The Crucible

In The Crucible, to have power is to abuse it. The most powerful characters in political and financial terms are Deputy-Governor Danforth, Judge Hathorne, and Thomas Putnam. Abigail Williams and,...

John Proctor is opposed to Reverend Parris's decision to send for Reverend Hale from Beverly to conduct an investigation into witchcraft and is aware that Parris is simply trying to bolster his own...

If one reads The Crucible rather than watching it, much of the direct characterization comes from Miller's stage directions. These are particularly important in John Proctor's case, since Miller...

The fact that Danforth's credibility might suffer is an important one. But it goes beyond his status as an official of the court. This man, whose intelligence and charisma have allowed him to be...

Abigail Williams demonstrates her vengeful personality by setting up Elizabeth Proctor and accusing her of witchcraft in order to be with Elizabeth's husband, John. Abigail Williams seeks revenge...

In act one, Thomas Putnam, Reverend Parris, and Reverend Hale begin to question Tituba about her involvement in witchcraft. As the questioning intensifies, Parris threatens to whip her to death,...

In act one, Abigail Williams has a private conversation with John Proctor in Betty's room, where she informs him that they were simply dancing in the woods when her uncle saw them. She reveals to...

By this point in the play, Reverend Hale has had a complete turn-around, and is desperately trying to reverse some of the arrests that he has made. Because he signed so many death warrants at the...

In act 1, Rebecca suggests that Parris send Reverend Hale back to Beverly in order to avoid conflict among the citizens, and she warns that there is "prodigious danger in the seeking of loose...

Reverend Hale's external conflicts initially relate to his attempts to discern evidence of witchcraft in Salem, then to find and arrest those who have been accused. Finally, he comes into...

Rebecca Nurse is accused of witchcraft along with eight other women and men in Arthur Miller's Tony Award-winning play of 1953, The Crucible. The horrific events are set into motion when a group of...

In act 1, John Proctor visits Reverend Parris's home and ends up having an intimate conversation alone with Abigail Williams, who tempts him to be with her. Abigail tempts John by reminding him of...

Act IV of The Crucible contains many events that contribute to Salem's condition. At the beginning of the act, three months have passed and the trials have demoralized many in the village....

In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Abigail Williams is a 17-year-old woman who is the niece of Reverend Samuel Parris, who lives in Salem, Massachusetts. In this play, Abigail becomes the center of...

Hale says this to Parris when Parris asks him to inspect his daughter, Betty, for signs of witchcraft. Parris says that Betty's hatred of hearing the Lord's name is surely a sign of witchcraft, but...

Tituba does not want to name others as witches. When she does so, it is because she sees no other way to save herself. Tituba tells them she does not work with the Devil, but they do not believe...

In Arthur Miller's classic play The Crucible, he chronicles the events that transpired during the Salem witch trials in the spring of 1692. Historically, more than two hundred people were accused...

There are several things that happen in Act One that, if you pay close attention, foreshadow some future events. You have to pay close attention to what the characters say about each other, and...

There is a mystical quality about Tituba for a variety of reasons. She is from Barbados, and the people of Salem believe that the slave island culture is rooted in a lot of spiritual mysticism....

Thomas Putnam is a wealthy man in the town, who is greedy, and feels like land that he deserved had been taken away from him in his father's unfair will. He fights with Proctor and Nurse over land...

In act 1, Reverend Hale arrives at Salem carrying a large stack of books. Hale is depicted as a naive intellectual, enthusiastic about finally getting the opportunity to consult his books and...

Mob mentality is when a group of people are influenced by each other to adopt a single viewpoint, attitude, or behavior based on shared emotions. When individuals are affected by mob mentality,...

The audience knows that Betty is essentially faking her illness (or at least its severity) because, when all of the adults have left the room, she awakens in order to confront Abigail about the...

As was mentioned in the previous post, Reverend Parris is a selfish, greedy man throughout the play. He is initially more concerned with his reputation than the well-being of his daughter and his...

At the end of ACT III, Proctor himself is arrested, despite his original intent of going to court being to free his wife Elizabeth. He arrives with several depositions at the beginning of the Act,...

Stage directions are, essentially, a playwright's instructions on how a play should be performed. They include stipulations on how the actors should move, speak, and the tone they should adopt....

Elizabeth Proctor feels antagonistic toward her former servant Abigail, who had an affair with her husband, calling her “something soiled.” Elizabeth, who is morally upright and a bit cold, won't...

The conflicts in act 2 are focused within the Proctors' home, so it could be considered domestic conflict. John and Elizabeth argue about John informing the court officials about what Abigail has...

Because Salem was part of a theocracy during this era, there was no distinction between church and state: the ecclesiastical and the civic were one and the same. This means that church law was the...

When Reverend Hale first arrives in Salem, he has a great deal of confidence in his education and ability to root out evil. He comes bearing heavy texts that he feels are "weighted with...

In Act Three, Reverend Parris plays the role of antagonist, judge, and accuser. He again reveals that he is a selfish, wicked man whose only intentions are protecting his reputation and position...

Reverend Hale could certainly have done a lot more to end the hysteria. As both a man of God and an expert in witchcraft he should've been able to see straight away that there was no foundation to...

Because John Proctor himself disdains hypocrisy, so much that he has even exposed that of others, he is greatly disturbed by the claims of Abigail Williams and the other girls that certain witches...

The significance and purpose of John Proctor's death in The Crucible is that through his final act of self-sacrifice, the character achieves redemption. The play is about people who lie. Abigail...

In Act Two, the audience witnesses the stressful atmosphere surrounding Elizabeth and John's marriage. Elizabeth is a rather callous, unforgiving character in Act Two, and John resents her cruel...

Mrs. Putnam has been made desperate by the deaths of her seven babies, and, now, her sole living child has been growing unwell. She is panicked by the thought that she could lose her one daughter,...

Yes, Abigail is largely to blame here, but again, other characters contributed to the witchcraft hysteria of Salem. Reverends Hale and Parris (at least in the first part of the play) feed the fires...

As is his custom with all the characters in The Crucible, Arthur Miller provides a brief character sketch of the Reverend Parris in the stage directions before he begins to speak. Comparing his...

The quote is fairly significant in that it reflects the twisted nature of individual reputation. Abigail's proclamation of having a good name and reputation is belied by her actions. Her affair...

When Mr. Hale implores Deputy Governor Danforth to allow Francis Nurse, Giles Corey, and John Proctor to leave and obtain the services of a lawyer, Danforth explains his view that a lawyer is not...

In act 2, John Proctor complains to Reverend Hale about Reverend Parris's greedy personality by mentioning how Parris insisted on having golden candlesticks at the altar instead of the pewter...

The real life John Proctor was about sixty years old at the time of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692, but Miller has altered Proctor to be in his "middle thirties." Miller says, of Proctor, that, in...

In Act IV of The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor sits in jail because he has been condemned for practicing witchcraft. He will be hanged unless he confesses to the crime. Consequently, his...

Tituba finally "confesses" to talking to the devil at the end of Act 1 after she is repeatedly accused of doing so. She is subjected to a barrage of questions by Rev. Hale and Mr....

Ann Putnam is resentful because she has lost seven infants shortly after their birth. She has only one living child, Ruth, who, in the beginning of the play is stricken with the same illness that...

The quote you mention can be found in act three of The Crucible by Arthur Miller. It is spoken by John Proctor as he tries to impart some courage to his servant girl, Marry Warren. Mary Warren is...

In Act IV, Reverend Hale tells Deputy Governor Danforth that he must pardon the prisoners because they refuse to admit to witchcraft. Danforth replies that he cannot pardon the prisoners because...

Proctor is a God-fearing Puritan, but he is also an independent thinker. He is painfully aware of the true motivations of the accusers: Abigail wants his wife executed, Ruth Putnam is acting on...

Danforth seems secure in himself, his authority, and the court; he is the deputy governor of the colony, after all, so he really has nothing to prove to the inhabitants of Salem. He is calm and...

John Proctor becomes very angry when Cheever arrives to arrest his wife. They have been visited by the Reverend Hale and by Giles Corey prior to Mr. Cheever's appearance with the arrest warrant,...