Putnam, Proctor, and Giles Corey argue with Parris about his salary and other expectations. Putnam is jealous of Rebecca because all of Rebecca's children are healthy, whereas Mrs. Ruth is the only Putnam child to survive infancy, and Mrs. Putnam asks Rebecca to visit Ruth and attempt to wake her. Prophetically, Rebecca warns Parris that identifying witchcraft as the cause of Betty's illness will set a dangerous precedent and lead to further problems in Salem. The well-respected Rebecca Nurse is visiting the Parris household and calms her. During their discussion, Abigail becomes angry with Proctor because he refuses to acknowledge any feelings for her.īetty wakes again and is hysterical. When Elizabeth discovered the affair, she dismissed Abigail. Elizabeth Proctor was ill at the time and Abigail took on more responsibility within the Proctor household. Prior to the opening of the play, Abigail worked as a servant in the Proctor home. John Proctor and Abigail talk privately about their former relationship. Betty wakes, and Abigail threatens the other girls with violence if they tell anyone that she drank blood and cast a spell in order to kill Goody Proctor. There is talk in the village of an unnatural cause.Ībigail warns her friend Mercy Lewis and the Proctors' servant Mary Warren, not to reveal that they were all casting spells in the woods. Putnam arrive and reveal that their daughter Ruth is also ill. The local physician is unable to determine the cause of Betty's illness. Around midnight the night before, Parris had discovered Betty, his niece Abigail, and Tituba, his black slave, dancing in the woods, causing Betty to swoon. The action begins in the home of Reverend Parris, whose daughter Betty lies unconscious and appears very ill. The Crucible shows how religious fervor fuels hysteria and leads to conditions that sacrifice justice and reason.The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692.
And if the devil is attacking your town, then ensuring that your neighbor is punished for selling you a sick pig suddenly becomes a religious necessity, a righteous act that protects the God you love and proves that you're not a witch or a devil-worshipper. Some citizens of Salem use the charge of witchcraft willfully and for personal gain, but most are genuinely overcome by the town's collective hysteria: they believe the devil is attacking Salem. In The Crucible, hysterical fear becomes an unconscious means of expressing the resentment and anger suppressed by strict Puritan society. Fear feeds fear: in order to explain to itself why so many people are afraid, the community begins to believe that the fear must have legitimate origins. The town of Salem falls into mass hysteria, a condition in which community-wide fear overwhelms logic and individual thought and ends up justifying its own existence. In The Crucible, neighbors suddenly turn on each other and accuse people they've known for years of practicing witchcraft and devil-worship.
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