Tituba Confesses
This happens in Act I after the Abigail and Proctor scene and before Elizabeth is arrested. The characters involved are: Reverend Parris, Tituba, Abigail, Reverend Hale and Thomas Putnam.
I have chosen this moment in the play because this is the moment that starts off the whole story of the play.
After interrogation by Hale and Parris. In terror Tituba confesses to have compacted with the devil and pins the blame on the witches in Salem. It is dramatic because Tituba is so frightened and the Reverends are so excited that they are saving someone’s soul from the devil. This ends up in everyone getting worked up.
Tituba repeats most of the questions that Hale and Parris ask her in her answer:
PARRIS: Was it man or woman came with him?
TITUBA: Man or Woman. Was – was woman.
This shows that she is so nervous that she cannot speak or think clearly.
She repeats herself on numerous occasions: ‘There was four. There was four.’, ‘chicken blood, I gave she chicken blood!’. This is because she is both nervous and terrified by the ecstatic characters of Hale and Parris.
At the end of this scene Betty Parris wakes and joins Abigail and Tituba in naming women from the village. They are clearly taking advantage of the vulnerability of the two ministers, getting people they don’t like into trouble.
Abigail seizes her chance when “[ABIGAIL rises, staring as though inspired, and cries out.]” She is inspired because she realises that she can get other people into trouble. Cries out makes it seem more dramatic, as if Abigail is very excited. She rises to draw attention to herself. This also seems to wake Betty from her ‘sleep’ and she joins in with the accusations. She cries “I want to open myself!” meaning that she wants to come clean with the ministers and tell the ‘truth’.
After Abigail cries out “[They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though in a pearly light]”. ‘she is enraptured’ means she has intense delight and is focused. ‘as though in a pearly light’ might mean that an invisible light surrounds her – making her more obtrusive than the other characters.
Hale seems more relaxed with Tituba, and tell her that ‘You are God’s instrument put into our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us.’ Then ‘you are chosen to cleanse our village.’ He is trying to calm her down, as by this point she is hysteric – ‘[She is rocking on her knees, sobbing in terror]’ He is calming her down so he can interrogate her further about who was with the devil.
I think that this scene shows that the girls are quite clever by picking up the vulnerability of the ministers quickly.
Elizabeth Proctor is arrested.
This happens at the end of Act 2 just after Hale has been at the Proctor’s house testing them on the commandments. The characters involved are: Cheever and Herrick – men on the courts business, John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth – respected landowners throughout the Salem community, Mary Warren and Reverend Hale
I have chosen this moment because it is a moment that starts off other dramatic moments in the play, but is also a dramatic moment in itself, with strong emotions and arguing. This is also the moment that brings John Proctor into the spotlight of the play. It starts off the main story of the play is which John is trying to unlock the insularity of the court.
Cheever has a warrant for the arrest of Elizabeth Proctor. He has also been instructed to search the house for poppets. He sees one on the mantelpiece - it is Mary’s and she is sent for. Mary admits to putting the needle in the doll herself. It emerges that Abigail has had a needle stuck into her belly. Proctor rips the warrant and accuses Hale of being like ‘Pontius Pilate’.
Proctor says to Hale “Pontius Pilate! God will not let you wash your hands of this!” He is referring to the Roman governor of Palestine Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands in public after he had given the Jews to free Jesus (or another prisoner) – but they chose to have Jesus crucified. He didn’t accept responsibility and would not stop Jesus’ crucifixion so this was disrespectful to Hale. This also highlights a weakness of Hale – he has not got enough power to influence the court or doesn’t want to even though he knows that it is wrong.
At the end of this scene Proctor and Mary Warren are left alone:
PROCTOR: You will tell the court how that poppet came here and who stuck the needle in.
MARY WARREN: She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! Abby’ll charge lechery on you, Mr Proctor!
This shows how Abigail has control over the girls and shows Mary Warren’s knowledge of the affair between Proctor and Abigail. She has also told Proctor of how he will be wrecked in court by Abigail.
The stage directions in this section also show how intimidating Proctor could be: “[moving menacingly towards her]”, then “[grasping her by the throat as though he would strange her]”.
I think that this scene shows the weaknesses of that time – people were scared so believed anything that was put before them – especially if somebody got hurt.
Yellow Bird.
This happens in court just after Elizabeth had condemned Proctor as a liar at the end of Act 3. The characters involved are: Abigail Williams, The girls, Danforth, Hale, Proctor, Mary Warren and Reverend Parris.
I have chosen this moment because to me it has all the classic symptoms of any dramatic moment: emotional blackmail (with Abigail and the girls and Proctor and Mary Warren), anger, idiocy (the gullible nature of the judges) and a breakdown of one of the characters – Mary Warren cracks and tells the court of what Proctor has done to her.
This bit of the scene starts off with Elizabeth Proctor leaving the court after lying to save her husband’s name and Reverend Hale protesting that ‘it was a natural lie too tell’.
Abigail suddenly jumps up, points at the ceiling and screams “You will not! Begone! Begone, I say!” She apparently sees a yellow bird that has been sent by Mary’s spirit. The girls copy her, and repeat everything that Mary says, despite her protests. Mary goes over to the girls and then is comforted by them, saying the Proctor made her sign the devil’s book. Proctor is then arrested and removed from the court.
Abigail and the girls are repeating everything that Mary Warren says, making her get more and more upset and angry:
MARY WARREN: Stop it!
GIRLS: Stop it!
MARY WARREN [screaming at the top of her lungs, raising her fists]: Stop it!!
GIRLS [raising their fists]: Stop it!!
This also is helping the court to believe Abigail and the girls, and this belief is shown when Danforth says ‘A little while ago you were afflicted. Now it seems that you afflict others; where did you find this power?’ Danforth is totally convinced by the act of the girls.
Abigail’s complete control over the girls is shown when one of them (MERCY LEWIS) says ‘It’s on the beam! Behind the rafter!’ This control is what is convincing Parris and the Judges that they are not pretending.
Abby also seems to be having a convosation with this ‘bird’, she tells it ‘Envy is a deadly sin, Mary.’ She calls it Mary because it is apparently Mary Warren’s spirit.
I think that the purpose of this act by Abigail was to try and break Mary
Warren, making her turn against Proctor to save herself. It works as she suddenly has a turn of heart and a sort of fit and screams at Proctor ‘You’re the Devil’s man!’
