As a result of amateur dabbling in the super natural by a group of adolescent girls in Salem Massachusetts in 1692. Many jails were filed with men and women accused of witchcraft. Twenty people were hanged. To understand this phenomenon, we have to remember that the inhabitants of Salem believed in witches and the Devil and believed the Bile had instructed them that witches must be hanged.
A West Indian slave called Tituba joined the girls, with her spells and beliefs. Mrs Putnam, seven whose children died on the nights of their births who were all males, and who sent her surviving daughter to Tituba’s gatherings to call back their spirits to name their murderers, Eventually the daughter of the minister (Reverend Samuel Parris) Betty Parris started to behave like a child, lying in trances and sometimes crawling around like animals with her cousin, Abigail Williams whose parents had been brutally killed in front of her by Indians. The only explanation for this was that the children were possessed by the Devil. In the court, hysteria seized the girls as they discovered their power in naming innocent people as accomplices of the Devil. The only witnesses to witchcraft were the children themselves. The only safeguard against evil of all kinds was felt to lie in a strict code of laws imposing conformity on all its inhabitation’s. In naming people, the girls were probably projecting their own guilt on to the innocent. One such innocent was Elizabeth Proctor who was married to John Proctor a local farmer, she was a very strong woman, and honest willed women. Her former housemaid, Abigail Williams, accused Elizabeth. Miller was particularly impressed by the testimony that Abigail Williams when confronted by Elizabeth she stretched out her hand, immediately Abigail cried out “ Her fingers, her fingers, her fingers burned”. Elizabeth’s husband, John Proctor, becomes the central charter in the play. He is called on to denounce his own wife, his friends and neighbours and finally himself, he goes through an ordeal by conscience, eventually accepting his own death rather that make a false confession.
At the beginning of the play, you find out that Abigail Williams and John Proctor have had a sexual relationship. Abigail is in the woods at the beginning with a slave called Tituba and some adolescence girls, who are there to call the Devil. Abigail drinks blood and try’s to put a spell on Goody Proctor. Her Uncle Reverend Samuel Parris sees this incident and when Parris confronts Abigail, Abigail denies everything (Act One Page 6 to 8) Parris also asks Abigail why she was discharge from Goody Proctor’s services as a housemaid. Parris then points out that Goody Proctor and John Proctor rarely attend church. “ She comes so rarely to church this year and John too, for she will not sit so close to something so solid” Abigail replies “ She hates me, uncle, she must for I would not be her slave, it’s a bitter women, a lying, cold, swelling women, and I will not work for such a women”. At this point the audience can tell that there is a lot of friction between Abigail and Goody Proctor, I think Abigail is jellies of Goody Proctor as John choose to go back to his wife and not to Abigail. She still thinks that her and John are an item “ Gah I’d almost forgot how strong you are John Proctor!” (Act One Page 17) Proctors idea is very different “ Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time, but I will cut off my hand before, I will ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of your mind we never touched, Abby” (Act One Page 18) Later in the play, Abigail accuses Goody Proctor of witchcraft, as Abigail was stabbed with a peace of wire. Later Reverend Hail visits the Proctor house to tell Goody Proctor that she is up for witchcraft, then he turns to John and ask him “ Why are only two of your children baptised”. He replies “ I like it not that Reverend Parris should lay his hands upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I will not conceal it.” Reverend Hail then asks John to recite the Ten Commandments. “ Thou shalt not kill (Counting on his fingers) thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not covet they neighbour’s goods, nor make unto thee any graven image. Thou shalt not take the lord in vain, thou shalt remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. He then pauses. Thou shalt honour thy father and mother. Thou shalt not bear false witness. He pauses again, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” (Act Two Page 54 to 55) He knows he has forgot one and nose what it is but then Elizabeth says delicately “ Adultery, John“ Cheever and his men come and takes Goody Proctor away as they find a poppet doll which Marry Warren gave to her, and as Abigail accessed Goody Proctor, she will remain in jail till her court case is due. Later John finds out that his wife is expecting a baby so she will not be tried until after the baby is born. John then meets up with Abigail in the woods and asks her to drop the charges she says no John the pushes her to the ground. (This is not in the written plat, but it has been added to the film of “The Crucible” Proctor then goes to the court to tell them about his affair with Abigail. The judges Danforth, Cheever and Hathorne called Goody wife Proctor to the stand, as she knows about the affair, when she is asked, “Has John ever committed the crime of lechery Answer my question! Is your husband a leacher!” (Act Three Page 91) Elizabeth’s reply is “No, sir” that was the first time that she had told a lie. After this, John himself is accused of witchcraft as he has only been to church three times in that year. When Abigail finds out that John is in jail she steels from her uncle and bribes the guard with 30 pounds for John and herself to go to Boston, but sadly in her case John turns down her offer and unfortunately is brought to her death, now the audience see she is the real villain and who the hero is (The choice is yours)
Not long, after the fever died, revered Samuel Parris was voted out from office, and was never seen or head of again.
The legend has it that Abigail William’s trued up later as a prostitute in Boston and died as a prostitute.
Twenty years after the last hangings the government awarded compensation to the victims still living and to the families of the dead.
Elizabeth Proctor married again, four years after John Proctor’s death.
