The Crucible

Act I Notes

  • Allegory of McCarthyism
  • Salem, Massachusetts, Spring of 1692
  • Parris is in middle 40’s

Believed everyone was against him

Widower

No interest in children

  • Salem forbade vain enjoyment, but they enjoyed regular activities like building farmhouses
  • Some jokers were in Salem: 2-man patrol during church (catch people not in attendance at church—irony)
  • Salem people minded other people’s business
  • Wilderness=devil or Indians
  • People of Salem developed a combination of state and religious power to unite community and prevent destruction of government- Panic when government began to turn to individual freedom
  • Witch-hunt became a way to publicly express sins and guilt, gain land, and settle old scores
  • Tituba shows concern for Betty- she is the closest thing to a parent Betty has
  • Doctor was sent for, but could not find anything for it in his books
  • Abigail told Parris they were dancing in the woods and “Betty’s not witched.”
  • Parris asks Abigail about Mrs. Proctor’s reasons for firing her, and Abby says that Mrs. Proctor hates her
  • Mr. and Mrs. Putnam come in and talk about Ruth acting strange
  • Audience finds out Reverend Hale was sent for
  • Putnam tells Parris that there is witchcraft here.
  • Thomas Putnam

Wanted brother-in-law (Bayley) to be minister

Eldest son of riches man in Salem

Had Rev. George Burroughs jailed for “debt” he did not owe because of wife’s

Funeral

Attempted to break father’s will

He resents Salem

Many accusations are in his handwriting, his name is a witness, and his daughter led crying-out

  • Mrs. Putnam told Parris that she had Ruth conjure her dead sisters with Tituba
  • Putnam tells Parris to declare witchcraft before others find out (look better for him)
  • Abigail warned Mercy, Betty, and Mary that if they told about what they did in the forest, that she would punish them (and she could because her parents were killed right in front of her)
  • John Proctor is powerful.

He is a sinner in his own heart, not just in the community.

  • Abigail and J.P. are alone (with Betty) and Abigail makes it clear that she is still in love with J.P.
  • J.P. tells Abby that he will not think of her anymore because he wants to be with his wife
  • Betty cries out (audience knows it is because she doesn’t want to hear Abby and J.P. talk about their affair) because there is a hymn coming from downstairs.
  • Mrs. Putnam, Parris, Mr. Putnam, and Mercy all rush in. Rebecca and Giles Corey show up and Rebecca tries to calm everyone down. The general thought is that Betty is bewitched, but Rebecca doesn’t think so. She thinks that Betty and Ruth will snap out of it when they want to.
  • Rebecca Nurse is married to Francis Nurse.

They have about 300 acres, and some people (jealous ones) resent them for it.

The Nurses fought a land war with a Putnam, and that is probably why they do not like them.

The Nurses were partly responsible for not allowing Bayley to be minister.

Putnams don’t like Nurses, and Ruth Putnam was the one who pointed to Rebecca Nurse as a witch.

  • Mrs. And Mr. Putnam get mad at Rebecca because she has 11 kids and 26 grandkids and they have lost 7 of their 8 kids. (This is one of the reasons why they hate her)
  • Putnam tries to tell Parris to have Rev. Hale look for witchcraft, and J.P. tells Putnam that he can’t command Parris. Putnam gets mad at Proctor and tells him that he hasn’t seen Proctor at church since the winter. JP- he doesn’t want to hear Parris preach hellfire and damnation, and others are staying away because of that too. Rebecca- people are keeping their kids away from church because of Parris
  • Parris then brings up his wages. And Parris, Putnam, and Proctor get in a fight. Parris says that he only wants confidence; he doesn’t want to be fired as soon as the majority doesn’t like him anymore.
  • Putnam tells Proctor that the lumber JP has is actually Putnam’s. Proctor said that Putnam’s grandfather had a habit of willing away things that did not belong to him. Giles and Proctor begin to leave as Hale walks up.

______

  • Hale

Nearing 40, tight-skinned, and eager-eyed

Very intelligent

Has studied witchcraft and is eager to find a witch.

He found a witch in his other church by accident, but once he gave the afflicted girl attention, she wasn’t afflicted anymore.

Says, “We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise.” This is very ironic because they accuse and murder “witches” based off superstition.

  • -The break from pages 34-38 is Miller telling his audience his opinion in his own words. The following is a summary of what he says:

People have to have God and the Devil in order to appreciate God. You cannot have good without bad, because then you wouldn’t know what good was.

-Before Christianity was widely accepted, people worshipped gods. These gods were not good or evil, but what they were in charge of people viewed as good or evil.(Example: god of war was not evil, but we perceive war as evil.)

-Because of the shift, the devil becomes the scapegoat for people (we blame the devil when things go wrong).

- The church will use the devil as a weapon. If they say that something is bad, people will not do it. Miller tells of a history professor who summoned a dead theologian during class and was not fired. He wasn’t fired because people were afraid of the devil- they didn’t want something bad to happen to them.

-He then talks about the change in ideals from Puritan Salem to contemporary (now) America. 1. Puritans only judged someone on actions, not intentions. They believed it was the minister’s duty to judge the intentions. Now, we judge on both. 2. witches did not exist in Salem, but there are communists in America. Both were prosecuted in the same manner. (REMEMBER: This play is an allegory of McCarthyism. Everything that Miller writes is embedded with the Red Scare.) 3. People’s view of sin is not as strong as it was in Puritan Salem.

  • Rev. Hale is coming into Salem. He is excited to search for witches, and he will make them exist where none do. He equates himself with kings, philosophers, scientists, and ecclesiasts (he thinks very highly of himself).

______

  • Hale comes into the house with heavy books and Parris takes them from him. Hale (full of himself) says they are heavy because they are full of authority.
  • Hale sees Rebecca Nurse and says that he has heard of her great charities. Hale is then introduced to Putnam. He says that he didn’t expect to see distinguished people- compliment to Putnam.
  • Giles Corey (makes trouble for others) tells Rev. Hale that Proctor doesn’t believe in witches. Proctor knows that if you are not for the church, you are against it, and so he says that he has never said whether he does or does not believe.
  • Parris has Hale look at Betty. Hale says that he will, but if does not find witchcraft, then the people of Salem cannot be upset with him.
  • Hale asks Parris his first warning of strangeness. Parris says that he found his daughter, niece, and 10 or 12 others dancing in the forest.
  • Mrs. Putnam says that she knew Tituba conjured spirits because she sent her daughter to conjure her dead sisters. Rebecca is horrified at this, and Mrs. Putnam tells Rebecca that she should not judge her.
  • Hale is told that there are 7 dead Putnam babies.
  • Hale opens his book and begins to look through the pages and Rebecca gets up to leave. She says she will go to God for Parris. Parris says that he hopes she doesn’t mean that he goes to the devil. She said that she wished she knew and left. (Rebecca has a note of moral superiority).
  • Giles (the busybody) asks Hale what it means when people read books. His wife, Martha, reads books and last night he could not say his prayers. When she closed her book, he could say his prayers again.

______

  • Giles is in his early 80s. He was blamed for everything. He didn’t care for public opinion, and he only cared for church after he married Martha (late in life). He forgot his prayers because he only recently learned them. He was a nuisance, but a deeply innocent and brave man.

______

  • Hale starts to question Betty and Parris says that it can’t be the devil. Hale says that why would the devil want a bad soul, he wants the good ones.
  • Parris says there was a kettle in the grass. Abby says it were soup. Parris said there was something moving. Abby said a frog jumped in. Abby said Tituba might have called the devil. Hale questions Abby and she points to Tituba. Tituba is shocked and angry.
  • Abigail says that Tituba made her drink blood, laugh at prayer, dream corruptions, and makes her walk around the house naked
  • Tituba says that Abby made her conjure.
  • Parris gives Tituba an ultimatum: either she confesses as a witch, or she is whipped to death. Tituba confesses, saying that she doesn’t want to work for the devil. She then says that there are other witches. Putnam asks if she has seen Sarah Good and Sarah Osborn with the devil. (Tituba is using what they say as her answers. She is taking her queue from them.)
  • Tituba tells Rev. Hale that the devil wanted her to kill Rev. Parris because he was a mean man (this is her way of telling the people that Rev. Parris is mean without getting punished for it.)
  • Abigail then begins to name people. She is doing this because she wants attention and she wants to be in charge of what is going on.
  • Betty then “wakes” up and begins to name “witches.” She follows whatever Abigail does.