Crucible – Act One Analysis
English III – Mrs. Frith
Name ________________________
Date ___________
Explain the significance of the following quotes.
“So now they and their church found it necessary
to deny any other sect its freedom, lest their New
Jerusalem be defile and corrupted by wrong and
deceitful ideas.”
Parris: “Oh, Abigail, what proper payment for my
charity! Now I am undone!”
“There wheels within wheels in this village and
fires within fires.”
Giles: “Think on it now, it’s a deep thing, and
dark as a pit.”
Hale: “They [the books] must be [heavy]; they
are weighted with authority.”
Identify and describe the following characters:
Character
Who are they?
Tituba
Abigail
Betty
Proctor
Rev. John Hale
Parris
Characterization
Act One Summary:
Act one begins with
praying over his daughter,
, who lies
unconscious on her bed. Through conversations between Reverend Parris and his niece
, and between several girls, the audience learns that these girls, including Abigail and
Betty, were engaged in occultist activities in the forest lead by Tituba, Parris’ slave from
Barbados. Parris caught them and jumped from a bush startling the girls. Betty fainted and had
not recovered. During this session, Abigail drank chicken blood to kill
. She
tells the girls that she will kill anyone who mutters a word about what happened. The
townspeople do not know exactly what the girls were doing but there are rumors of witchcraft.
John
enters the room where Betty lies faint. Abigail is still in there and she tries to
seduce him. Proctor is a farmer who has had an affair with Abigail a while ago, but now he
wants to forget it.
Reverend
is summoned to look upon Betty and research the incident. He is an
expert in occultist phenomena and he is eager to show his knowledge. He questions Abigail who
accuses
as being a witch. Tituba, afraid of being hanged, confesses faith in
God and accuses Goody Good and Goody Osborne of witchcraft. Abigail and Betty, who has
woken up, claim to have been bewitched and confess faith in God. They name several other
people whom they claim they saw with the
.
1. Why is Thomas Putnam bitter?
2. What happened between Abigail and John Proctor prior to the opening of the play?
3. Explain the political relationship between the Putnam and Nurse families.
4. What do Putnam and Proctor argue about? What does this show?
5. To what does Tituba confess? Why?