Area of Study; JusticeJoin now to read essay Area of Study; JusticeIn the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris’s daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumours of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls’ ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris’s niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond “dancing.”
While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor’s home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls.
Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. This dispute centres on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls’ activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behaviour, and demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar.
A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harbouring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail’s circles, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her,
In response to their growing doubts, the Proctor’s father goes to St. Michael’s to pick up their belongings. He finds them on their way home, a note by their mother informing him of their arrest. When questioned by St. Michael’s, the boy is described as “very scared” by the description and he tells the court that “the family were quite concerned”. The police interrogate Father Gregory, the father of Mary’s two children, but he doesn’t tell St. Michael that, for fear of being branded a witch, as he already knew they had been. The following morning, the Proctor, whose father is also a former minister, is informed that his wife is a witch and he, along with his wife, has been arrested. Henry Hines, the Rev. C.S. of St. Michael’s and a witness in the family case, returns to the Proctor’s house to confront the young man. C.S. also believes that the Proctor has been mistreated by the police.
The Proctor, Elizabeth Proctor. (Mary Warren, 1873). Source: [1]
On the 28th of May, 2015, William Joseph Proctor (1444 – 1440) and his wife Evelyn married after two decades of marriage. William came to England in 1439 after his mother died, leaving his brothers, Joseph and Emily, to raise Mary, her youngest daughter Mary II. William went to Oxford, where they were married on 1 June 1453. Mary was raised by her sister Evelyn as Catherine’s second wife after her husband, and married her in 1387. The Proctor’s first son, Thomas, was born in 1479; Thomas was born in 1478 and is described as a “wise and pious man”, and is described as having a “dreadful, wise tongue”, “a good and intelligent disposition”, “a strong and good sense of taste”, and “good and virtuous temper and character”. This son was also named after Edward the Apostle who was the third son of John the Baptist. The second son of Thomas was called Edward in 1499, who became a citizen of Spain on 1 March 1520, but subsequently died of natural causes.
John Proctor (John Hines, 1683). Source: [2]
Joseph Proctor and Mary Proctor moved from London to Oxford on 8 June 1463. He was of Irish descent and was known throughout England and Scotland as the Prophet Jeremiah. Mary was born in Plymouth on 6 December 1464, and William had to return to England to marry him. John Hines was their eldest son and the oldest of the seven children of Joseph, the second of whom was Mary Elizabeth of Lancaster (b. 1648). John Hines married Mary, daughter of Andrew. He married Mary in early 1522, when they adopted their first child – his second child was Mary’s second child and the boy was named Mary after him. Joseph moved from West Sussex to York and Mary married to him in 1483. He did so on 10 September 1492; though, he was dismissed from the colony of Plymouth and died that November 1494; the Proctor took responsibility for his death when he learned of their passing.
Mary Proctor (Mary Charles Proctor