The Crucible Study Guide Final

Reverend Parris’ niece, has an affair with John Proctor, scares the girls into lying

Abigail Williams

Minister of Salem’s church, power hungry and wants to protect his own name, Betty’s father and Abigail’s uncle

Reverend Parris

Reverend Parris’ slave from Barbados, is accused of witchcraft first and jailed

Tituba

Married to Elizabeth Proctor and wants to protect her, had an affair with Abigail, more rational than the other characters, is killed in the end so he can keep his name clean,

John Proctor

married to John Proctor, is targeted by Abigail, and is accused of witchcraft, is pregnant so she does not get hanged

Elizabeth Proctor

Proctor’s current servant, fearful of Abigail, tries to tell the truth but her fear of Abigail stops it

Mary Warren

Supposed expert on witchcraft from out of town, forces the girls into confessing to witchcraft but then becomes more rational, later tells people to confess so they don’t hang

Reverend Hale

Prominent family in Salem, daughter (Ruth) fell ill, they have lost seven children and blames Sarah Osburn, Giles says that they accused people of witchcraft to put them in jail and take their land,

Mr Thomas and Mrs Ann Putnam

Elderly farmers in Salem, rational, Martha is accused, and he fights to get her free and is killed because he won’t reveal his source

Giles Corey and Martha Corey 

The judges presiding over the witch trials, they do not want the theocracy of Salem to be undermined

Judge Danforth and Judge Hathorne 

The 1950s Red Scare/McCarthyism

The Salem Witch trials are used as a symbol for what?

What is supposed to be shown through the play?

It shows the effects of mob mentality, mass hysteria, and unreasonable fear.

Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, the government is a theocracy (which means church and state are not separated).

What is the setting of the play?

T/F Act One begins tense, but then lightens up

False, it begins light and becomes tense

T/F Abigails behavior can be described as controlling and manipulative

True

What best describes the villagers in Act One

irrational, judgemental

Why does Parris not want to tell people that someone in his house is bewitched?

He feels his enemies will destroy his reputation

“My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!”

Abigail

“Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies unbaptized in the earth.”

Mrs. Putnam

“I have trouble enough without I come five mile to hear him preach only hellfire and bloody damnation.”

John Proctor

“I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.”

John Proctor

“Let either of you breath a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.”

Abigail

Tragic Hero

A protagonist with a fatal flaw which eventually leads to his demise. (John Proctor)

In act one, Reverend Parris calls ______ from out of town to try to cure Betty. ____ is an “expert on witches.” ___ begins to question those involved. It gets very intense as he forces them into a confession.

Reverend Hale

In act one, _____ admits to this accusation so she won't get in trouble, and then she accuses Sarah Osburn and Sarah Good.

Tituba

Where does the beginning of Act Two take place?

The Proctor House

Who gives Elizabeth Proctor a poppet at the beginning of Act Two?

Mary Warren

Hale visits the Proctor house in Act Two, what does he ask John and Elizabeth to do?

List the Ten Commandments. John forgets the one concerning adultery.

In Act Two, when Hale comes to visit the Proctors, John tells Hale that ____ told him that the illnesses had nothing to do with witchcraft.

Abigail

At the end of Act two, Ezekial Cheever and Herrick (the town marshal) enter with a warrant for ____ arrest.

Elizabeth’s

John tells Mary she has to testify so Elizabeth can come home, but she says no because ____ would be angry with her.

Abigail

How does Mary’s statement change from the beginning of Act Three to the end?

Mary first comes in and tells the truth, but because Abigail scares her, she lies and tells the court that John Proctor was with the devil.

What do we find out about Elizabeth in Act Three that will delay her hanging for a year?

She is pregnant.

In Act Three, John says that Abigail is lying and tells the court about their affair and that she is seeking revenge. They bring Elizabeth out to verify it, but she _______. 

Lies and she says that they did not have an affair.

What does Reverend Hale do at the end of Act Three?

He quits the court.

Elizabeth lies about the affair to_____.

Protect John’s name.

“I’ll tell you whats walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what always were in Salem, but how the crazy little children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law.”

John Proctor

At the beginning of Act Four, Danforth and Harthrone return to Salem to ask Parris why ______ has also returned. Parris informs them that ______ has returned to tell those accused to confess so they can live.

Reverend Hale

Why does Parris want to postpone the hangings in Act Four?

He was threatened, and he knows the townspeople do not want to see them hanged.

____ runs away with Mercy in act four.

Abigail

What does Abigail do to scare the court in Act Three?

She claims to see a bird, which is Mary’s spirit, and says it is attacking her. She also begins to mimic everything Mary says.

T/F Danforth does not want the hanging to be postponed because then people would question the integrity of the court.

True

Who does Hale summon to get John Proctor to confess in act four?

Elizabeth Proctor

T/F Elizabeth states that it is John’s decision whether to confess, and she tells him that she has forgiven him for the affair.

True

T/F Giles Corey lives through the end.

False, he is pressed by stones.

“More weight.”

Giles Corey’s last words.

John confesses, but he ______ to name any others.

resfuses

Why does John rip up the paper and recant his confession in act four?

He does not want Danforth to post his name on the church door, and have his name ruined.

What is John Proctor’s tragic flaw?

He wants to protect his own name. He has much pride in himself and his reputation.

“Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!”

John Proctor

“It is her dearest hope, John, I know it. There be a thousand names; why does she call mine? There be a certain danger in calling such a name – I am no Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osburn, drunk and half-witted. She’d dare not call out such a farmer’s wife but there be monstrous profit in it. She thinks to take my place, John.”

Elizabeth Proctor

“It is not my soul, John, it is yours. Only be sure of this, for I know it no Whatever you will do, it is a good man does it. I have read my own heart this three month, John. I have sins of my own to count. It needs a cold wife to prompt lechery… I counted myself so plain, so poorly made, no honest love could come to me! Suspicion kissed you when I did; I never knew how I should say my love.”

Elizabeth Proctor

“You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time – we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God’s grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not light will surely praise it.”

Danforth

“I will not, I cannot! You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!”

Abigail

“A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, I beg you—see her what she is. . . . She thinks to dance with me on my wife’s grave! And well she might, for I thought of her softly. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat.”

John Proctor

“I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess.”

Reverend Hale

Tragedy

A genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. 

Simile

A simile is a comparison between two things using like or as.

Metaphor

A metaphor asserts that two things are identical in comparison rather than “like” (a simile). The comparison is always abstract and between two unlike things.

Irony

A literary device in which the author makes a contrast between appearance and reality, usually one in which reality is the opposite of what it seems

Personification

the attribution of a human characteristic to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.