until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in heaven."

In one of his interjections, in act 1, Miller states that "the necessity of the Devil may become evident as a weapon, a weapon designed and used time and time again in every age to whip men into a surrender." Abigail uses the devil as a weapon against other women, realizing that if she accuses others first, she will more likely avoid being accused herself. In this way the personification of the devil as a real, living agent of evil, is used as a weapon. Abigail uses this weapon to deflect blame from herself and at the same time attack and do harm to others. Abigail frantically exclaims in the climax of act one that, "I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!"