The Crucible, a play by Arthur Miller, explores the themes of hysteria, reputation, and moral conflict during the Salem witch trials. In Act 1, the story unfolds in Reverend Parris's home, where his daughter Betty lies unconscious, sparking rumors of witchcraft. Key characters, including Abigail Williams and Tituba, navigate the tension between truth and deception as they confront the consequences of their actions. This act sets the stage for the ensuing chaos and moral dilemmas faced by the townspeople of Salem. Ideal for students studying American literature and the historical context of the witch trials.

Key Points

  • Introduces key characters like Reverend Parris, Abigail Williams, and Tituba in a tense setting.
  • Explores the theme of hysteria as rumors of witchcraft spread through Salem.
  • Highlights the moral conflicts faced by characters as they grapple with truth and deception.
  • Sets the stage for the unfolding drama of the Salem witch trials and its societal implications.
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10 pages
Literature
newtopiccyclegrowin
10 pages
Literature
50
/ 10
1
The Crucible
By Arthur Miller
ACT 1
SETTING: A small upper bedroom in the home of Reverend
Samuel Parris, Salem, Massachusetts, in the spring of the year
1692.There is a narrow window at the left. Through its leaded
panes the morning sunlight streams. A candle still burns near the
bed, which is at the right. A chest, a chair, and a small table are
the other furnishings. At the back a door opens on the landing of
the stairway to the ground floor. The room gives off an air of
clean sparseness. The roof rafters are exposed, and the wood
colors are raw and unmellowed.
As the curtain rises we see Parris on his knees, beside a bed. His
daughter Betty, aged 10, is asleep in it. Abigail Williams, 17,
ENTERS.
TITUBA: My Betty be hearty soon?
PARRIS: Out of here!
TITUBA: My Betty not goin’ die . . .
PARRIS: Out of my sight! Out of my – (He is overcome with sobs.
He goes to the bed and gently takes Betty’s hands.) Betty. Child.
Dear child. Will you wake, will you open up your eyes? Betty,
little one . . .
ABIGAIL: Uncle? Susanna Wallcott’s here from Dr. Griggs.
PARRIS: Oh? (Rising.) Let her come, let her come.
ABIGAIL: Come in Susanna. (Susanna Walcott, a little younger
than Abigail, enters.)
SUSANNA: Reverend, sir?
PARRIS: What does the doctor say, child?
SUSANNA: Dr. Griggs he bid me come and tell you, Reverend sir,
that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books.
PARRIS: Then he must search on.
SUSANNA: Aye, sir, he have been searchin’ his books since he
left you, sir, but he bid me tell you, that you might look to
unnatural things for the cause of it.
PARRIS: No-no. There be no unnatural causes here. Tell him I
have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mister Hale will
surely confirm that. Let him look to medicine, and put out all
thought of unnatural causes here. There be none.
SUSANNA: Aye, sir. He bid me tell you.
ABIGAIL: Speak nothing of it in the village, Susanna.
PARRIS: Go directly home and speak nothin’ of unnatural causes.
SUSANNA: Aye, sir, I pray for her. (Goes out.)
ABIGAIL: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you’d
best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor’s packed with
people, sir.--I’ll sit with her.
PARRIS: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my
niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?!
ABIGAIL: Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it,
and I’ll be whipped if I must be. But they’re speakin’ of
witchcraft; Betty’s not witched.
PARRIS: Abigail, I cannot go before the congregation when I
know you have not been open with me. What did you do with
her in the forest?
ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the
bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted.
And there’s the whole of it. We never conjured spirits.
PARRIS: Why can she not mover herself since midnight? This
child is desperate. It must come out – my enemies will bring it
out. Let me know what you have 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: You call this sport! Abigail, if you know something that
may help the doctor, for God’s sake tell it to me. I saw Tituba
waving her arms over the fire when I came on you; why were
she doing that?
ABIGAIL: She always sings her Barbados songs and we dance.
PARRIS: I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will
not blink it. I saw a dress lying on the grass.
ABIGIAL: A dress?
PARRIS: Aye, a dress. And I thought I saw ….someone running
naked through the trees!
ABIGAIL: No one was naked! You mistake yourself, Uncle!
2
PARRIS: I saw it! Now tell me true, Abigail. And I pray you feel
the weight of truth upon you. Now my ministry’s at stake; my
ministry and perhaps your cousin’s life…..whatever abomination
you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken
unaware when I go before them down there.
ABIGAIL: There is nothin’ more. I swear it, Uncle.
PARRIS: Abigail, I have fought here three long years to bend
these stiff-necked people to me, and now, just now when some
good respect is rising for me in the parish, you compromise my
very character. I have given you a home, child. I have put
clothes upon your back – now give me an upright answer. Your
name in the town – it is entirely white, is it not?
Abigial: Why, I am sure it is, sir. There be no blush about my
name.
PARRIS: Abigial, is there any other cause than you have told me,
for your being discharged from Goody Proctor’s service seven
months back? I’ve heard it said, and … I’ll tell you how I heard it,
that she comes so rarely to church this year for she will not sit so
close to something soiled. What signified that remark?
Abigail: She hates me uncle, she must, for I would not be her
slave. It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I
will not work for such a woman! My name is good in the village!
I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a
gossiping liar!
(Enter Mrs. Ann Putnam, forty-five, and Thomas Putnam, near
fifty.)
PARRIS: Why, Goody Putnam, Mr. Putnam, come in.
ANN: It is a marvel. It is surely a stroke of hell upon you…
PARRIS: No, Goody Putnam, it is…
ANN: How high did your Betty fly, how high?
PARRIS: No—no, she never flew…
ANN: Why, it’s sure she did; Mister Collins saw her goin’ over
Ingersoll’s barn, and come down light as bird, he says!
PARRIS: Now, look you, Goody Putnam; she never…
PUTNAM: Look you, Ann. Betty’s eyes is closed!
ANN: Why, that’s strange. Ours is open.
PARRIS: Your Ruth is sick?
ANN: I’d not call it sick, the Devil’s touch is heavier than sick, it’s
death, y’know, it’s death drivin’ into them forked and hoofed.
PARRIS: Oh, pray not! Why, how does your Ruth ail?
ANN: She ails as she must—she never waked this morning but
her eyes open and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught,
and cannot eat. Her soul is taken, surely.
PUTNAM: They say you’ve sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly?
PARRIS: A precaution only. He has much experience in all
demonic arts, and I …
ANN: He has indeed, and found a witch in Beverly last year, and
let you remember that.
PARRIS: Now, Goody Ann, they only thought that were a witch,
and I am certain there be no element of witchcraft here.
PUTNAM: No witchcraft! Now look you, Mr. Parris –
PARRIS: No, no, Thomas, I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. They
will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.
PUTNAM: Ann, tell Mr. Parris what you have done.
ANN: Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the
earth. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only-I saw her turning
strange. A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels
like a sucking mouth were pullin’ on her life, too. And so I
thought to send her to your Tituba-
PARRIS: To Tituba! What may Tituba….?
ANN: Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mister Parris.
PARRIS: Goody Ann, it is a formidable sin to conjure up the
dead!
ANN: I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what
person murdered my babies.
PARRIS: Woman!
ANN: They were murdered, Mister Parris! And mark this proof! –
mark it! Last night my Ruth were ever so close to their little
spirits, I know it, sir. For how else is she stuck dumb now except
some power of darkness would stop her mouth? It is a
marvelous sign, Mister Parris! Don’t you understand it, sir?
There is a murdering witch among us bound to keep herself in
the dark. You cannot blink it more.
PARRIS: Then you were conjuring spirits last night, Abigail.
ABIGAIL: Not I, sir, Tituba and Ruth.
PARRIS: Oh, oh, my poor Betty. Abigail, what proper payment
for my charity? Now I am undone.
3
PUTNAM: You are not undone. Let you take hold here. Wait for
no one to charge you-declare it yourself. You have to strike out
against the Devil and the village will bless you for it. Come
down, speak to them-pray with them. They’re waitin’ for your
word, Mister! Surely you’ll pray with them.
PARRIS: I’ll lead them in a psalm. But I … But let you say nothing
of witchcraft yet. I will not discuss it. The cause is yet unknown.
I’ve had enough contention since I came, I want no more.
(Putnam crosses to the table, gets hat, crosses and exits.)
(People are singing a psalm while others pray.)
ABIGAIL: Now listen Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis. If they be
questioning us tell them we danced—I told my uncle as much
already.
MERCY: Aye, and what more?
ABIGAIL: He knows Tituba conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of
the grave.
MERCY: And what more?
ABIGAIL: He saw you naked.
MERCY: Oh, Jesus! (Mary Warren,17, enters.)
MARY: Before we do, the whole country’s talking witchcraft!
They’ll be callin’ us witches, Abby!
MERCY: She means to tell him, Abby.
MARY: Abby, we’ve got to tell. Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a
hangin’ like they done in Boston two years ago! We must tell the
truth, Abby!—you’ll only be whipped for dancin’, and the other
things!
ABIGAIL: Oh, we’ll be whipped!
MARY: I never done none of it, Abby. I only looked!
MERCY: Oh, you’re a great one for lookin’, aren’t you, Mary
Warren? What a grand peeping courage you have!
ABIGAIL: (Betty whimpers.) Now, Betty, dear, wake up now. It’s
Abigail. (She sits Betty up, shakes her.) I’ll beat you, Betty! My,
you seem improving. I talked to your papa and I told him
everything. So there’s nothing to…
BETTY: (Betty springs off bed, rushes to window.) I want my
mama.
ABIGAIL: What ails you, Betty? Your mama’s dead and buried.
BETTY: I’ll fly to Mama. Let me fly! (She raises arms to fly.)
ABIGAIL: (Pulls her back.) I told him everything; he knows now,
he knows everything we –
BETTY: You drank blood, Abby, you didn’t tell him that!
ABIGAIL: Betty, you never say that again! You will never…
BETTY: You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s
wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!
ABIGAIL: (Slaps her face.) Now look you. All of you. We danced.
And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all.
And mark this—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. And you know I can do it. I saw Indians
smash my dear parents’ heads on the pillow next to mine, and I
have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you
wish you had never seen the sun go down! No, Betty, sit up and
stop this! (Betty collapses in her hands.)
MARY: What’s got her? Abby, she’s gonna die; it’s a sin to
conjure, and we –
ABIGAIL: I say shut it, Mary Warren! Shut it.
(Enter John Proctor.)
MARY: Oh! I was just going home, Mr. Proctor.
PROCTOR: Be you foolish, Mary Warren? Be you deaf? I forbid
you to leave the home, did I not?
MARY: I … I only come to see the great doin’s in the world.
PROCTOR: I’ll show you great doings on your arse one of these
days. Now get you home; my wife is waitin’ with your work!
MERCY: (Rises) I’d best be off, too. I have my Ruth to watch.
Mrs. Putnam would want that. Good morning, Mister Proctor.
(Since Proctor’s entrance, Abigail has absorbed his presence,
wide-eyed.)
ABIGAIL: Gah! I’d almost forgot how strong you are, John
Proctor!
PROCTOR: What’s this mischief here? The town’s mumbling
witchcraft.
ABIGAIL: Oh, posh!—We were dancin’ in the woods last night;
my uncle leaped in on us. Betty took fright, is all.
PROCOTR: Ah, you’re wicked yet, aren’t y’! You’ll be clapped in
the stocks before you’re twenty.
ABIGIAL: You come five mile to see a silly girl fly. I know you
better than that, John Proctor.
PROCTOR: I come to see what mischief your uncle’s brewin’
now.
ABIGAIL: Give me a word, John, a soft word.
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End of Document
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FAQs

What themes are explored in Act 1 of The Crucible?
Act 1 of The Crucible delves into themes of hysteria, reputation, and moral conflict. The fear of witchcraft grips Salem, leading characters to prioritize their social standing over honesty. The act illustrates how quickly paranoia can escalate in a community, showcasing the destructive power of lies and the consequences of unchecked authority. These themes resonate throughout the play, reflecting the broader implications of the Salem witch trials.
Who are the main characters introduced in Act 1?
Key characters introduced in Act 1 include Reverend Parris, who is concerned about his reputation; Abigail Williams, who instigates the witchcraft accusations; and Tituba, the enslaved woman blamed for the chaos. Betty Parris, Reverend Parris's daughter, lies in a mysterious state, prompting fears of witchcraft. Each character's motivations and fears set the stage for the ensuing conflict and highlight the societal pressures they face.
What events lead to the witchcraft accusations in Act 1?
In Act 1, the events leading to the witchcraft accusations begin with a secret gathering in the woods where Abigail and other girls, including Tituba, engage in forbidden rituals. When Reverend Parris discovers them, Betty falls into a trance-like state, fueling rumors of witchcraft. The fear of the unknown and the desire to protect their reputations lead characters to falsely accuse others, igniting a wave of hysteria that will engulf Salem.
How does Act 1 establish the setting of Salem?
Act 1 establishes the setting of Salem through its depiction of a Puritan community steeped in religious fervor and strict moral codes. The atmosphere is tense and oppressive, reflecting the fears and suspicions that permeate the town. The physical setting of Reverend Parris's home, with its stark furnishings and somber tone, reinforces the themes of isolation and paranoia that characterize the play. This setting serves as a microcosm of the larger societal issues at play during the witch trials.
What role does Tituba play in the events of Act 1?
Tituba plays a crucial role in Act 1 as the enslaved woman who becomes the scapegoat for the town's fears. After being accused of witchcraft, she is pressured to confess and name others, which she does under duress. Her character highlights the themes of powerlessness and manipulation, as she is caught between her survival and the hysteria that engulfs Salem. Tituba's actions set off a chain reaction of accusations that escalate the conflict throughout the play.

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