“The Crucible”: Summary and Characters

Written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, The Crucible is a play that dramatizes the Salem witch trials of the 1690s. It was an allegory for the McCarthyism of the 1950s, which was characterized by paranoia in the country regarding Communism and any sympathizers for it. Senator Joseph McCarthy hurled accusations and directed the questioning of anyone even remotely suspected of having communist sympathies. The play constructs  and exposes the nature of the community where such paranoia and hysteria run rampant. Arthur Miller was among the foremost American playwrights of the 20th century. His other popular plays include Death of a Salesman, After the Fall, and All My Sons.

Summary of The Crucible

The setting of the play is Salem, Massachusetts, in the year 1692. It is a fictionalized narrative of a real historical event—the witch trials—that took place there at the time. The witch trials were driven by the Puritan values of the town and were characterized by hysteria, paranoia, and suspicion.

The play is dramatization of the real Salem witch trials.

Act I

Reverend Parris has just found his daughter Betty, his niece Abigail, and his slave girl Tituba dancing in the forest near his house along with a few other girls. Upon discovery, Betty loses consciousness and appears to be in some sort of a coma. The town doctor is unable to determine any physical reason for her condition, and Parris is told to consider spiritual causes. 

Though he doesn’t believe that the root of Betty’s coma is spiritual, he has already summoned Reverend Hale of a neighboring town to come and investigate this matter. (Reverend Hale is renowned for his expertise on witchcraft and similar matters.)

Meanwhile, Abigail informs Parris that rumors of witchcraft have already spread through the town and that a crowd is gathering downstairs as a result. She tells him to deny what is being said. Parris is angry at this turn of events: a faction wants to replace him as the town minister, and they could use these rumors to their advantage.

Rumors spread fast in Salem, fueling paranoia, political conflicts and power struggles.

Abigail admits to the girls’ presence in the woods but says that they were just dancing, not summoning spirits. Parris had seen Tituba chanting something over a cauldron; Abigail tells him that she was only singing songs from her homeland Barbados. 

Parris also confronts Abigail about why she had been fired by Elizabeth Proctor. Abigail had worked as a servant in the Proctor house until six months ago. Now, it was said that Elizabeth doesn’t even attend church to avoid being near Abigail. Abigail tells Parris that she was fired because she refused to act like the Proctors’ slave and that Elizabeth was a liar if she was claiming anything else.

The Putnams, whose daughter Ruth is also in a coma, arrive. They believe that the two girls’ condition is the devil’s influence. Parris denies this, pointing out a difference: Betty’s eyes are closed, while Ruth’s are open.

Mrs. Putnam reveals that before Ruth became unconscious, she had sent her daughter to Tituba. The Putnams had previously lost seven children, all of whom had died in infancy. Ruth had been sent to Tituba to try to determine the cause for this. Her subsequent illness has convinced Mrs. Putnam that there is a witch in Salem. 

The Putnams and Parris leave—the latter is to address the gathering crowd and lead them in prayer. While they are gone, the servants of the Parris and Proctor households, Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren, approach Abigail. They were also in the woods and are nervous about goings-on. Abigail warns them to only admit that the group was dancing in the woods and that Tituba had summoned Ruth’s dead siblings. She threatens to kill them if they mention any other details, such as drinking blood as a curse to kill Elizabeth Proctor.

Abigail is revealed early in the play to be wily and manipulative, quick to turn situations to her own advantage and able to exert a great deal of influence among the girls.

At this point, John Proctor enters the scene. He sends all the girls, except Abigail, away. When Abigail had worked for him, the two had engaged in an affair, discovered by his wife. This had led to Abigail’s dismissal. Now, Abigail proclaims that she is still in love with John and that she continues to wait for him every night. This angers him; in his eyes, he made her no promises during their time together, and the relationship they had has come to an end. She is angry with him for opening her eyes to the fact that lies and pretense are rife in Salem.

As the crowd outside sings psalms, Betty wakes up and covers her ears and screams out loud. This summons Parris, the Putnams, and another couple—the Nurses. Over the years, Francis Nurse has acquired a large amount of land in Salem and has reached a position of great respect in the community. Another farmer, Giles Corey, also joins the group. Rebecca Nurse is attending to Betty and believes that her and Ruth are simply overstimulated and going through fits because of it.

The men descend into various arguments that reveal the political divides of Salem. John is accused of being irreligious and of being a member of the faction conspiring against Parris. On his part, John admits that he doesn’t agree with the minister’s views and would willingly join any group against him if he knew them. He is also unhappy that Reverend Hale has been summoned without any prior discussion with the town’s inhabitants.

John Proctor’s character is a relatively straightforward and earnest one. He despises hypocrisy and is aware of how deep it runs in Salem.

Nurse and Thomas Putnam fall on the opposite side of an old argument: Putnam’s brother-in-law had once been in the running for the town’s ministry but had been edged out by a group to which Nurse belonged. Giles and Parris disagree over the salary the latter receives from the town, while John Proctor and Putnam dispute the ownership of a piece of timberland. Putnam threatens to sue Proctor over the matter. 

Upon reverend Hale’s arrival, the discussion quickly swings to the subject of witchcraft. John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse leave, and the others question the Reverend about various instances, wondering if they are connected to witchcraft. He says that all this ought to be discussed later. He then starts to question Abigail about what happened in the woods.

The fear of witchcraft becomes the means used to whip the population of Salem into a frenzy of indiscriminate accusations and charges.

At first, she continues to assert that they were only dancing, but as the pressure builds, she starts hurling accusations. She claims that Tituba forced her to drink blood. When Tituba is brought in, she says that Abigail, in turn, forced her to concoct a charm. She tells the Reverend that the devil has other witches in his service who are harming the children; she herself is innocent of this. Growing more and more excited, Abigail and Tituba start to accuse several other people in town of being witches. Betty joins them, and Act I ends with the Reverend’s order to arrest all the people the three girls have named.

Act II

A few days later, the Proctors are sitting down to dinner. The town has descended into paranoia, and the witch-trials are being held. So far, 16 people have been accused of witchcraft and arrested. The Proctors’ servant, Mary Warren, has gone to attend the trials in spite of having been told not to. 

John is amazed at the hysteria that has been whipped up. He tells Elizabeth that Abigail had promised him that the dancing in the woods had absolutely nothing to do with witchcraft. However, upon being urged to testify to this, John declines since the conversation between Abigail and him had taken place without any witnesses. Finding out that the two had been alone together, Elizabeth gets angry and disappointed with him. John feels unfairly judged and tells her so.

When Mary returns, she brings with her a doll she sewed for Elizabeth in the courtroom. All the accused who refuse to confess are being hanged. She tells them that Elizabeth had also been accused of being a witch by an unnamed someone but that she had argued against this. Because of this, Mary believes that she has saved Elizabeth’s life. 

When Mary goes to bed, Elizabeth expresses that she believes the accusation against herself had been made by Abigail, who is jealous of her as John’s wife. Reverend Hale arrives to speak to the couple; he is visiting everyone whose name has been brought up in connection to witchcraft. He notes certain habits of the family that might deem them as irreligious. John tells him about his conversation with Abigail, but Hale is surprised as many of the accused have confessed. John points out that failing to do so would have led to them being hanged.

Proctor’s non-conformist attitude towards the church paints him, in the eyes of the town, as an outsider and renders him vulnerable to suspicion.

Giles and Francis enter with the news that both of their wives have been arrested. Normal occurrences have been interpreted in a twisted manner to serve as the evidence to charge them with witchcraft.

At this point, Ezekiel Cheever and the town sheriff arrive with a warrant for Elizabeth’s arrest. They ask her if she has any dolls, and when she replies in the negative, they pick out the one she has just been given by Mary. They note that a needle has been stuck in this and that Abigail has, just recently, suffered from a fit, and that a needle was found in her abdomen too.

Threadbare excuses pass as evidence enough to accuse and convict people of witchcraft.

Mary is summoned, and she tells Cheever and the sheriff that she made the doll and stuck the needle in it. However, Elizabeth is still dragged away and John, in anger, tears the warrant and asks Hale why the innocence of the accuser is never questioned. Hale himself is also growing uncertain about these accusations. John commands Mary to testify for Elizabeth at her trial. Mary is scared of Abigail and tells him that Abigail would publicly charge with lechery. Even though he is shocked at this, John insists that she testify.

Act III

The witch trials are in session with Judge Hathorne presiding. They are interrupted by Giles, who claims that they are simply a cover for Putnam grabbing more and more land. The judge, accompanied by Giles, Hale, Parris, Francis, and the Deputy Governor Danforth, moves to the vestry. 

John arrives with Mary, who reveals that the other girls are only pretending to be afflicted. Parris insists that these are just ploys to undermine the court’s authority. John is once again questioned about his religious beliefs and frequent absences at church. Cheever tells the judge that John works his plow on Sunday, which is regarded to be a serious offense in Salem.

John is informed that Elizabeth is pregnant and will not be hanged until she delivers. He submits an attestation for the good characters of Elizabeth, Rebecca, and Martha (Giles’s wife), signed by 91 farmers. When this document is deemed to be an attack on the court, John asks why every defense is labeled similarly. 

Putnam is brought to the room to answer to an accusation made by Giles: he claims that Putnam asked his daughter to accuse George Jacobs of witchcraft; when he hangs, Jacobs’s property could be easily bought by Putnam. However, when Giles refuses to reveal his source, he is arrested for contempt of court.

Giles Corey’s accusations against George Jacobs expose the manner in which the witch trials cover for a power grab.

Abigail and the other girls are summoned. They deny Mary’s testimony and accuse her of witchcraft instead. John intervenes and confesses to his affair with Abigail and her firing by Elizabeth after they had been discovered. Elizabeth is brought in to conform this, but she tries to cover for John’s adultery, saying instead that she fired Abigail just because she thought John fancied her. John shouts that he confessed, but Elizabeth cannot change her story and is taken away. 

Hale has grown increasingly dubious of Abigail and the girls’ accusations. He asks Danforth to reconsider the court’s actions, but all the girls begin to scream and descend into a hysterical frenzy, including Mary. When John tries to calm her, she screams that he is the devil’s man and that he tried to force her to do his evil bidding. John is arrested, and Hale criticizes all that has gone on and leaves the court.

Act IV

During the fall of that year, Hale returns to the jail in Salem to try to convince the prisoners to confess and save themselves from hanging. Abigail and Parris’s servant, Mercy, have robbed him and skipped town. Salem is in a state of neglect as most people are either in jail or attending the witch trials.

Hale pleads with Hathorne and Danforth to pardon those prisoners who refuse to confess, but they refuse since that would throw doubt on all the previous executions—12 so far. 

John Proctor hasn’t confessed yet, and Danforth hopes that Elizabeth will be able to coax him. She is brought to him, and the couple are given privacy. She tells John that Giles had held out, not entering a plea of guilty or not guilty, and the court had tortured him to death for it. John says that he wants the town to feel shame when they hang him but eventually agrees to confess. He is asked to write it down, and Rebecca is brought in to witness it.

As he begins to write, John is asked if he saw Rebecca and several other accused in the devil’s company. John says that he didn’t and that he will not talk about anyone else’s sins in this confession, just his own.

Ultimately, John Proctor is unable to commit to a false confession.

However, once he finishes it, he is reluctant to give the paper up. It will be nailed to the church door for everyone to see. He then tears it up and is dragged away to the gallows.

Epilogue

Some time after these events, Parris loses the ministry and leaves Salem. Abigail is believed to be a prostitute in Boston, and Elizabeth has remarried.

In 1721, the charges against the accused are withdrawn.

Characters in The Crucible

• Reverend Parris: The town minister of Salem, he is a deeply paranoid man. He is constantly afraid of losing his position, and the fear drives him to adopt authoritarian positions to keep his power.
• Abigail Williams: Parris’s niece, she is the instigator for the witch trials that nearly destroyed Salem. Having been fired by John Proctor’s wife after her affair with him, she remains obsessed with him and jealous of her. When her actions in the woods are discovered, she easily throws the town’s suspicions off herself and onto others, creating a frenzy of witch hunting. She even uses this new paranoia of the town to try to get back at Elizabeth Proctor.
• Betty Parris: The reverend’s daughter, she participated in the gathering in the woods and lost consciousness upon discovery. Her condition lends strength to the rumors of witchcraft in Salem.
• John Proctor: He is a farmer in Salem and is known for his intolerance of hypocrisy. However, his own sin of adultery haunts him; revealing his affair with Abigail might have stemmed the frenzy that overtook Salem, but he shied away from doing so in the name of his reputation. 
• Elizabeth Proctor: She is John’s wife. She fired Abigail when she discovered the affair and is later accused by the girl of being a witch.
• Reverend Hale: An expert in the field of witchcraft, he is summoned to Salem to investigate rumors that have overtaken the town. However, he soon realizes that the witch hunting and witch trials are taking place on the basis of false accusations and tries to (unsuccessfully) reason with the town’s officials.
• Thomas Putnam: A prominent landowner in Salem, he is very influential. When the witch trials begin, he stokes and then utilizes the hysteria to increase his own wealth and assets, which in turn gives him greater power. 
• Tituba: Parris’s black slave girl, she was among the girls discovered in the woods and was initially questioned about witchcraft. However, along with Abigail, she deflects the blame onto others. 
• Ann Putnam: She is Thomas Putnam’s wife and is obsessed with the idea that a witch is loose in Salem. She has lost seven children in their infancy, and her only surviving daughter seems to be in a coma.
• Francis Nurse: Another influential figure in town, he is viewed as an enemy by Thomas Putnam.
• Rebecca Nurse: She is Francis’s wife and is highly regarded in Salem. However, she is also accused of being a witch and is jailed with Elizabeth Proctor and Martha Corey. 
• Giles Corey: A Salem farmer, he is known to pick fights with people easily. As the witch trials spread, he accuses Putnam of using them to acquire wealth and is charged with contempt of court.
• Mary Warren: She is a servant in the Proctor household after Abigail was fired and is also a member of the latter’s group. Under pressure from John, she tries to expose the girls’ lies but is unsuccessful and rejoins them in their accusations.
• Herrick: He is Salem’s sheriff.
• Ezekiel Cheever: He is the court clerk for the witch trials.
• Judges Danforth and Hathorne: They preside over the witch trials.

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