The
crucible is about the Salem witch trials, the play takes place in the town of
Salem Massachusetts in the spring of 1692, we learned that before the events in
the play actually take place the town minister Reverend Parris caught a group
of girls, including his niece Abigail, dancing in the woods, the girls actually
were trying to practice witchcraft in Abigail drank chicken blood as part of a
charm to kill a woman named Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail had an affair with
Elizabeth Proctor’s husband John and she wants Elizabeth dead, but because they
got caught Abigail and the other girls worried that they’re going to be
punished for practicing witchcraft, so they start lying and accusing other
people of being witches to deflect blame from themselves.
That’s
how the Salem witch trials start everyone they accuse gets arrested, and many
of those people are executed at the beginning of the play, Reverend Parris is
sitting with his daughter Betty who’s lying in bed, unresponsive Parris is
afraid that she’s bewitched because he found her on the main road of the town
wandering aroundand trying to fly, he sent for a witchcraft expert named
Reverend Hale, and he’s waiting for him to show up the night before he caught
Betty his niece Abigail and their friends mercy Mary and Ruth dancing in the
forest at least one of the girls was naked, they had a witch’s cauldron and
Reverend Parris is slave from Barbados Tituba was speaking some kind of charm
over the cauldron.
What
Parris doesn’t know is that they really were trying to practice witchcraft,
they tried to conjure the spirits of roots dead baby sisters, they tried to fly
and they also drank chicken blood as part of a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor,
now Parris is worried about Betty but he’s also afraid it will come out that
the girls in his own house are practicing witchcraft, he knows it could ruin
his reputation and a lot of people in the town already dislike him several of
these people are gathered downstairs in his house, as he sits with Betty but he
doesn’t want to go down to talk to them, Thomas Putnam and his wife and come in
they start pressuring Parris to acknowledge that there’s witchcraft going on
they’re important people in the town, in Paris needs their support but he
doesn’t want to admit to witchcraft in his own house.
Eventually,
they persuade to go downstairs, and say a psalm with his parishioners abigail
is still there with Betty when Mary Warren and mercy the other girls who are
trying to practice witchcraft come in Abigail tells them all to keep their
mouths shut, and threatens to murder them in the middle of the night if they
don’t, John Proctor comes in and when the other girls leave he and Abigail
confront each Other, Abigail says all that happened in the forest is that she
and her friends were dancing and Parris caught them, she flirts with John and
says she’s waiting for him this is where we learned that Abigail and John had
an affair.
Abigail
tells John she still loves him she blames Elizabeth for ending their
relationship, John tells her not to talk about Elizabeth and he tells Abigail
to forget him. Betty starts screaming when she hears the words going up to
Jesus in the psalm downstairs Parris, and some of the townspeople run up to see
her Rebecca nurses one of them, she’s basically the most saintly woman in the
village and she calms Betty down just by her presence the putnams are still
there, insisting it’s witchcraft and they get into an argument with John
Proctor, and with a farmer named Giles Corey in which we see some of the
tensions in the town, mostly about claims to property finally Reverend Hale the
witchcraft expert arrives, he starts questioning everybody and the answers make
Abigail look bad so Abigail blames Tituba for everything, Reverend Hale brings
Tituba in and accuses her of working for the devil.
Tituba
can tell she’s going to be hanged if she tries to deny it, so she tells him
what he wants to hear she says the devil comes to her and tries to make her do
things like kill Reverend Parris, the putnams started asking Tituba if she’s
seen anyone else working with the devil, they suggest some names of people they
don’t like, Tituba breaks down and starts naming a bunch of people, then
Abigail picks it up she sees that if you just confessed to witchcraft, and
start naming names you’ll be okay if you deny it they’ll think you’re trying to
hide something, that’s how the witchcraft panic and Salem starts all the people
they accuse get arrested act 2 takes place 8 days later at John Proctor’s
house.
John
and Elizabeth are trying to get along but there’s tension between them, he
thinks Elizabeth won’t forgive him for his affair with Abigail, Elizabeth tells
him what’s going on with the witch trials, whoever is accused of being a witch
is brought in of Abigail and her friends, if the girls fall to the ground and
act like spirits are attacking them the accused person is sentenced to death,
Elizabeth wants John to go to the court and say that Abigail is a fraud since
Abigail told John that the girls were just dancing, John knows he should do this
but he’s worried the court won’t believe him, he and Abigail were alone when
they talked, so he can’t prove what Abigail said it’s Abigail’s word against
his in the court trust Abigail now Mary Warren comes in after a hard day in
court acting like spirits are attacking her, she says Elizabeth’s name was
mentioned in the court, but she stood up for Elizabeth.
Elizabeth
freaks out she can tell that Abigail is going to accuse her of witchcraftn so
she’ll be killed and Abigail can marry Johnn Elizabeth wants John to go and
tell Abigail he’s not interested in hern Reverend Hale rushes in Elizabeth’s
name has been mentioned in the court, and he wants to find out more about them
as he questions themn he can sense some of their problemsn Giles Corey comes in
to report that his wife has been arrested then Ezekiel Cheever comes in to
arrest, Elizabeth because Abigail has accused her, John Proctor fights it but
Elizabeth is carried off in Chains, John Proctor tells Mary Warren to go in and
confess to save Elizabeth life.
He
realizes he’s going to have to confess publicly to adultery, and be disgraced
in order to discredit Abigail Frances nurse Giles Corey and John Proctor go to
the court and bring Mary Warren with them, the men all have their wives locked
up are condemned and there determines prove that the proceedings are a fraud
the chief judge is Danforth, the deputy governor of Massachusetts Reverend Hale
is also one of the judges Frances nurse presents a list of ninety-one people
who signed their names, declaring their good opinion of Rebecca nurse and
Martha Corey Danforth takes the petition in orders all 91 people arrested,
Giles Corey presents an affidavit affirming that Thomas Putnam convinced his
daughter to accuse a man named George Jacobs ,Corey says someone told him that
Putnam wants Jacob’s dead so he can buy his land.
Danforth
demands to know what man told Giles Corey this, and he arrests Corey for
contempt of court, when Corey refuses to say John Proctor brings in Mary Warren
with her signed deposition swearing that the girl have all been lying, and
faking he explains that abigail was caught dancing in the woods by Paris, and
she’s not lying about it deliberately to get people killed, Danforth brings in
Abigail and the other girls, Abigail denies the accusations, Danforth asks Mary
Warren to fake it like she did in the courtroom, but without the others doing
it, she can Abigail and the other girls then act like Mary Warren is
threatening them with her spirit.
John
Proctor grabs Abigail by the hair, and calls her a even though it will destroy
his reputation, he declares to the court that he and Abigail slept together to
test John Proctor’s claim Danforth summons Elizabeth Proctor and asks her if
her husband is an adulterershe lies and says no because she wants to protect
him, so Danforth dismisses the charge Reverend Hale. However, starts to believe
Proctor Abigail goes back to her trick of acting like Mary Warren is
threatening her until Mary Warren breaks down, and says that John Proctor works
for Satan, and Abigail was telling the truth Proctor is arrested, Reverend Hale
denounces the court and leaves his place on it act four takes place several
months later in the jail it’s just before dawn on the day that John Proctor,
Rebecca nurse and ten others are to be hanged the trials have put Danforth in
Paris in a tough situation.
They’ve
already hanged a lot of people so they can’t turn back so many of the villagers
are dead or in jail that cows wander through the streets, and no one knows whom
they belong to Abigail has stolen all the Reverend Paris’s money, and run away
a faction of the townspeople have turned against the trials, and don’t believe
in them anymore, this day will be a turning point in the trials, it’s the first
day that important people with good reputations in the town are going to be
hanged, Reverend Hale tries to get them to confess.
He
doesn’t believe they’re guilty but he feels responsible for the trials, and
thinks it will be his fault if any of them die if they confess, he thinks they
won’t be hanged Danforth and Paris would like to see some confessions too,
because they would prove that the trials were justified, but so far no one will
confess Danforth and Paris decide to let Elizabeth talked to John Proctor to
see if she can get him to confess Proctor’s not sure what to do he doesn’t see
himself as a good man, since he committed adultery and then was afraid at first
to speak out against Abigail the trials he thinks he would be faking if he went
to his death like a martyr, since he’s bad he might as well live and try to
help his family.
He
calls in Danforth and admits that he works for Satan, but when Danforth asks
him to name some of Satan’s other helpers he won’t do it Hale and Parris
persuade Danforth to accept the confession anyway, but when Danforth gives the
confession to Proctor to sign, he can’t sign it he was able to lie and give up
his soul but if he signs it, and they nail it to the church door he’s
given up his name which is the last thing he has his children will suffer from
his disgrace, so he rips up the confession and he feels like he’s found some
goodness in himself, he’s executed but he dies happier than before the
afterword of the play notes that the power of theocracy government by the
church is essentially broken after this.