The Fable
The Crucible begins in the house of Reverend Parris by his daughter, Betty’s, bedside. Betty, a young lady of 13 years old, has not awoken since the previous night when her father happened upon her and some other young girls dancing naked in the woods with Tituba, a slave woman of Parris from Barbados. Parris has sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly to come check out the status of his daughter for fear that she has been put under the power of the Devil. Abigail, Parris’ niece, enters and he confronts her with the information of the night before. Abigail, 17, denies it and says they were just having fun. As Parris exits, Abby shakes and hits Betty in hopes of waking her up… She does awaken then goes right back into her state of silence. Townspeople show up including the Putnams, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor all stating that it has something to do with witchcraft. Eventually, Betty wakes up again and attempts to fly out the window. The scene ends with the arrival of Reverend Hale and his assumptions of what has happened to the young girl.
The second act begins in the house of John Proctor. His wife, Elizabeth, has been waiting his return. They talk and discuss the happenings of what’s been going on in town for the past few days. Mary Warren shows up with a poppet (voo-doo doll) that she has made while spending a day in court and gives it to Elizabeth. Mary is dismissed to go to bed. Reverend Hale comes to speak to John and begins to think that the Proctor family may be involved in witchcraft. They spent months away from church, and John cannot remember all of the commandments. In the middle of that conversation, Cheever comes to take Elizabeth away to jail. He finds the poppet and to John’s dismay, drags Elizabeth into prison with the other men and women accused of being witches.
Eventually, many of the people in town are accused of being witches including Giles Corey, Rebecca Nurse, and John Proctor. They are all put in jail and awaiting trial. As the trial approaches, some of the accused falsely confess and others keep their mouths shut. When the town finds out that Elizabeth is pregnant- they decide to let her live. John is not so lucky. His trial goes awry with all of the young women claiming that he has witched them. Abigail is leading the fake crusade… Elizabeth is the last to testify on John’s behalf. They decide to let him off if he will sign the government paper confessing to witchcraft. He does not.
The play ends with the death of John Proctor.
The Plot Summary
In the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls goes dancing in the forest with a black slave named Tituba. While dancing, they are caught by the local minister, Reverend Parris. One of the girls, Parris’s daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state. A crowd gathers in the Parris home while rumors of witchcraft fill the town. Having sent for Reverend Hale, an expert on witchcraft, Parris questions Abigail Williams, the girls’ ringleader, about the events that took place in the forest. Abigail, who is Parris’s niece and ward, admits to doing nothing beyond “dancing.”
While Parris tries to calm the crowd that has gathered in his home, Abigail talks to some of the other girls, telling them not to admit to anything. John Proctor, a local farmer, then enters and talks to Abigail alone. Unbeknownst to anyone else in the town, while working in Proctor’s home the previous year she engaged in an affair with him, which led to her being fired by his wife, Elizabeth. Abigail still desires Proctor, but he fends her off and tells her to end her foolishness with the girls.
Betty wakes up and begins screaming. Much of the crowd rushes upstairs and gathers in her bedroom, arguing over whether she is bewitched. A separate argument between Proctor, Parris, the argumentative Giles Corey, and the wealthy Thomas Putnam soon ensues. This dispute centers on money and land deeds, and it suggests that deep fault lines run through the Salem community. As the men argue, Reverend Hale arrives and examines Betty, while Proctor departs. Hale quizzes Abigail about the girls’ activities in the forest, grows suspicious of her behavior, and demands to speak to Tituba. After Parris and Hale interrogate her for a brief time, Tituba confesses to communing with the devil, and she hysterically accuses various townsfolk of consorting with the devil. Suddenly, Abigail joins her, confessing to having seen the devil conspiring and cavorting with other townspeople. Betty joins them in naming witches, and the crowd is thrown into an uproar.
A week later, alone in their farmhouse outside of town, John and Elizabeth Proctor discuss the ongoing trials and the escalating number of townsfolk who have been accused of being witches. Elizabeth urges her husband to denounce Abigail as a fraud; he refuses, and she becomes jealous, accusing him of still harboring feelings for her. Mary Warren, their servant and one of Abigail’s circle, returns from Salem with news that Elizabeth has been accused of witchcraft but the court did not pursue the accusation. Mary is sent up to bed, and John and Elizabeth continue their argument, only to be interrupted by a visit from Reverend Hale. While they discuss matters, Giles Corey and Francis Nurse come to the Proctor home with news that their wives have been arrested. Officers of the court suddenly arrive and arrest Elizabeth. After they have taken her, Proctor browbeats Mary, insisting that she must go to Salem and expose Abigail and the other girls as frauds.
The next day, Proctor brings Mary to court and tells Judge Danforth that she will testify that the girls are lying. Danforth is suspicious of Proctor’s motives and tells Proctor, truthfully, that Elizabeth is pregnant and will be spared for a time. Proctor persists in his charge, convincing Danforth to allow Mary to testify. Mary tells the court that the girls are lying. When the girls are brought in, they turn the tables by accusing Mary of bewitching them. Furious, Proctor confesses his affair with Abigail and accuses her of being motivated by jealousy of his wife. To test Proctor’s claim, Danforth summons Elizabeth and asks her if Proctor has been unfaithful to her. Despite her natural honesty, she lies to protect Proctor’s honor, and Danforth denounces Proctor as a liar. Meanwhile, Abigail and the girls again pretend that Mary is bewitching them, and Mary breaks down and accuses Proctor of being a witch. Proctor rages against her and against the court. He is arrested, and Hale quits the proceedings.
The summer passes and autumn arrives. The witch trials have caused unrest in neighboring towns, and Danforth grows nervous. Abigail has run away, taking all of Parris’s money with her. Hale, who has lost faith in the court, begs the accused witches to confess falsely in order to save their lives, but they refuse. Danforth, however, has an idea: he asks Elizabeth to talk John into confessing, and she agrees. Conflicted, but desiring to live, John agrees to confess, and the officers of the court rejoice. But he refuses to incriminate anyone else, and when the court insists that the confession must be made public, Proctor grows angry, tears it up, and retracts his admission of guilt. Despite Hale’s desperate pleas, Proctor goes to the gallows with the others, and the witch trials reach their awful conclusion.
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