The Crucible Act 1, 2

Author Information

Arthur Miller in order to earn money wrote plays and became successful.

Plot Summary

Act 1

Witchcraft becomes topic of town because of weird occurrences. The girls put out alsoe
naames while the men talk about property.

Act 2

Elizabeth and the proctor talk amount increasing amount of people they suspect. They
take Elizabeth.

 Characters/Historical Figures

Act 1, Act 2

Proctor: knows both sides of story

Elizabeth: good wife

Author’s Purpose

The author’s purpose is to show how our public self and private self can conflict and
how we have individual motivations.

The author’s purpose is to show internal and external conflicts.

Figurative Language

 “The American continent stretched endlessly west…”

 “The times, to their eyes…”

 “…the Devil’s touch is touch is heavier than the stick…”

Act One:

1. Miller's stance toward the character of Abigail is reluctance and also more towards his wife’s
side.

2. The Putnam’s motives are for possession and gossip. They fear losing status and materialistic
possestions. Their allegoical connections are with poeople who are verry materialistic.
3. The wilderness is a place of sin and bad happenings.

Act Two:

1. Mary Warren feels like she has gained power by being in the middle of something important
and the Protor feels as if it is not and she should be a good servant.

2. Rev. Hale initiates the hysteria that closes the act by stating that people cannot really tell and
the judges decide.

3. Miller incorporates rythym in order to make the scene seem more rantic and like you can’t
get off the whirlwind of events.
 The first act of The Crucible, subtitled “An Overture,” is set in a small, austerely furnished bedroom at Reverend
Samuel Parris’ house in Salem, Massachusetts. The year is 1692. The Reverend is on his knees, praying at the foot of
his 10-year-old daughter’s bed, while the girl, Betty, lies inert. Although his prayers alternate with weeping and
mumbling, she does not stir. Presently, Tituba, the Negro slave Parris had brought back from Barbados, enters. She is
devoted to Betty.
Parris orders her out of the room despite her concern for his daughter. It is evident that he is overcome by fear at the
child’s strange malady. He is trying to waken her when his niece, 17-year-old Abigail Williams, enters to tell him that
Susanna Walcott, a village girl, has arrived with word from Dr. Griggs. Susanna tells Parris that the doctor has been
unable to find any clue in his books as to Betty’s ailment, and has therefore suggested that the Reverend look to
“unnatural things.”

Before Susanna leaves, Abigail cautions her to say nothing about this to any of the villagers. Abigail then tells her
uncle that the rumor of witchcraft is sweeping Salem, and that his house is packed with people who are waiting
downstairs for his denial that his daughter is, in fact, bewitched. At this, Parris grows more frightened, and tells his
niece that he had seen her and Betty dancing in the moonlight “like heathen in the forest” while Tituba watched. He
presses her to admit that they were trafficking with spirits. And, he adds that he must know why she was discharged
from service at the Proctor home. It has been said that Elizabeth Proctor attends church so infrequently because she
refuses to sit next to “something soiled.”

Abigail is quick to retort that Goody Proctor is a bitter, lying woman who hates her only because she would not
slave for her. When Parris asks why no one else has called for Abigail’s service in the seven months since she left the
Proctors’, she haughtily tells him that she will slave for no one, and calls Elizabeth a gossiping liar who has sullied her
name.

They are interrupted by the arrival of Mrs. Ann Putnam, a superstitious gossip, who immediately tells Parris that
a “stroke of hell” is upon his house, and demands to know how high Betty has flown. She has already decided that Betty
is, in fact, a witch, and claims that Betty has been seen flying around the town. When Thomas, her husband, arrives
and confirms this, Parris’ fears reach their peak. He is struck dumb that the Putnams’ daughter, Ruth, is also strangely
ill.

At this point, Abigail turns to Parris and whispers that not she, but Ruth and Tituba had conjured spirits. “I am
undone!” he cries, but Thomas Putnam reminds him that an admission of having discovered witchcraft in his house
will clear him.

They are joined by Mercy Lewis, the Putnams’ 18-year-old servant, who is left alone with Abigail and Betty after
the Putnams leave and the Reverend goes downstairs to lead the towns-people in a psalm while they await Reverend
Hale. Abigail takes charge immediately and gives orders to Mercy: she is to admit only that they danced, as Abigail had
already confessed to that sin. Parris had seen Mercy naked, and knew that Tituba had conjured Ruth’s sisters out of
their graves.

Mary Warren, the Proctors’ 17-year-old servant, enters and turns to Abigail for advice. She is in a state of panic,
and begs Abigail to tell the truth: they had only been dancing, a sin punishable by whipping, whereas witchery is a
“hangin error.” Abigail shakes Betty until she sits up, and then comments sarcastically upon her improvement. She
says that she has told Parris everything. At this, Betty leaps out of bed and flattens herself against the wall. She cries
that she saw Abigail drink blood as a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife. Abigail slaps Betty’s face and warns her never to
mention this again.

Abigail, who is clearly the leader, warns them that her power of revenge will fall upon them if they breathe a
word of anything but the dancing and the conjurings of Tituba. Then, John Proctor arrives, looking for Mary, who he
has forbidden to leave his house. His presence alters the mood in the room. Mercy sidles out after Mary, leaving
Proctor alone with Abigail, and Betty once more prone on her bed. He tells Abigail of the town’s mumblings about
witchcraft, and she replies that they were merely dancing in the woods.

The sound of a psalm is heard from downstairs, and Betty suddenly claps her hands to her ears and begins to
scream. Proctor is unnerved, and Parris, the Putnams and Mercy return to the room. As they try to quiet Betty, Mrs.
Putnam exclaims that all this is a mark of witchcraft.
 Parris fights with Corey and Proctor over his firewood allotment. Putnam in turn provokes an argument with
Proctor over a long-standing grudge about some of Proctor’s land that Putnam considers rightfully his. Rebecca
remains mild and conciliatory. At the height of this bickering, Reverend John Hale arrives.

Hale is a serious man of 40, who looks upon his errand with pride, for at last he is considered authority enough
on witchcraft to be called for consultation on the subject to which he has devoted most of his life.

When Hale turns his attention to Abigail, she quickly grasps her opportunity, and accuses Tituba of forcing her
and Betty to deal with the Devil and of sending her spirit out to them. The terrified slave is brought in, hysterically
denying the accusation, but it is useless. In a frenzy of fear, she finally admits that she did indeed talk to the Devil, and
that he in turn had told her the names of white people with whom he worked. Betty joins her in hysterical relief and
the two girls call out names faster and faster. Hale sends Putnam for the marshal.

Act II begins eight days later, in the home of John and Elizabeth Proctor. The mood here is in sharp contrast to
that of the previous act. The Proctors are gentle and polite to each other, but there seems to be a strain between them.
Elizabeth tells her husband that Mary Warren has gone into Salem as an “official of the court.” Proctor is astonished to
learn that not only has a court been set up, but that 14 women have been jailed as witches. Moreover, Deputy Governor
Danforth has sworn to hang them if they do not confess. The town has gone wild and, as Abigail has now established
herself as the girls’ leader, she is treated with great deference. The Proctors agree that it is John’s duty to go to the
court and tell them that, by Abigail’s own admission to him, the accusations are fraudulent. The cause of the gulf
between the Proctors becomes clear when John tells his wife that he had been alone with the girl when she admitted
the lies. Proctor had told Elizabeth of his past affair with Abigail, but has been uneasy with her ever since.

The Proctors become more and more horrified as they hear how the words of honest women were turned against
them. They also learn that pregnant women are safe until the birth of the child. Finally, Proctor can stand no more and,
as Mary brags about her new status as an official, he threatens to whip her. At this, Mary, drunk with power, points to
his wife and says that she, too, had been accused, but that Mary had saved her life. The identity of her accuser is secret,
but the Proctors realize that it is Abigail, who hopes to have Elizabeth hanged in order to take her place as John’s wife.

Suddenly, Reverend Hale appears. His manner has changed from one of assurance to one of deference, almost
guilt. He has come to tell Elizabeth that she has been accused and is about to be taken to jail. He questions the Proctors
about their slackened church attendance. Proctor explains that he considers Reverend Parris a self-advancing
hypocrite rather than a true man of God. Hale asks Proctor to recite the commandments, but he falters over “Thou
shalt not commit adultery.” Finally, Proctor tells Hale of Abigail’s admission to him that there was no witchcraft, just
dancing in the woods. Reverend Hale’s doubts grow and, when Giles Corey and Francis Nurse rush in to say that their
wives have been taken to jail, his doubts become convictions.

Marshal Herrick and a neighbor, Ezekiel Cheever, arrive. The latter, a tailor, has been made a court clerk and has
a warrant for the arrest of Elizabeth Proctor and 15 others. Abigail had indeed accused her, claiming that Elizabeth had
bewitched the poppet given to her by Mary Warren. It had caused Abigail to fall down screaming from a needle sticking
into her belly. The doll is examined, and is found to have a needle stuck into it. When Mary is called, she remembers
that Abigail sat next to her when she was making the doll. In a rage, Proctor accuses Abigail of deliberately sticking
herself, tears the warrant up, and tries to throw Herrick and Cheever out. He turns upon Hale and asks if he will allow
Elizabeth to be taken. Hale falteringly replies that the court is just.