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IGCSE English Literature - The Crucible notes

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IGCSE English literature notes on ´The Crucible´ By Arthur Miller. Detailed plot overview, summary, and analysis of all acts - Act I, Act II, Act III and Act IV. The notes were written and tailored to the IGCSE / GCSE course but can be used otherwise - and are also compatible with IB and A level ...

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The crucible - Plot overview, summary, and
analysis

,Plot overview

In 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 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 Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and

expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds.

,The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying.

Danforth is suspicious of Proctor’s motives and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared

for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the

girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious,

Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor’s

claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty,

she lies to protect Proctor’s honour, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar. Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again

pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages

against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings.


The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighbouring towns, and Danforth

grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all of Parris’s money with her. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs

the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea:

he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess,

and the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the

confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale’s

desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch trials reach their awful conclusion.




What does the ending mean?

After having signed, then ripped up his confession, John Proctor declares that he cannot throw away his good name

in a lie, even though doing so would save his life. He chooses to die. As John is led away to his execution, Rev. Hale

begs Elizabeth to go after him to change his mind, but she refuses, saying that he finally has his goodness, and she

won’t take that away from him. The ending resolves the central conflict of the play: will John Proctor turn out to be a

good man or not? Throughout the play, John has made both good and bad moral choices. He tries to be a good

husband to Elizabeth. When she is in danger, he tries to save her, even sacrificing his own reputation to do so. But

we also learn that he had an affair with Abigail, and that even though the affair is over, John still looks at Abigail

“softly” from time to time. He is cruel to Mary Warren. He initially signs a confession even though he knows in his

heart that it’s wrong to do so, despite what Rev. Hale says. But in the end, John’s refusal to dishonor himself, even at

the cost of his own life, shows that he is ultimately a good man. The price of this goodness is death. As Elizabeth

says, he “have his goodness now” and she won’t take it from him.

, Act I – Opening scene to the entrance of John Proctor

summary

The play is set in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692; the government is a theocracy—rule by God through religious officials.

Hard work and church consume the majority of a Salem resident’s time. Within the community, there are simmering

disputes over land. Matters of boundaries and deeds are a source of constant, bitter disagreements.


As the play opens, Reverend Parris kneels in prayer in front of his daughter’s bed. Ten-year-old Betty Parris lies in an

unmoving, unresponsive state. Parris is a grim, stern man suffering from paranoia. He believes that the members of

his congregation should not lift a finger during religious services without his permission. The rumor that Betty is the

victim of witchcraft is running rampant in Salem, and a crowd has gathered in Parris’s parlor. Parris has sent for

Reverend John Hale of Beverly, an expert on witchcraft, to determine whether Betty is indeed bewitched. Parris

berates his niece, Abigail Williams, because he discovered her, Betty, and several other girls dancing in the forest in

the middle of the night with his slave, Tituba. Tituba was intoning unintelligible words and waving her arms over a

fire, and Parris thought he spotted someone running naked through the trees.


Abigail denies that she and the girls engaged in witchcraft. She states that Betty merely fainted from shock when her

father caught them dancing. Parris fears that his enemies will use the scandal to drive him out of his ministerial

office. He asks Abigail if her name and reputation are truly unimpeachable. Elizabeth Proctor, a local woman who

once employed Abigail at her home but subsequently fired her, has stopped attending church regularly. There are

rumors that Elizabeth does not want to sit so close to a soiled woman. Abigail denies any wrongdoing and asserts

that Elizabeth hates her because she would not work like a slave. Parris asks why no other family has hired Abigail if

Elizabeth is a liar. Abigail insinuates that Parris is only worried about her employment status because he begrudges

her upkeep.


Thomas Putnam and his wife enter the room. Putnam holds one of the play’s many simmering grudges. His brother-

in-law was a candidate for the Salem ministry, but a small faction thwarted his relative’s aspirations. Mrs. Putnam

reports that their own daughter, Ruth, is as listless as Betty, and she claims that someone saw Betty flying over a

neighbour’s barn.


Mrs. Putnam had seven babies that each died within a day of its birth. Convinced that someone used witchcraft to

murder them, she sent Ruth to Tituba to contact the spirits of her dead children in order to discover the identity of

the murderer. Parris berates Abigail anew and asserts that she and the girls were indeed practicing witchcraft.

Putnam urges Parris to head off his enemies and promptly announce that he has discovered witchcraft. Mercy Lewis,

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