The Crucible: Act 1, Part 1 Vocabulary and Concepts

A comprehensive 50-card vocabulary deck covering the key characters, historical setting, thematic concepts, and narrative details from Act 1, Part 1 of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Salem, Massachusetts

The setting of the play in 1692, characterized by a theocratic government, hard work, and pervasive church attendance.

1692

The year in which the events of the play and the Salem witch trials take place.

Reverend Parris

A grim, stern Salem minister suffering from paranoia who worries that scandals in his household will allow his enemies to drive him from his ministerial office.

Betty Parris

Reverend Parris's ten-year-old daughter who falls into an unmoving, unresponsive state after dancing in the forest.

Reverend John Hale

An expert on witchcraft from Beverly summoned by Reverend Parris to determine whether Betty is bewitched.

Abigail Williams

Reverend Parris's niece who was fired by Elizabeth Proctor, danced in the forest, drank blood to kill Elizabeth, and threatens the other girls with violence.

Tituba

Reverend Parris's slave who waved her arms over a fire, intoned unintelligible words in the forest, and was enlisted to conjure the dead Putnam children.

Running naked through the trees

The sight Reverend Parris believed he saw during the girls' late-night forest gathering.

Elizabeth Proctor

A local woman who fired Abigail Williams from her household and stopped attending church regularly to avoid sitting near a soiled woman.

Thomas Putnam

A wealthy, influential Salem man with bitter grudges regarding property and the thwarted ministerial candidacy of his brother-in-law.

Mrs. Putnam

The wife of Thomas Putnam who lost seven babies within a day of birth and sent her daughter Ruth to Tituba to discover their suspected murderer.

Ruth Putnam

The Putnams' daughter who becomes listless after being sent to Tituba to contact the spirits of her dead siblings.

Flying over a neighbor's barn

A rumor reported by Mrs. Putnam claiming someone witnessed Betty Parris performing supernatural flight.

Mercy Lewis

The servant of the Putnam family who comes to Parris's house and reports that Ruth Putnam seems better.

Mary Warren

The servant of the Proctor household who enters Parris's house in a breathless, nervous state fearing they will be labeled witches.

Drinking blood

The specific action Betty reveals Abigail took in the woods as a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor.

Arthur Miller

The playwright of The Crucible, who frames 1692 Salem as an intersection of private sins, paranoia, hysteria, and religious intolerance.

Moral laws and state laws

The identical legal codes of Salem's theocracy, meaning that any spiritual sin is prosecuted as a crime against the government.

John Proctor

A Salem farmer who despises hypocrisy and struggles with internal guilt over his past affair with Abigail Williams.

Rebecca Nurse

A respected, elderly Salem woman whose gentle presence calms Betty Parris and who attributes the children's condition to a temporary, childish fit.

Francis Nurse

A prosperous and widely respected citizen often called upon to arbitrate disputes, whose growing land holdings draw jealousy from Thomas Putnam.

Giles Corey

A feisty, wiry eighty-three-year-old farmer who challenges Reverend Parris over finances and church property rights.

Boundary and deed disputes

The ongoing, bitter disagreements over land ownership that create deep-seated friction and grudges among Salem's residents.

Hearing the Lord's name

The religious trigger during a psalm that causes Betty Parris to cover her ears, leading Mrs. Putnam to conclude she is bewitched.

Pretense and lies

The townwide hypocrisy that Abigail Williams claims John Proctor taught her to recognize beneath Salem's pious surface.

Parsonage deed

The legal property title demanded by Reverend Parris to secure his residence and prevent the congregation from dismissing him at will.

Firewood allowance

The specific six-pound expense disputed between Reverend Parris and church members over whether it was included in his regular salary.

Disputed timberland

A tract of forest harvested by John Proctor that Thomas Putnam claims through his grandfather's will despite Proctor having bought it from Francis Nurse.