The Crucible Sparknotes

The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts at 1962 and is about the Salem Witch Trials. The Crucible starts with a man named Reverend Samuel Parris. His daughter Betty is comatose. No one knows what is wrong with her. When she began to be comatose, she, his niece Abigail Williams (who lives with him since her parents died from an attack from Indians), and other girls were dancing in a forest with his black slave named Tituba the night before, which Parris witnessed. The town is rumoring that witchcraft was involved. When Parris confronts Abigail about it, she denies everything and says they were just simply dancing. Parris has asked for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft to look at Betty.
To make matters worse, Thomas and Ann Putnam

reveal that their daughter Ruth is also ill. They sent Ruth to talk with Tituba to try and get her to say who and why their seven kids died at infancy. The Putnam’s claim that she can talk to spirits. Now that Ruth is sick, there is even more rumors about an unnatural cause. Abigail warns Marcy Lewis and Mary Warren (the Proctor family servant) with her that night not to tell anyone anything about what they were doing and threatens to harm them if they do. Betty wakes up and goes back unconscious.
John Proctor, a local farmer, talks to Abigail alone while checking up on Betty.

A while before, John and Abigail had an affair while she was working at his home and his wife Elizabeth was ill. This led to Abigail getting fired by his wife and led to her going to Reverend Parris’s home. No one in town knows this. During their conversation, John tells her she needs to end the silliness with everyone and that Betty is only just pretending to be ill. Abigail still wants John and tries to flirt with him tough, but John rejects her and shuts her down. She still is determined and tells him they will be together again

someday.
Then, Reverend Hale arrives at the Parris home.

He is a famous witchcraft expert from a nearby town. Suddenly, Abigail changes her story and suggests that Tituba called the Devil. Tituba, surprised at this, strongly denies it. But when the two Reverends interrogate Tituba, she confesses to witchcraft under this pressure. She accuses several other women as witches in the village, including two women named Sarah Good and Sarah Osborne. While Tituba and Abigail are accusing women in the town, several other young girls, including Mary Warren follow Abigail’s lead and begin blaming the women as well.
Betty wakes up again and starts screaming when she hears singing outside and we learn she can’t handle hearing the Lord’s name. A crowd rushes into the room to see if she really is under witchcraft. The nurse taking care of Betty, named Rebecca, warns Parris that if they make this a witchcraft issue would cause a lot of problems in the village. She says that Betty’s illness is nothing serious, just a childish act. With all this, it is stirring up a whole load of controversy that would lead to many deaths. All this accusing is making people go on trial for

witchcraft.
A week later, John and Elizabeth Proctor are discussing the events that have happened and Mary Warren is getting her name mixed into the accusations, even though she came to be an official for court. She also finds out that John talked to Abigail privately and becomes jealous, accusing him of still loving her. She tries to make him condemn her for being the hoax she really is, but fails. When Mary comes back, she tell the Proctors Elizabeth was accused, but she defended her and wasn’t pursued because of it. Mary gives Elizabeth a doll she made in court, which Abigail saw her do. When Reverend Hale comes to visit of the accusation of Elizabeth, John gets the courage to stand up for his wife and tell Hale it is a hoax and Abigail told him that herself. Reverend doesn’t believe him though because of all the confessions and accusations going on. John comes back with that people are confessing to avoid be hanged.
Abigail feels a needle poking her while eating dinner and she accuses Elizabeth of attempted murder. She claims that she has a doll with a needle in the heart meant to be her. She knows this because she witnessed Mary make it but she doesn’t tell people that. The authorities search the Proctor house and find the doll with the needle in its heart. Reverend Hale questions Mary and learns that she sewed the doll and stored the needle inside. Mary also tells him that Abigail saw her sew the doll and put the needle there. Still, Elizabeth is arrested by Ezekiel Cheever.
Martha Corey and Rebecca Nurse are accused of witchcraft and are going to be put on trial. We also find out that Elizabeth is pregnant, postponing her trial. John was able to get 91 signatures on a petition proving the three women were good people. Parris fires back that it is an attack on the court. The next day, John brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth she will testify against the girls. She tells everyone that they were all lying and that this was all a hoax. When the girls testify, they turn on Mary and accuse her of bewitching them. Done with Abigail lies, John admits that they had an affair and is doing this for revenge on Elizabeth. Abigail denies this and they put Elizabeth on the stand to see if she would say why Abigail was fired. Thinking she was defending her husband, she says Abigail was fired for bad work, causing John to look like a liar. Abigail then accuses Mary of bewitching her through a yellow bird outside and Mary accuses John of witchcraft. John now loses all faith in God and is arrested. Hale, believing John is not in witchcraft, quits the court.
After months pass, Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor are scheduled to be hanged, since neither have confessed. Reverend Hale is trying to get them to avoid the hanging. Abigail has run away with Parris’s money. Judge Danforth get Elizabeth to make John to confess, but will not incriminate anyone else or make his confession public, making it worthless. He still will be hanged. Over one hundred people have “confessed” to witchcraft and accusing others, causing a vicious and deadly cycle. When Hale tries to get John to confess, Elizabeth and John finally make peace with each over the affair and she lets John have his last moment of being good. They say that when they are hanged, they will accuse no one so this cycle can finally end. In the part, Abigail comes back to talk to John, where he threatens to condemn her if she doesn’t save Elizabeth. We end with Abigail saying she will only save him, and she leaves the jail.