WK 6 - The Crucible Act I, II - 10.2 Honors

The play opens with Reverend Parris praying by his afflicted daughter’s bedside. We are left to infer, from the dialogue that follows between Parris and his niece, the details of the events preceding this moment. What do we come to learn has caused Betty’s affliction?

• She has been bewitched

• She is desperately frightened because her father has seen her meddling with witchcraft

• Abigail has poisoned her with a brew made in the forest

• She feels terribly guilty because she has had an affair with a married man

The dialogue between Parris and Abigail also reveals some important characteristics of the Reverend: 

Parris: If you trafficked with spirits in the forest, I must know it now, for surely my enemies will, and they will ruin me with it.

Abigail: But we never conjured spirits. 

Parris: Then why can she not move herself since midnight? This child is desperate! (Abigail lowers her eyes). It must come out - my enemies will bring it out. Let me know what you done there. Abigail, do you understand that I have many enemies? 

Abigail: I have heard of it, uncle. 

Parris: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit. Do you understand that? 

Abigail: I think so, sir.

Parris: Now then, in the midst of such disruption, my own household is discovered to be the very center of some obscene practice. Abominations are done in the forest – 

Abigail: It were sport, uncle! 

Parris: (pointing at Betty) You call this sport? . . .I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it.

From the above dialogue, we can infer that the Reverend’s primary motive for wanting to know what happened in the forest is. . .

• His fatherly love for his daughter

• His jealousy over Betty’s fondness for Abigail

• His concern for his own reputation

• His desire for gossip, to know more about the townspeople

The Putnams then enter the bedroom. Miller describes Mrs. Putnam as “a twisted soul of forty-five, a death-ridden woman, haunted by dreams.” What has happened in her life to twist her soul and haunt her dreams?

• She is ridden with jealousy over Rebecca Nurse’s fame as a saintly woman

• She and her husband have been sued again and again by the villagers

• She desperately hates Goody Good, her rival in the village

• She has lost seven seemingly-healthy babies to an inexplicable death

Abigail insists that the other girls remain silent about her attempts to witch John Proctor’s wife. She then threatens them: “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” The best paraphrase of this passage is. . .

• If either of you tells what really happened in the forest, I will wait until a time when you aren’t expecting it, and I will get even with you in an unexpected way.

• If either of you reveals even the smallest detail of what I did in the forest, I will come to you while you sleep and stab you out of vengeance.

• If either of you talks about what I did in the forest, I will point the finger at you and you will be the one to hang.

• If either of you shares the details of our forest witchery, I will pointedly tell the Reverend something that will make him shudder.

Once John and Abigail are left (mostly) alone in the room, we see some details of their relationship unmasked. These details are revealed both through their dialogue and the stage directions. Read over the following stage directions. What do these reveal about the present feelings of both Abigail and John?

Proctor (looking at Abigail now, the faintest suggestion of a knowing smile on his face).

Proctor (his smile widening)

Abigail (her concentrated desire destroys his smile)

Proctor (setting her firmly out of his way)

Abigail (grasping his hand before he can release her)

Abigail (clutching him desperately)

Proctor (gently pressing her from him, with great sympathy but firmly)

• Abby still hopes to seduce John despite her earlier failure to do so; John is steadfastly resisting the temptation and is disgusted by her efforts

• Abby is in love with John but is determined not to hurt him; John is playing with her feelings because she is young and vulnerable

• Abby is angry and resentful at John for breaking off their affair; John is trying to be understanding and kind though he no longer desires her

• Abby still longs for John and wants to rekindle their affair; John, though fond of her and tempted by her, is determined to maintain his distance.

The company asks Rebecca Nurse, an elderly woman renowned for her piety, to give advice about the stricken Betty. She says,

I think she’ll wake in time. Pray calm yourselves. I have eleven children, and I am twenty-six times a grandma, and I have seen them all through their silly seasons, and when it come on them they will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief. I think she’ll wake when she tires of it. A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back.

Her advice can best be summarized by which of the following?

• The girls are clearly bewitched; do not chase their spirits or the devil will whisk them away.

• The girls are acting silly; all you need to do is give them a good beating and they will stop.

• The girls are just acting like silly teenagers. Leave them alone and they’ll come to their senses.

• The girls are under the influence of the Devil; bring the witch finders as quickly as possible to break the spell.

It is revealed that John Proctor has not been to church in some time. What does he offer as an explanation for his absence?

• He has been working outside the county in another town

• His child has been ill

• He can’t bear to sit in the congregation with “soiled” or sinful people

• He doesn’t like the negative preaching of Reverend Parris

How would you characterize John Proctor’s relationship with Thomas Putnam?

• Proctor sees Putnam as greedy and arrogant

• Proctor is jealous of Putnam’s money and influence

• Putnam is jealous of Proctor’s youth and attractiveness

• Putnam sees Proctor as lazy and stup

The Crucible has a number of passages of authorial intrusion, where Arthur Miller breaks into the dialogue of the play to offer readers historical commentary and character analyses. Of Reverend Hale, Miller writes...

Mr. Hale is nearing forty, a tight-skinned, eager-eyed intellectual. This is a beloved errand for him; on being called here to ascertain witchcraft he felt the pride of the specialist whose unique knowledge has at last been publicly called for. . .Coming into Salem now, Reverend Hale conceives of himself much as a young doctor on his first call. His painfully acquired armory of symptoms, catchwords, and diagnostic procedures are now to be put to use at last. The road from Beverly is unusually busy this morning, and he has passed a hundred rumors that make him smile at the ignorance of the yeomanry in this most precise science. . . His goal is light, goodness and its preservation, and he knows the exaltation of the blessed whose intelligence, sharpened by minute examinations of enormous tracts, is finally called upon to face what may be a bloody fight with the Fiend himself.

From this description, we can conclude that Hale is. . .

• Well-meaning, though a bit arrogant and naïve

• Full of himself and malicious

• Kind and with no motive but to help others

• Tricky and conniving, though with a show of goodness

If you wanted to prove that Hale is not as quick to leap to conclusions of witchcraft as many others in this play, which piece of evidence would be the strongest support for this claim?

• Hale: What victory would the Devil have to win a soul already bad? It is the best the Devil wants, and who is better than the minister?

• Hale: You cannot evade me, Abigail. Did your cousin drink any of the brew in that kettle?

• Hale: You are God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us. You are selected, Tituba, you are chosen to help us cleanse our village.

• Hale: I must tell you all that I shall not proceed unless you are prepared to believe me if I should find no bruises of hell upon her.