Reading The Crucible

Does your teen feel on trial every time she's tested or tasked with analyzing literature? Here's a teen-friendly refresher course in the plot of Arthur Miller's classic play "The Crucible," as well as SAT vocabulary your teen can use to describe what happens for themselves.

Our play opens at the bedside of what is seemingly a very sick girl, Betty Parris. Betty’s father, the good Reverend Parris of the Puritan town Salem, Massachusetts, closely examines his daughter for signs of life, while his niece - and Betty’s friend - Abigail explains that it was the shock of being caught dancing by her father that has induced her coma-like state … and not witchcraft. Because here in puritanical Salem, accusations of witchcraft cause more deaths than any disease.

• Theocracy - Government that is guided by God
• Provincial - Lacking sophistication; narrow-minded
• Perdition - Damnation
• Callow - Lacking adult sophistication; ignorant
• Stringent - Strict or severe

What happened? Reverend Parris came across his daughter and her friends dancing in the forest late at night with the exotic Tituba. The moment she saw her father Betty swooned and has not awoken since. (This is a lesson to all those teenagers out there. They can’t punish you if you pretend to be unconscious!) He believes that she has been bewitched, and since he can’t question his daughter, Abigail is bearing the brunt of his investigation.

Unbeknownst to her uncle, Abigail had told all of the girls to keep their mouths shut about what was going on in the forest and admit only to the dancing. She opens her eyes wide and protests to her uncle that they did nothing wrong. Her uncle, suspicious of her innocent act, asks why she was fired by Elizabeth Proctor a few months ago, and why she has been unable to find work since. But Abigail has an answer for everything, and says that Elizabeth was simply overly demanding.

Reverend Parris has sent for Reverend Hale, the witch expert, to get to the bottom of his daughter’s condition, and leaves to check on his progress. John Proctor, husband to Elizabeth, arrives and speaks directly to Abigail about her childish behavior. Well, John tries to speak directly to Abigail about her behavior, but she interrupts by coming on to him. You see, Abigail wasn’t simply fired because she was lazy. She was having an affair with John Proctor, and his wife Elizabeth discovered it!

Reverend Hale arrives and joins Reverend Parris in questioning Abigail, who immediately cracks under the pressure, and says that Tituba called the devil and made her drink blood. They call for Tituba who passes the blame on the townspeople; she’s not working with the devil directly, but she knows the people who are… She starts a list, Abigail adds some names, Betty wakes from her coma and starts to chant names - pretty soon they have to send out for more paper.

• Histrionics - Theatrical displays; displays of emotion for effect
• Beguile - To delight by magic
• Fervor - Intensity of feeling
• Perjury - Telling lies
• Specious - False

The accused townspeople are brought before a judge and tried as witches. (Coincidentally, one of the people named as a witch is Elizabeth Proctor - that will make things convenient for Abigail, who is obsessed with winning back John Proctor.) But when John Proctor receives word that this wife will be brought before the judge, he tells his servant girl, Mary Warren (and good friend of Abigail), that she must expose the girls and their lies.

In the courtroom, the drama reaches its climax. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying, but the officials believe that she is only coming forward because her employer, John Proctor, has put her up to it. Meanwhile, Judge Danforth reveals to John that his wife’s trial will be delayed because she is pregnant. Proctor wants to save not only his wife, but all of the townspeople, so he pushes for Mary to testify.

As Mary starts to tell her story, the girls start to scream that Mary is using her witchcraft to cast a spell on them. Proctor exclaims that Abigail has only named his wife out of jealousy and confesses to the affair. (Can you imagine the murmur in that courtroom? Murmur, murmur…)

In order to verify Proctor’s story, the Judge brings in Elizabeth and questions her about the affair. In a completely misguided attempt to protect her husband, Elizabeth denies the affair. Abigail and friends continue to suffer from the “spell” that Mary has cast on them, and under the strain Mary screams out that Proctor is the one who is a witch! He is arrested, and the curtain falls!

Useful vocabulary in a conversation about the courtroom scene:

• Veracity - Truthfulness
• Vindicate - Prove right; remove blame
• Vilification - Blacken someone’s name
• Impugn - To oppose as false
• Denounce - To pronounce evil

The last act relates the falling action of the story. Interestingly, Mary has taken off with all of her uncle’s money and disappeared - probably with some boy in a fast car, or cart as the case may be. The accused witches are awaiting their fate at the gallows, and John Proctor is among them. Elizabeth comes to see her husband with a deal from the court - if he admits to being a witch his life will be spared, otherwise he will hang. (Seems a little backwards, doesn’t it?) Because he does not want to die without seeing his child, he agrees - but that is where his complicity ends. The court asks him to name his “fellow witches” but he refuses, eventually tearing up the agreement when they continue to interrogate him. Rather than incriminate an innocent person, he will go to his death at the gallows.