Raghad Khaled
English
Mrs. Enji
June 3, 2023
The Forest Scene
In Act 1, Scene 1, The Crucible begins at the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, whose daughter,
Betty, is unconscious in bed upstairs Betty, his niece Abigail, and Tituba, his black slave from
Barbados, were discovered by Parris dancing in the forest outside of Salem around midnight
just before the play's opening. Betty lost consciousness when Parris emerged from the bushes
and has been in a coma ever since. Doctor Griggs, the village physician who has been unable to
pinpoint the source of Betty's illness, recommends witchcraft as a possible cause. Parris
confronts Abigail, disturbed and troubled because he thinks she has not been completely
truthful about her actions in the woods. Parris claims to have seen her and Betty dancing "like
heathen[s]," Tituba pacing back and forth over a fire while babbling incoherently, and an
unidentified girl sprinting nude through the forest. Parris feels Abigail is lying when she denies
witchcraft with the other girls. He believes she and Betty cast spells. Parris also confronts
Abigail about her character and why Goody Proctor, John Proctor's wife and a well-respected
woman in Salem, fired her as the Proctors' servant. Both Mr. and Mrs. Putnam, members of a
famous Salem family, enter the room and say that Betty's condition is the consequence of
witchcraft. They inform Parris that their daughter, Ruth, has similarly slipped into an unusual
trance. Ruth's condition, along with the fact that seven of Mrs. Putnam's children died as
infants under incomprehensible circumstances, persuade the Putnams that supernatural forces
are at work in Salem. Putnam tries to persuade Parris to report the presence of witchcraft, but
Parris is concerned. He is aware that a certain group of Salem residents desire to overthrow him,
and that a witchcraft incident involving his family would give them the authority to do so.
This scene ws important because it was the start if all the problems and the hysteria that
started in the salem village, and It was the reason for everything that happened. The characters
that were in that scene are Tituba, Parris, Abigail, Betty, Mr. and Mrs. Putnam.
In Act I, Scene 1, Miller establishes the four major themes of The Crucible: deception,
possession, greed, and the struggle for power. The "unseen" scene in the woods, which occurs
before the action of the play, figuratively sets the scene. This moment serves as a trigger for the
remainder of the play's action. Parris tells Abigail that he observed girls dancing, Tituba
performing spells over the fire, and a naked girl racing through the woods. This "unseen" scene
represents the suppression of desire, which is vital in Salem. Desire, of course, has many
different meanings for both the characters in the play and the audience. For Abigail, desire that
she loves John Proctor and wants to be with him. Desire, according to the other characters and
the audience, can refer to a variety of things other than sexual longing. Putnam, for example,
wants land, whereas Parris wants control and authority. The audience will undoubtedly have
different perceptions of this notion.Because the females are unable to dance within Salem, they
must seek physical pleasure in the forests outside of the city. Furthermore, the naked girl
rushing through the woods represents the sexual desire that all Salem residents have, a desire
that society forces them to hide and deny. The girls must leave the village and venture into the
bush in order to express their inner impulses (whether innocent or not). The Puritans regard
the woods as the Devil's stronghold since religion has neither tamed them or the heathen
Indians who inhabit them. The area surrounding Salem is similar to the desert where Satan
tempted Jesus. Despite the fact that Jesus did not give in to temptation, Satan lured him into
the desert to tempt him to sin. The females intentionally seek out the outdoors because it
allows them to express desires that society thinks inappropriate.