The Crucible Quotes
Act 1
Reverend Parris
“Your name in the town - it is entirely white, is it not?” (Miller )[Parris to Abigail]
“They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.” (Miller ) [Parris is terrified that the rumors will make him lose his job, his reasoning for not jumping to witchcraft as a solution]
“I have a Harvard education.” (Miller ) [Rev. Parris using his education to express his frustration with his salary to Giles]
“Oh, Abigail, what proper payment for my charity. Now I am undone.” (Miller ) [Rev. Parris is frustrated with Abby because her behavior may cost him his position in the town, reveals he is more worried about his reputation that his family]
Thomas Putnam
“There is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark.” [Thomas Putnam is convinced there is at least one witch doing the devil’s work]
“How may we blame ourselves? I am one of nine sons.” (Miller ) [Thomas Putnam explains to Rebecca Nurse that he has no idea how he is the last of his family alive, his push to get others in the town to accept witchcraft as the only solution]
“That land is my bounds! You load one oak of mine and you’ll fight to drag it home!” (Miller ) [Putnam revealing his desire for land to Corey and Proctor]
Ann Putnam
“but I must! You think it’s God’s work you should never lose a child, nor a grandchild either, and I bury all but one?” (Miller ) [Talking to Rebecca Nurse]
“There are wheels within wheels in this village, and fires within fires!” (Miller ) [Good Putnam expresses to Rebecca Nurse that there are many things happening in the village and that she thinks her children’s deaths are part of a larger plot.]
“I sent my child - she should learn from Tituba who murdered her sisters.” (Miller ) [To Reverend Parris]
Reverend John Hale
“We cannot look to superstition in this. The devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone.” (Miller ) [To Thomas Putnam, Hale’s warning that the people of Salem should not jump to conclusions of witchcraft]
Tituba
“He say Mr. Parris must be kill!” (Miller ) [Talking about her being tempted by the devil, to Reverend Parris]
Giles Corey
“Wherefore is everyone suing everybody else?” (Miller )
“I have always wanted to ask a learned man— what signifies the reading of strange books?” (Miller ) [Giles asks Rev. Hale a question that he later regrets.]
Abigail Williams
“I have something better than hope, I think.” (Miller ) [Says this to John after he tells her there is no reason for her to be wishing for something to happen between them. She responds saying this to show him that something did happen between them and the should continue what they had]
“You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet!” (Miller ) [Speaking to John Proctor, expressing her feelings about the affair (professing her love for him)]
“I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion when ever I come near!” (Miller ) [Said to John Proctor, telling him she has not forgotten their affair, her reasoning why her love for him is not one sided]
“How to do you call me child!” (Miller ) [Said after John Proctor refers to her as ‘child’ and reaffirms to her that he is truly in love with Elizabeth]
“I will come to you in the black of night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” (Miller ) [Said to the girls who wanted to confess to witchcraft]
“My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!” (Miller ) [Said to Rev. Parris]
“It’s a bitter woman, a lying, cold, sniveling woman, and I will not work for such a woman.” [Abigail expressing her distaste of Elizabeth Proctor to Rev. Parris]
Mary Warren
“I just come from the farm; the whole country’s talking witchcraft. They be callin’ us witches.” (Miller ) [Marry warns Abigail that the rumors have begun to spread]
“Witchery’s a hangin’ error, a hangin’ like they done in Boston two year ago!” (Miller ) [Mary to Abby, Mercy, and the other girls in which she wants to come clean.]
John Proctor
“Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. I will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again.” (Miller ) [Said to Abigail Williams, refusing her desires. Admitting that he does still have feelings for her but cannot and will not act on it]
“There are many others who stay away from the church these days because you hardly ever mention God anymore.” (Miller ) [Proctor expressing his frustration with Parris to Putnam (also providing a reason why he stays home on Sunday)]
“Ah, you’re wicked yet, aren’t y’! You’ll be clapped in the stocks before you’re twenty.” (Miller ) [Proctor privately telling Abigail he knows all of this is a lie, realizing the real reason behind the accusations of witchcraft]
Rebecca Nurse
“They will run the Devil bowlegged keeping up with their mischief.” (Miller )
“There is a prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits.” (Miller ) {Rebecca telling Parris that she does not support the witch-hunt]
“I have seen them in all their silly seasons… I think she’ll wake when she tires of it.” (Miller ) [Rebecca Nurse to Putnams about the children]