Tituba leaves and Parris’ other daughter Abigail enters with SusannaWalcott who tell him that the doctor can fond no cure for Betty’s illness. Parris tells them he has sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, who will confirm or not that there is any witchcraft or evil in Betty’s illness. This creates a very tense mood because the audience is thrown right into the middle of the situation without knowing what has happened before, so the audience will be expecting the worse.
Susanna leaves, and Parris confronts Abigail about what happened in the woods, Abigail admits to her father of dancing in the woods but says there was no witchcraft involved, there was witchcraft but she denies all accounts of it, a theme that recurs many times in the rest of the play. Parris claims he saw someone running naked and he saw Tituba screaming gibberish, but Abigail denies this and says Tituba was just singing an old Barbados song. He then tells Abigail that there are rumours of her being corrupt and that Goody Proctor made her leave her service because of it, but she denies this and calls Goody Proctor a gossiping liar. This is the start of a long-running feud between Abigail and Goody Proctor, but the audience does not yet know what it is about. This accusation is the start of many and the tension that accusations create show that the village of Salem is not a village full of friends but rather, full of people who are trying to get each other arrested, and also there is another comparison to the McCarthy trials because all accusations are based on no actual relevance and no truth.
Mr and Mrs Putnam then enter and they tell of absurd tales of Betty flying over barns and they tell also that their daughter also has the same illness as Betty. So this creates a great worry and even more tension between the characters. They feel that this is getting really serious now and that witchcraft is surely involved.
Mrs Putnam then reveals that she sent her daughter, Ruth, to Tituba to find out who murdered their seven children, because Tituba claims to be able to speak to the dead.
This creates great tension between Mr and Mrs Putnam and Parris. Parris and Mr Putnam are horrified that she has sent someone to conjure up the dead, as this is seen as witchcraft. Also, Mr Putnam is a very well respected member of the community, this could ruin him.
Mercy Lewis then enters, and at this point there are so many people in the room, that there has to be tension, and that is a very clever technique, because the less people in the room, the less tension, but the more people in the room, the higher the tension is.
Parris and the Putnam’s leave, and then Mary Warren enters. These girls gather round Abigail and she tells them that they have been discovered dancing in the woods. At this point Betty jumps up and runs towards the window screaming,
“I’ll fly to mama, let me fly.”
This is in reference to the Putnam’s saying she had been flying.
Betty then shows that she has been listening to what they have been saying and remembers everything that happens, Abigail says,
“I told him everything; he knows now, he knows everything we…”
But Betty interrupts her,
“You drank blood Abby…You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!”
Abigail then increases the tension dramatically when she says she will hurt them if they tell of anything,
“Let either of you breathe 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.”
Betty then collapses and lies inert on the bed.
John Proctor then enters and orders Mercy and Mary to go away. This then leaves him alone with Abigail, apart from Betty. Abigail talks provocatively about their affair, but John says,
“I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.”
Singing of a psalm is heard below, and Betty jumps up screaming. The tension before this had been dropped low, and now it has just shot up, this technique would be caused to give the audience a fright.
The people of the town rush in and presume that because she is possessed by the devil, she cannot bear to hear the psalms.
“The psalm! The psalm! He cannot bear to hear the Lord’s name!”
Rebecca Nurse and Giles Corey enter, this creates tension with Thomas Putnam, because he bears a grudge against the Nurse family because they prevented his brother in law from becoming minister.
An argument between Putnam, Proctor and Giles about wood taken from Putnam’s land, and this will become the root for Giles Corey becoming accused of witchcraft later in the play.
The tension between Proctor and Parris then escalates because Parris accuses Proctor of being behind everything because he has not been to church lately but Proctor claims that there is no need to go, for Parris never mentions God anymore. Parris warns that there must be obedience or the church will burn like Hell, but Proctor asks if he can speak one minute without mentioning Hell.
The Reverend John Hale of Beverly then enters with several heavy books, Proctor leaves, and Giles Corey asks him what reading strange books signifies, because he has caught his wife reading them. But Hale tells him to speak to him later.
Hale and Parris then question Abigail, and she says that a frog jumped in the soup they were making, this causes great distress to everyone, and again the tension is increased. After this, Abigail blames Tituba.
Tituba is then subject to an onslaught of questions and accusations, which are trying to break her spirit. Realising the only way she is going to get out of this alive is if she confesses to being connected to the Devil. But, as with all the people in Salem, she gets other people involved. She tells them Goody Osburn and Goody Good were also advocates of the devil.
Realising that she can also get out of the trouble she is on, Abigail confesses to being possessed and accuses more people,
“I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”
At this moment all the girls in the room start saying the same, and Betty wakes up and calls out,
“I saw Martha Bellows with the Devil!”
Everyone is so relieved that these children have repented, and there is great glee among the girls that they have got away with what they did.
In conclusion, I think that the main technique Miller uses in The Crucible is the adding and taking away of people to the room. If he puts two people in who don’t like each other then the tension increases, but if there are two people in love, or who are friends, the tension is lowered.
