The CrucibleBy Arthur Miller

Preview/Foundation

• Setting: 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts

• Point of View: third-person omniscient and first-person

• Historical Accuracy

• Allegory

• Puritan Society

Important Characters

• Reverend Parris

• Abigail Williams

• Reverend John Hale

• Mary Warren

• John Proctor

• Elizabeth Proctor

• Deputy Governor Danforth

• Judge Hawthorne

Secondary Characters• Betty Parris

• Tituba

• Susanna Walcott

• Mrs. Ann Putnam

• Thomas Putnam

• Mercy Lewis

• Rebecca Nurse

• Giles Corey

• Ezekiel Cheever

• Marshal Herrick

• Sarah Good

• Martha Corey

• Francis Nurse

Summary

• Reverend Parris discovers girls in the woods

• Tituba

• Putnams jump to conclusions about witchcraft

• Betty Parris and Ruth Putnam fall “ill”

• Reverend Parris has sent for Reverend Hale

• Abigail convinces girls to not say anything

• John Proctor comes to Parris’s house and he and Abigail discuss their affair

• Abigail reveals the girls are faking it

• Argument between Proctor, Putnam, Giles Corey, and Parris ensue

• Hale arrives

Summary

• The girls begin to accuse people of being witches

• Mary Warren returns to the Proctor household

• Mary Gives Elizabeth Proctor a poppet

• Elizabeth and John argue

• Reverend Hale arrives to the Proctor household to get and idea of the Christian character of the house

• Ezekiel Cheever arrives and takes Elizabeth away. The poppet is as evidence against her

• John makes Mary go with him to court to testify his wife is innocent

• Giles gets arrested

Summary

• Elizabeth is pregnant

• Parris tries to do his best to undermine John’s attempt to show that the girls are faking it

• Abigail and the other girls accuse Mary of being a witch

• Mary breaks down under this stress and says that John made her do it

• John realizing he is losing his court battle tells the court of his affair with Abigail

• To see if John is telling the truth Danforth asks Elizabeth if John is telling the truth. She lies to protect John.

• John is arrested

• Giles Corey is executed

Summary

• Reverend Parris tries to get John to confess

• John does not confess and he is hung along Rebecca Nurse and many others.

Style

• Theme:• Vengeance• Reputation

• Allegory:• McCarthyism

• Motifs:• Accusations and legal proceedings

Quotes

• “Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly expressed, and vengeance taken, despite the Bible’s charitable injuctions.”

• “He have his goodness now. God forbid I take it from him”