The Crucible

In act three of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Elizabeth Proctor finds herself in an awful predicament, and none of it is her doing. Elizabeth's husband John had an affair with their servant girl,...

In act 1 of The Crucible, Abigail drinks blood as a charm to bring about Elizabeth Proctor's death because she is envious of Elizabeth and desires John Proctor. When Reverend Parris demands to know...

Here are some additional important events that I would submit: We learn that Elizabeth Proctor has told the magistrates that she is pregnant. This will keep her from being executed until the baby...

Reverend Parris is concerned because of the reputation of the people who are scheduled to hang in Act Four. He tells Judge Hathorne, . . . it were another sort that hanged till now. Rebecca...

In Act III, Reverend Hale acts as an intermediary between the citizens whose wives have been accused of witchcraft and the Court. Reverend Hale is more rational than the judges, and he petitions...

Choosing Elizabeth Proctor's most important quote is left up to individual readers; therefore, the answer to this question is subjective. I like the following lines from act 2. It is her dearest...

This quote occurs in Act II, while John and Elizabeth Proctor are revisiting the matter of John's infidelity with Abigail Williams. Earlier in the play, John was alone with Abigail for a brief...

In Act II, Elizabeth encourages John to inform the court officials that Abigail and the girls are frauds and John responds by saying that he doubts they will believe him. John then mentions that he...

In Act Two of The Crucible, we see some key figures arrested for witchcraft; among them are Elizabeth Proctor, Martah Corey, and Rebecca Nurse. Each arrest was accompanied with "evidence" that the...

In Act Three, Mary Warren tells Deputy Governor Danforth that Abigail and the other girls are lying. Danforth then looks at John Proctor and says to him, "We burn a hot fire here; it melts down all...

In act 1, Mary Warren is described as subservient, naive, and lonely. She is easily dominated by Abigail and is mocked by Mercy for her "grand peeping courage." When she sees John Proctor, her...

This line is uttered by Deputy Governor Danforth in Act Three. In my edition, the Penguin, it is on page 94, just after Francis Nurse has submitted a testament signed by dozens of people that...

Tituba appears mainly in Act 1 of the play and then briefly in Act 4. When Tituba first enters, she demonstrates timidity and motherliness. Whether her timidity is a natural or "nurtured"...

Rebecca Nurse is depicted as a gentle, morally upright woman, who does not subscribe to the witchcraft hysteria and maintains her integrity throughout the proceedings when she is falsely accused of...

The town of Andover, Massachusetts, was experiencing their own witch trials. The people of the town overthrew the courts and started a riot. They were not going to allow innocent people to be hung,...

Acts one and two are both set in someone's place of residence; act one is in Parris's house above the parish, and act two is in the Proctor household. In that sense, the setting is similar. They...

In addition to robbing him of his life's savings -- thirty one pounds -- after breaking into his strongbox, Reverend Parris believes that his niece, Abigail Williams, has boarded a ship with her...

Mary Warren went to the courts in act three determined to confess that she and the girls were merely pretending. John Proctor helped to convince her to do this, because he is desperate to get his...

Rebecca is totally "horrified" that Ann Putnam would send her one surviving daughter, Ruth, to conjure the spirits of her other dead children. However, Mrs. Putnam shouts back, "Let God blame me,...

In Act 3, Elizabeth's lie further incriminates her husband and causes the court to distrust Proctor's veracity. Accordingly, when Elizabeth is brought before Danforth, she refuses to confess that...

"First they came for the Communists, - but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, - but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then...

In Act One, the first people Tituba accuses of working for the Devil are Sarah Good and Goody Osborne. Interestingly, Mr. Putnam is the first to suggest Good and Osborne's names, which influences...

Abigail Williams is depicted as a cruel, manipulative girl, who lies about witnessing innocent citizens collude with the devil in order to avoid being punished for dancing in the woods and attain a...

The audience knows that Abigail Williams, Mercy Lewis, Betty Parris, Ruth Putnam, and Mary Warren danced in the forest with Tituba before the beginning of the play and were caught by Abigail's...

It is ironic that Mary Warren, who has now come forth to tell the truth to the court, is not believed, especially because the magistrates and ministers believed her when she lied before. Further,...

One could argue that it is the girls who are most to blame for these events. It was their questionable activities in the woods that prompted Betty Parris and Ruth Putnam to become ill and spark...

The literal meaning of a word, phrase or sentence, is its true or normal meaning - its denotation and is in contrast to its figurative or symbolic meaning. In this context, then, what John Proctor...

In Act I, when Parris questions why Abigail was let go from her service at the Proctors' house, Abigail tells her uncle "They want slaves, not such as I." It is a lie; the Proctors have not...

The Reverend Parris, a selfish, hypocritical and petty man, once a prominent and wealthy minister of the community, is by Act IV reduced to a financially broken man, disillusioned and humbled. At...

Giles Corey angers Judge Danforth, who has him arrested for contempt of court. He asks him to take his seat and keep counsel with himself. Giles has to reconsider his actions prior to the judge's...

Reverend Parris wants to delay the executions because he fears rebellion, and -- probably, just as he feared the loss of his own credibility and authority at the beginning of the play, he likely...

Yes, I think John Proctor made the right decision, though it certainly was not the easy decision. Proctor has felt like a fraud since the beginning of the play because of his hypocrisy. He is not...

In Act one, there are rumors in Salem about witchcraft. Parris’ daughter seems unconscious, and Abigail, Parris’ niece, tries to explain their earlier activities in the forest. Parris discovered...

The Penguin Books edition of Arthur Miller's The Crucible includes Act II scene two in the book, but it places the scene in an appendix. The note at the end of Act II says that scene two was part...

John Proctor does tell Reverend Hale that he takes issue with Reverend Parris's insistence on having golden candlesticks when there were perfectly functional pewter ones crafted by a member of the...

In act one, Betty Parris is lying on her bed, seemingly incapacitated from the previous night's events while her father prays at her bedside. As the play progresses, the audience learns that Betty...

In Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, Hale tells Elizabeth that he arrived in town with the best of intentions, but those intentions have (in a manner of speaking) turned to dust. His faith has...

In answer to Hale, Danforth puts forth the argument that witchcraft is an "invisible crime." Basically, he's making the claim that such a crime is largely committed apart from the community's...

As was mentioned in the previous post, Elizabeth Proctor is accused of sticking a needle in the poppet found in Proctor's home. This poppet will be used as evidence that Elizabeth is involved in...

First, Reverend Parris says that he discovered his daughter, Betty, and his niece, Abigail, "dancing like heathen" in the woods. He also says that he saw Tituba "waving her arms over the fire"...

In addition to the possibility that the crowd parts for Abigail because they are anxious to avoid being seen by her, it is also reasonable to suggest that the crowd parts for Abigail as the Red Sea...

In Act II Reverend Hale pays a visit to the Proctors farm. Since he is new in town, he has been visiting the homes of the townspeople in order to "test the Christian character of the house." Of...

The Proctors's fraught marriage complicates their lives considerably. It's not enough that they somehow have to live with the constant fear whipped up by the witch-hunting hysteria. They must also...

John and Elizabeth have a strained relationship. Elizabeth does not trust John since she learned of the affair John had with Abigail. Elizabeth is having trouble forgiving John. Their relationship...

Mrs. Putnam makes this statement in reference to the fact that she has lost seven out of eight babies within a day of their birth. She and her husband have sought answers, have prayed about it,...

In act 1, Reverend Hale, Thomas Putnam, and Reverend Parris interrogate Tituba, who becomes a scapegoat after Abigail Williams accuses her of colluding with the devil and sending her spirit on her...

Abigail Williams is very skillful at manipulating people to get what she wants. In Act I, although John Proctor has put an end to their brief affair, Abigail knows that he still has feelings for...

The following dialogue is given by Abigail Williams and directed at Mary Warren, Betty Parris, and Mercy Lewis: Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and...

To state what the dispute is about and to understand its relevance, one first has to analyse and understand the characters involved, i.e. Thomas Putnam and John Proctor. In his notes, Arthur Miller...

The Reverend Parris shows himself to be a terrible hypocrite in the play. Early on, he seems to be most concerned about the possibility of witchcraft, not because it would be a terrible sin—just...