Arthur Miller's "The Crucible"

"Once again we were looking almost completely outside ourselves for salvation from ourselves; in the absolutely right and necessary rebellion was only a speck of room for worrying about personal ethics and our own egotism." In this quote, Miller is describing a state in which society looks beyond what is present in order to attain salvation, or deliverance. The people no longer worry about themselves because they are too fixated upon the rebellion, or uprising, …

…that they were against the United States Government. The trust was lost, the diversity was becoming less and less varied, and the people were turning on neighbors and friends. The gray rain being described represents the depressing, sad feeling surrounding Arthur Miller. Everything he was experiencing was filling him with grief and misery. "Gray rain" puts an emphasis on the extremely intense, deep emotion of melancholy. "It is evil, is it not? It is evil" (138).