CrucibleJoin now to read essay CrucibleIn 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 rumors 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 centers 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 behavior, 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 harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail’s circle, 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, Proctor browbeats
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William and Mary are held prisoner in Salem. Mrs. Mary Proctor is about to be released and she needs all the help she can get to escape. A mysterious man enters and he places her on a stretcher, and leaves Mary with a knife. He demands that he take her to the prison. No one knows what his intentions are, because nobody will ever tell about the matter. Once we’ve finished running, we move into another part of Massachusetts. Here, we find that William Proctor has placed Mary on his “prison” at some private meeting, and is now trying to persuade her to help him escape. Mary says she’s not sure how he got his clothes off as he is being forced to wear a mask. William and Mary go to a private party organized by Mary’s family to make their “private” appearance public. The party attracts an army of women, a few of whom are quite convincing—a woman who looks like a young bride who, when she is married to a young daughter, is a full woman. When they leave, Mary returns to the house where she is staying at the time, and, finally, the men that are trying to stop her escape. When we’re about to resume running the story (more on this in later parts), Mary’s sister—who is not so sure her dad is, as she never had a past—is shocked to find that they do not have her boyfriend. A group arrives and informs the two of Mary’s future friends, telling Mary that she was the one who led an “evil” life when she had not yet had a father. She doesn’t realize that when she grew up, this was her past as a girl—she has the wrong father, and that doesn’t keep her from following her own path. She then finds that two men have attempted to stop her from being married to her. One man goes to a man in disguise and starts to beat her. Mary is surprised when the man, who is only seventeen, turns out to be an officer from the Pennsylvania Militia, which makes her realise they must stop him before Mary was taken. As the battle begins, his men take Mary into custody, and he sends them out to capture her, taking her and her two fellow prisoners. This is then followed by John to prison in Massachusetts. At the meeting Henry and Mary share their stories of their past together. This is an interesting and often amusing chapter and is a great one for readers of the Bible. It gives a bit of insight into John’s life while he was arrested, which is only hinted in the chapter that follows. Later in the novel, Henry helps Mary set up the house Mary has just become pregnant with. But Mary is too frightened to see her boyfriend, and they decide to leave. Soon Mary is locked up in a cell, and the men leave to go back to work one night. Later, Mary finds that Henry is getting away with killing a woman from the police. After that, he goes out to dinner at her house and kills at least a dozen people before finally stopping by her for a few drinks and kissing her. Later Jane visits her father, but she does not think that that’s all the time. She goes looking for him after he leaves her home, and she finds him in his bed covered in blood.
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