You will need:
• The Crucible - Act I
• Pen/Pencil
• Paper
Homework:
• Prepare for your reading
of Act II
• Worksheet – Act II page
26-32
Agenda:
• Turn in homework
• Placing Blame
• Assign roles for part II
Goals:
• Explore where the fault
lies in The Crucible
Nov 21 – Jr American Lit
• You need to figure out who is to blame for the hysteria in
Salem. However, this is a difficult task, given that there are so
many people involved.
• You will select a character from Act I, and will need to find
and explain three pieces of evidence that shows how they are
to blame for what’s happening in the story.
• Essentially, you are proving this thesis:
• Although blame is usually places upon Abigail, ________
(name of selected character) is also to blame for starting the
witch-hunt in The Crucible.
• The first one (Abigail) has been completed for you as an
example.
• This is the first entry for your Reading Response Log—Unit 2.
Placing Blame
Char Quotations that show guilt:
acter:
Abiga 
il


Explanations:
Abigail: My name is good in the

village! I will not have it said my name
is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping
liar! (page 10)
Betty: You did, you did! You drank a

charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You
drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!
(page 13)
Abigail: I want to open myself! I want 
the light of God, I want the sweet love
of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw
him; I wrote in his book; I go back to
Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah
Good with the Devil! (page 24-25)
Abigail obviously has things to hide that she
is ashamed of. She lies to her uncle Parris.
People in the village already dislike her.
Abigail actually did try witchcraft. She tried
to kill Goody Proctor by drinking a charm
because she wants John for herself.
Abigail sees an opportunity after blaming
Tituba for “forcing her” into witchcraft.
Abigail figures out that she will be “saved” if
she blames other people. In order to avoid
getting into trouble, and to attack her enemies,
she begins to blame others for “being with the
devil”.
Example: Abigail
There is a lot of evidence in The Crucible to show that Ann Putnam is responsible for
perpetuating the Salem Witch Trials. In Act I, Goody Putnam is the first woman to
mention witchcraft. When she calls Betty’s affliction “a stroke of Hell upon [Mr.
Parris]” (11), and then dismisses the idea that Ruth is only sick, choosing instead to
call it the “Devil’s touch” (11), it becomes clear that she wants to pursue the idea of
witchcraft in Salem. She then begins to assert that the Devil had been loose at Salem
for some time. She suggests that her seven children, which she “laid unbaptized in the
earth” (12), had died due of the same “power of darkness” (12) that afflicted her
daughter –Ruth – and Betty Parris, in Act I. She also becomes openly offended when
Rebecca Nurse suggests that the children might only be playing. Moreover, her
motives for revenge become clear when she responds to Rebecca Nurse by portraying
herself as the victim of a subversive plot when she yells “there are wheels within
wheels in this village, and fire within fires!” (17). Finally, when the girls shout that
they had seen various people, including Goody Osburn “with the Devil” (24), Ann
lends credibility to their claims by saying that Osburn had been her midwife three
times, and that her babies had “shriveled in her hands” (24). Her claims that the Devil
had been at work in Salem, coupled with her assertion the Osburn was the reason that
her babies had died, and her general vindictive natural all show that Ann Putnam can
be considered partially responsible for starting and encouraging the general hysteria in
Salem.
As an example, this is what a similar
paragraph might look like if I thought that
Ruth Putnam was responsible for the events
in The Crucible
Page 26-32
Page 32-end
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Elizabeth
Proctor
Mary Warren
Hale
Elizabeth
Proctor
Mary Warren
Hale
Giles
Francis Nurse
Cheever
Herrick
Character Assignment
(Act II)