The Crucible

Arthur Miller

Setting

• village of Salem, MA• in the spring of 1692

List of Characters

• The Rev. Parris - New England minister who is mainly responsible for the belief in witches; a widower in his 40’s

• Betty Parris - 10-year-old daughter, who was caught by her father dancing in the woods, pretends to see spirits

List of Characters• Tituba - the Rev. Parris’s Negro

slave who is partly responsible for teaching the children about “spirits”

• Abigail Williams - the Rev. Parris’s (17-year-old niece), who leads the other children in the accusations, orphan

List of Characters

• Susanna Walcott - friend of Abigail’s who also joins in accusing people of witchcraft

• Thomas Putman - a vindictive man with many grievances who uses the witch tales to effect his personal vengeance upon the town

List of Characters

• Mrs. Ann Putnam - Thomas’s wife, who attributes the death of her seven infant children to supernatural causes

• Mercy Lewis - 18-year-old friend of Abigail who also pretends to see witches

List of Characters

• Mary Warren - girl who works for Proctor family and who is involved in the accusations

• John Proctor - local member of the church who has opposed many of the Rev. Parris’s unnecessary expenditures

List of Characters

• Elizabeth Proctor - John’s wife, who discovers that her husband has committed adultery with Abigail

• Giles Corey - one of the oldest men in the community, who is brutally put to death because he challenged the proceedings of the court

List of Characters

• The Rev. John Hale - minister who first instigates the investigations but later sees through them and recants

• Francis Nurse - one of the most respected men of the community, who also tries to stop the investigations

List of Characters

• Rebecca Nurse - a lady of immense goodness and respect who is later accused of being a witch

• Ezekiel Cheever - One of the men appointed by the court to help in the arrest of the supposed witches

List of Characters

• Marshal Herrick - the man who is in charge of arresting all of the accused witches

• Judge Hathorne - one of the judges sent to examine the people accused of being witches

List of Characters• Deputy Gov. Danforth - a special judge

sent for this occasion, who is dedicated to removing all witches and who will not allow anyone to tamper with his authority

• Sarah Good - a pathetic old beggar woman who is one of the first to be accused of a witch

• Hopkins - the jailer

Act I - Overture

• Overture• Home of the Rev. Samuel Parris• Parris believes he is being persecuted• Salem is a village, hardly has been

established 40 years• Frontier land • Forbade “vain enjoyment” - books/theater• Concentrate on prayer• Somber way of life - no time to be idle

Act I - Overture• Minding one’s business was time-

honored among the people of Salem• The forest was dark and mysterious -

Devil’s playground• Indian tribes marauded the village• Relatives lost to Indian attacks• Failure to convert Indians to Christianity• A candle to light the world - one believes

one has the single truth or the way of life that people should ultimately embrace

Act I - Overture

• “Virginia destroyed them” - The Southeastern region “destroyed” the settlers not only in Jamestown but also in the ill-fated Roanoke Colony.

• First English child to be born in the New World was Virginia Dare (1587). When Sir Walter Raleigh returned with supplies in 1590, the colony was deserted. The colonists’ fate remains a mystery.

Act I - Overture

• The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom.

• It became a way to express publicly one’s guilt and sins under the cover of accusation against victims.

• Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly expressed and vengeance taken.

Act I

• What does the information in italics suggest about Parris’s character?

• Parris is profit-oriented and condones slavery - not traits one expects to find in a minister

Act I

• Parris - “And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest!”

• What can you infer about Puritan beliefs from what Parris says here?

• Puritans regarded dancing as sinful and Native Americans as infidels and were terrified of public opinion.

Act I

• What do you learn about Parris’s character?

• He is far more concerned about himself than about his daughter’s well-being. He is suspicious, distrustful, and paranoid.

Act I

• Parris - “Your name in the town - it is entirely white, is it not?

• What is Parris asking Abigail? • Parris asks Abigail if her reputation

is unblemished and hints at some incident at the Proctor household.

Act I

• Do you think Abigail is telling the truth about Goody Proctor? Why or why not?

• Good Proctor fired Abigail and removed her from the Proctor household. Abigail is biased against Goody Proctor.

Act I

• Why is Mrs. Putnam convinced that Betty flew over Ingersoll’s barn? Why is she so ready to believe that witchcraft is the cause of the girls’ condition?

• Ann Putnam takes pleasure in the misfortune of others and thus is eager to believe in the “stroke of hell” upon her minister.

Act I• Look carefully at the information from Miller

on Thomas Putnam. Explain how this passage might relate to Putnam’s motivation in the witch hunt?

• Putnam wants the high public standing he feels he deserves and wants revenge for the rejection of his candidate for minister-to the point of having the successful candidate jailed. He sees the witch hunt as a way to punish his rivals and increase his influence over the religious and political life of the village.

Act I

• “Putnam - at the moment he is intent upon getting PARRIS, for whom he has only contempt, to move toward the abyss:”

• What is the “abyss” that Putnam is trying to get Parris to move toward

• By getting Parris to lay blame for the girls’ condition on witchcraft. Putnam will have a lever to use against his enemies. Putnam is manipulating Parris for his own ends.

Act I

• What is Mrs. Putnam’s fundamental motivation for seeking solace in the idea of occult phenomena?

• She feels guilty and shameful about her inability to keep her sick infants alive and seeks to find some outside explanation.

Act I

• Why is Ruth not speaking?• She is terrified that she will be

punished severely. By staying mute, she gets sympathy while the others take the blame.

• What can you infer about Abigail?• She is forceful and decisive and seems

to doubt that any witchcraft is involved in Betty’s affliction.

Act I

• Why did Abigail drink a charm to kill Goody Proctor? What does this action reveal about Abigail’s character?

• Abigail wants to get back at Goody Proctor for firing her, and she wants his wife out of the way so she can have John Proctor.

• Drinking blood show the lengths she will go to achieve her goals. She is ruthless.

Act I

• What is a “pointy reckoning”? Why his phrase?

• It refers to a knife or a dagger.• The phrase captures the rich,

elevated diction and intensifies the ominous mood.

Act I

• Mary - “I only come to see the great doings in the world.”

• What is Mary claiming here? What does the context indicate she is hiding?

• She wants Proctor to think she was merely curious about the witchcraft crisis in Salem. She conceals her personal involvement in dancing in the forest.

Act I• Abigail - “Gah! I’d almost forgot how

strong you are, John Proctor!”• Proctor, looking at ABIGAIL now, he

faintest suggesting of a knowing smile on his face: What’s this mischief here?”

• What is the tone of Abigail’s comment? What does it imply?

• The tone is familiar, flirtatious, and daring. It suggests that they had an intimate relationship.

Act I

• Why is Abigail so angry when John Proctor calls her “child”?

• She is angry because in some ways Proctor has taken her childhood from her by bringing her into the world of adult sexuality, jealousy, and power.

• She is also angry because it suggests that she is not Proctor’s equal and will never be his partner.

Act I

• What does Abigail’s speech tell you about her views of society? What is the “light” that she claims Proctor showed her?

• Abby views society as built on hypocrisy and pretense, in which people pretend to act according to principles but really live according to their own selfish desires.

Act I• “To top it all, Mrs. Putnam-who is now

staring at the bewitched child on the bed-soon accused Rebecca’s spirit of ‘tempting her to iniquity,’ a charge that had more truth in it than Mrs. Putman could know.”

• What is the “truth in Mrs. Putnam’s charge?

• Rebecca’s dignified, moral, and well-respected human spirit will indeed tempt the envious Mrs. Putnam to commit a sinful crime: falsely accusing Putman of witchcraft.

Act I

• What is Rebecca saying about Betty’s affliction? Does she feel Betty is faking it?

• She seems to feel that the illness is neither a sham nor completely involuntary - that Betty has had a nasty shock and her “spirit” is hiding.

Act I

• Describe Parris and his relationship to his parishioners?

• He seems himself as a brilliant, well-educated minister who is underappreciated by his parishioners. He has a condescending and arrogant attitude toward them.

Act I

• “Parris- now he’s out with it: There is a party in this church. I am not blind; there is a faction and a party.”

• Parris is paranoid.• Why does Giles feel “a sudden will

to work”? • He is disgusted with the squabbling

and Putman’s efforts at land grabbing.

Act I

• What is implied in the statement “Our opposites are always robed in sexual sin”?

• We tend to see or portray our opponents as sinful or deviant in sexual matters.

Act I

• Who is the “Old Boy”? How can you figure this out?

• It is the devil.• The Rev. Hale has come to

investigate the possibility of witchcraft.

Act I• “Proctor - I’ve heard you to be a

sensible man, Mr. Hale. I hope you’ll leave some of it in Salem.”

• Why is the Rev. Hale embarrassed at John Proctor’s comment?

• Hale may be embarrassed because the witchcraft accusations which he investigated in his native Beverly turned out to be groundless, or he may feel worried that he has let a desire for notoriety and influence cloud his judgment again. In “Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly.”

Act I

• How does Hale see himself? What role does he think he will play in Salem village?

• Hale sees himself as someone who can rescue Salem. He has great moral certainty.

Act I

• “Giles - Mr. Hale, I have always wanted to ask a learned man-what signifies the readin’ of strange books?”

• What might be the result of this comment? Were his remarks wise?

• Giles could be laying the seeds for Martha’s being accused of witchcraft, since he has suggested that there is something strange about her.

Act I

• “Hale - What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad?”

• What do you make of this statement?

• Those who are most afflicted by the devil are the most virtuous, since they attract the devil’s hunger for a challenge.

Act I

• Why do you think Abigail places the blame on Tituba?

• Tituba is a slave, so she is a logical scapegoat. She is already an outsider deprived of her rights.

Act I

• What do you think makes Abigail laugh at church?

• She is laughing at the hypocrisy and pretense which, as a result of her affair with Proctor, she know believes to underlie any pretense to moral stature or responsibility.

Act I

• Why does Tituba suddenly change her story? What does this suggest will happen later in the play?

• She suddenly grasps the logic of the witch hunt process, in which accused people must relent in their protestations of innocence and then, in turn, accuse someone else as proof of their commitment to the process.

Act I - Timeline

• Dispute over the minister’s election, the land battles, and the murder of Abigail’s parents, and the death of Mrs. Putnam’s babies all took place in the distant past.

• 1691 - a witch hunt took place in Beverly• Fall of 1691 - Abigail is fired• Spring of 1692 - girls are caught dancing

in the forest

Act II

• Setting: Eight days later; common room of Proctor’s house

• John tasted the soup. He was not pleased so he takes a pinch of salt and drops it into the pot. He doesn’t tell Elizabeth. Why not?

• He doesn’t want to add to the tension that is already present between them.

Act II

• He (Proctor) goes to her, kisses her: She receives it. With a certain disappointment, he returns to the table.

• Why is he disappointed?• Elizabeth didn’t return the kiss.

Act II

• Proctor - “It’s winter in here yet…”• What does he mean by this? How

is it symbolic?• John suggests flowers as a sign of

hope and rejuvenation of his marriage.

Act II

• Why does everyone follow Abigail as if she were a saint?

• Abigail has discovered than in the logic of the witch hunt, the accuser is holy, worshipped as a revealer of truth.

• She can be dramatic.

Act II

• Elizabeth - “with a smile, to keep her dignity: John, if it were not Abigail that you must go to hurt, would you falter now? I think not.”

• What is she implying?• John does not want to risk

revealing his affair with Abigail to the court and to the entire town.

Act II

• Proctor: Spare me! You forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’. Learn charity, woman. I have gone tiptoe in this house all seven months since she is gone.”

• Is it right to imply that Elizabeth has “broken charity” with him?

• Elizabeth’s lapse of charity is much less grave than John’s or the town of Salem’s. Her pride is wounded, but it would be best it they could work towards forgiveness.

Act II

• How do you interpret Proctor’s bitter response regarding Elizabeth’s coldness? Is Proctor’s response appropriate, or does his anger indicate that he knows she is actually right-that it is his own heart that judges him most harshly?

• Elizabeth is right-Proctor’s conscience torments him more than Elizabeth ever has; yet Proctor is correct, too-Elizabeth has nursed her grievance for too long.

Act II

• Why is Mary’s gift to Elizabeth unusual?

• She wants to show her remorse for her disobedience

• She was put up to it by someone else and the doll will turn out to have a sinister purpose.

Act II• Mary Warren - “That she-in horror at the

memory-she sometimes made a compact with Lucifer, and wrote her name in his black book-with her blood-and hound herself to torment Christians till God’s thrown down-and we must all worship Hell forevermore.”

• How is the punishment ironic? What does this suggest about the court’s true motivation?

• People who confess to being guilty and implicate others are released, while those who maintain their innocence are hanged.

Act II

• Why does Mary Warren accuse Goody Osburn?

• Mary is overcome by the drama of the courtroom and by her own prejudices.

• Goody Osburn is uncouth, unpleasant, and dishonest. Mary lets these qualities overwhelm her and feels that Osburn has personally injured her.

Act II

• Does Mary really understand the witchcraft trials?

• Mary barely understands the consequences of her actions. Hanging is still an abstract idea for her. She thinks a confession will result in imprisonment not death.

Act II

• How is the accusation of Elizabeth different from those that have come before?

• Previously the women were not married and were looked down upon Salem.

• Now, the madness has targeted a respectable married woman.

• No one is safe.

Act II

• When Mary participates in the trials, what becomes her motivation?

• She now has power and she is not viewed as being just a mere servant girl.

Act II

• Elizabeth - “And what of tomorrow? She will cry me out until they take me!”

• To whom does Elizabeth refer? Do you agree with her assessment?

• Abigail wants Elizabeth dead so she can take her place in John’s life.

Act II

• Why does John blush when he passes Abigail in church? What meaning might Abigail see in John’s blush?

• John blushes from shame at the memory of his sin.

• Abigail thinks that John is still interested in her.

Act II• Proctor- “Then how do you charge me

with such a promise? The promise that a stallion gives a mare I gave that girl!”

• What does the metaphor suggest about John and Abigail?

• The affair was based on animal passion, not love. It indicates that mutual respect and devotion were not part of their relationship.

Act II

• How has the Rev. Hale changed?• Hale is no longer the self-confident

bloodhound on the devil’s trail.• He has discovered that hunting for

witches is less clear-cut than he imagined.

• He now feels he is destroying innocent people and shattering families.

Act II

• Why do you think Hale has come to visit the Proctors?

• He wants to see for himself how they live in order to make a decision based on Abigail’s charges.

• He is trying to be fair as possible and conduct his own investigation.

Act II

• What do you think will happen to Rebecca Nurse?

• Rebecca is so well respected, it is very unlikely that she will be accused or imprisoned. Others will see that in this climate of paranoia, even Rebecca is vulnerable.

Act II

• What does Hale mean when he says that there is a “softness” in Proctor’s record?

• Hale means that he has some suspicions about Proctor’s adherence t his religion. He may seek to warn Proctor that he is not above suspicion.

Act II

• What is ironic about Proctor’s forgetting this particular commandment?

• He forgets the commandment that he has broken.

Act II

• How do you think the court knew that Elizabeth had a poppet? What does his suggest about Abigail?

• Abigail told them, which suggest that she had Mary plant the doll so she could use it as evidence against Elizabeth.

Act II

• Elizabeth - “Why-! The girl is murder! She must be ripped out of the world!”

• Elizabeth reveals her true feelings. She is disregarding the consequences.

Act II

• Why won’t people stand up to Abigail and the court?

• People are afraid of being accused in turn; it is easier to accuse than to defend oneself against his accusation.

• The people honestly believe that the accused are witches.

Act II

• Why do you think Proctor “cannot bear to look” at Elizabeth now? What emotions is he expecting?

• Proctor is feeling overwhelmed by horror and guilt, realizing that his affair with Abigail has caused his wife’s imprisonment.

Act II

• When she is arrested, what does Elizabeth’s behavior here reveal about her character?

• Her self-control and concern for her family convey her nobility of character, underscoring the injustice of the charges against her.

Act II

• What does Proctor mean when he says that he will “pay” Herrick?

• Proctor means that he will get revenge for Herrick’s arresting and chaining Elizabeth.

Act II

• What does Proctor mean when he says, “We are only what we always were, but naked now”?

• He means that facing the lies of the witch hunt will require that ALL the truth be exposed including his affair with Abigail.