1. The Crucible By
Arthur Miller

2. Arthur Miller Born 1915 in New York City.
Miller saw stark similarities between the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy Hearings.
He refused to cooperate in the investigations of the House Un-American Activities Committee.
As a result of not cooperating with the committee, he was accused of being unpatriotic, and his career suffered severely for years afterward.

3. Literary and Critical Overview
The Crucible exposes the ignorance produced by mass hysteria.
Miller wrote the play as a response to the McCarthy investigations during the 1950’s of communism in the government.
The play’s main conflict centers around the rights of an individual versus those in authority.
The central theme of the play deals with an individual’s search for self-awareness and self-realization through commitment.

4. Senator Joseph McCarthy
Senator Joseph McCarthy headed the House Un-American Activities Committee.
He is responsible for falsely accusing many of Communism.

5. Salem, Massachusetts
Site of mass hysteria due to accusations of witchcraft.
Puritan community which attempted to “purify” the Church of England by stripping away much of the ritual, ceremony, pomp, and paraphernalia of the traditional church services

6. The Characters

7. Rebecca Nurse Rebecca Nurse is the wife of Francis Nurse. She is a
moral woman, and she
runs several charities. Her
husband’s enemies accuse
her of witchcraft. She
dies on the gallows because
she refuses to confess to
crimes she did not commit.

8. Francis Nurse Wealthy and influential man in Salem.
He is well respected and many people ask him to arbitrate their disputes.
He is involved in a bitter land dispute with the Putnam family. He also keeps Thomas Putnam’s brother-in-law from from being elected to the office of minister.
As a result of these disputes, his wife is later accused of witchcraft.

9. Martha Corey Martha Corey is Giles Corey’s third wife.
Her reading habits lead to her arrest and conviction for witchcraft.
She dies on the gallows because she refuses to confess to crimes she did not commit.

10. Giles Corey Elderly but feisty farmer in Salem.
His offhand comments about his wife’s reading habits lead to her arrest and execution for witchcraft.
He attempts to clear his wife’s name results in his own persecution by Hawthorne and Danforth.
He refuses to plead guilty even after he is subjected to torture.

11. John Proctor Elizabeth’s husband
Had an affair with Abigail when she was a servant in his house.
Hates hypocrisy, and his hidden sin causes him a great deal of moral anguish.

12. Elizabeth Proctor
Elizabeth Proctor is John’s wife. She is accused by Abigail of witchcraft because Abigail wants John Proctor to herself.
She is convicted of the crime of which she is accused, but her execution is delayed because she is pregnant.

13. Abigail Williams
Abigail is Rev. Parris’s niece, and was once the servant of the Proctor household. Elizabeth Proctor fired her after she found out Abigail was having an affair with her husband.

14. Abigail and Tituba Tituba is Rev. Parris’s black slave from Barbados.
She agrees to perform voodoo at the request of Abigail and Ruth’s mother. Parris catches her and the girls during a session which sparks the entire witch hunt craze.

15. The Judges Hawthorne - Judge who presides over the witch trials.
Herrick - The marshal for Salem
Danforth - The Deputy Governor of Massachusetts. He presides over the witch trials and is just as concerned about maintaining him image as he is about exposing sin.

16. Reverend Parris Minister for Salem.
He is a paranoid man who is hungry for power.
He is more concerned about his own reputation than his daughter’s and his niece’s souls when the first rumors of witchcraft first surface.
He quickly learns to take advantage of the witch hunt craze for his own personal gains.

17. Ann Putnam Thomas Putnam’s wife.
She has given birth to eight children, but only Ruth Putnam survived.
The other seven children died before they were a day old.
She is convinced they were murdered by supernatural means, so she sends Ruth to request that Tituba conjure their spirits in order to discover who murdered them.

18. Sarah Good Old beggar woman who is accused of witchcraft.
Here is her grave site. Notice that it says nothing about her except that she was hanged.

19. The Stocks
Many who were accused of witchcraft were detained in devices such as this, often for extended periods of time.

20. Public Execution
Often times, the entire town came out to view the “witches” trial and their execution by hanging.
The victims not only had to endure a horrible death, they also had to listen to the slanderous cries of their friends and neighbors.

21. THE END