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,
