The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Anticipation Questions
• Is confessing to a crime you didn‘t commit in
order to avoid punishment wise?
• Is it better to die for what you believe in
rather than to lie to save your life?
• Is it more difficult to forgive yourself if the
person you have hurt doesn‘t forgive you?
• Is a person truly innocent until proven guilty?
• Does courage mean you do something even
though it can be difficult and fearsome?
TIMELINE – Salem, MA
• 1689- June 18 - Samuel Parris is officially
hired as the Salem Village minister.
• 1692 –
– January 20 - Samuel Parris' nine year old
daughter, Betty, falls ill. - More young girls in
Salem Village also fall ill.
– February - The Salem Village physician, Dr.
William Griggs, concludes the girls are
bewitched.
Timeline – Salem, MA
• 1692 - February 29 - Thomas and Edward
Putnam, Joseph Hutchinson and Thomas Preston
swear complaints against Tituba, Sarah Good, and
Sarah Osborne. They are later arrested for
suspicion of witchcraft.
• March 1 - Salem Town Magistrates John
Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin examine Tituba,
Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne.
Tituba confesses to witchcraft.
Themes of The Crucible
• 1) People who stand by their beliefs, no matter the
cost, ultimately triumph.
• 2) The effects of fear on a society can lead to its
destruction.
• 3) Repression, fear, and lies can lead to mass
hysteria.
• 4) A man’s reputation is worth dying for
• 5) When good men do nothing, evil will triumph
6) Absolute power corrupts absolutely
Facts
• 140 – number of people who were accused of witchcraft in
1692
• 4 – the age of the youngest person accused of witchcraft
• 19 – number of people who were hanged; 1 was pressed to
death
• 43 – the number of people who were “afflicted” by
witchcraft
• 81 – the age of the oldest person accused and killed
• 2 – the number of dogs executed for witchcraft association
Other interesting facts…
• Failure to recite “The Lord’s Prayer” was
considered evidence of witchcraft
• Accused witches were thought to have
signed “the devil’s book”
• Moles were examined as a place where the
devil “sucked” at one’s soul
Vocabulary
• theocracy: governed by religion
• providence: God’s will; God’s intervention in human affairs
• Puritanical: strict in morality and religion; this term has come
about since the reign of the Puritans
• theology: the study of a religious doctrine; what a particular sect
believes
• vestry: the room in the church where robes are kept
• apparition: ghost
• trafficked: have dealings with
• blink: tolerate
Language of Arthur Miller
• Using old-fashioned, archaic words: “bid” (told), “Aye” (Yes),
“Nay” (No), “Hearty” (Well)
• Incorporating expressions from the time period: “Goody” (Mrs.)
“Be open with me” (tell the truth)
• Changing the use of the verb “to be”: “it were” (it was), “There
be” (there was)
• Adding double negatives: “he cannot discover no medicine”
and “I don’t compact with no devil”
• Changing the normal order of words: “I like not to search a
house.”
• Adds a rustic, colloquial fee to the language by dropping the
“g” from the ends of some words: dreamin’, carrin’, nothin’
The story begins with
THE GIRLS
• Sick girls:
– Betty (Parris’ Daughter)
– Ruth (Putnam’s daughter)
• Girls who danced:
–
–
–
–
Abigail Williams
Mercy Lewis
Mary Warren (works for the Proctors)
Susanna Walcott
“My ministry’s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life.”
Reverend Samuel Parris
•
•
•
•
The minister of Salem
Betty’s father
Abigail’s uncle.
Parris delivers harsh fire and
brimstone sermons that sometimes
turn off his parishioners.
Paris in History:
As a father and master, he’s inattentive and
quick to anger. Parris’s insecurity and
obsessive concern with his reputation result
from his near paranoid belief that someone
is plotting to persecute him, steal his
position, ruin his good name, or harm him
in some other way.
Betty Parris
• Parris’ DAUGHTER who
was caught dancing in the
woods. She immediately
went into a comatose state.
• She is 10 years old
Tituba
•
•
•
Parris’ Barbados slave.
The girls asked her to go into the
woods to conjure spirits
40 years old
“And mark this—let either of you
breathe a word, or the edge of a
word about the other things,
and[…] I can make you wish you
had never seen the sun go
down!”
Abigail Williams
• Abigail Williams – The 17year-old niece of Reverend
Parris.
• Native Americans killed
Abigail’s parents when Abigail
was young.
• While a servant in John
Proctor’s household, Abigail
was fired.
• Abigail is beautiful, intelligent,
crafty, and vindictive. She’s
also a skillful liar. She is the
leader of the girls and is willing
to do anything to protect
herself.
The story begins with
THE GIRLS
• Sick girls:
– Betty (Parris’ Daughter) 10
– Ruth (Putnam’s daughter) 10
• Girls who danced:
–
–
–
–
Abigail Williams 17
Mercy Lewis 18
Mary Warren (works for the Proctors)17
Susanna Walcott 16
“Mr. Hale, is it a natural work
to lose seven children before
they live a day?”
Ann Putnam
• Ann Putnam – The
wife of Thomas
Putnam.
• Mrs. Putnam is bitter
• 8 children – only ONE
lived
Thomas Putnam
“This man is killing his
neighbors for their land!”
-Corey
• Thomas Putnam – The
husband of Ann Putnam,
• one of the richest farmers
and landowners in all of
Salem.
• Putnam is a bitter man who
feels that the citizens of
Salem have not given him
the respect that he and his
family deserve.
• He seeks to gain respect and
revenge by increasing his
wealth, landholdings, and
“Because it is my name! Because I
cannot have another in my life!”
•
•
•
•
•
John Proctor – A farmer, and the
husband of Elizabeth.
Proctor had an affair with Abigail
Williams while she worked as a
servant in his house.
A powerful man in both build and
character, Proctor refuses to follow
people he considers hypocrites,
including Reverend Parris.
Feared and resented by the many
people in Salem he has made feel
foolish
Proctor has a powerful sense of
personal integrity. For this reason, his
affair with Abigail makes him see
himself as a hypocrite.
John Proctor
Rebecca Nurse
•
•
•
•
Respected
Loved
Charitable
Pious
Rev. John
Hale
Reverend Hale – A
minister in the nearby
Massachusetts town of
Beverly, and an expert
in identifying
witchcraft.
An intelligent man,
Hale sees himself as a
scientist and
philosopher, a kind of
physician of the soul..
Elisabeth
Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor – The wife
of John Proctor.
She fires Abigail Williams as
her servant when she
discovers that the girl is
having an affair with Proctor.
Elizabeth is a good woman
known for never telling a lie.
She loves her husband deeply,
but seems to have the sense
that she doesn’t deserve him.
“In her life, sir,
She have never lied.
There are them that
cannot sing, and
them that cannot
weep—my wife
cannot lie.” – John
Proctor
Deputy Governor
Danforth
A Deputy governor of
Massachusetts who comes
to Salem to preside over
the witch trials. Though
he’s more open-minded
and intelligent than Judge
Hathorne, Danforth
believes completely in his
ability to distinguish truth
from fiction. He views
those who disagree with
him as suspect. In fact, he
suspects that anyone who
disagrees with him might
be working “against God.”