1. Notes and Close Readings
The Crucible, Act II
Notes and Close Readings

2. ACt II Notes
John arrives home late in the day after working all day on his farm, and we learn his children are getting ready to go to sleep (three boys – told to Hale later).
The scene with John and Elizabeth is quiet, but tense, and a strained marriage is represented and it’s clear that a lack of trust exists.
The description of the home environment is barren and lacking life and warmth.
Elizabeth tells John that Mary Warren insisted on going to Salem to participate in the trial.
Abigail has gained a great deal of power through confessing and implicating others: “if Abigail scream and howl and fall to the floor – the person’s clapped in the jail for bewitchin’ her” (17).

3. She wants John to go to Salem to tell the court what Abigail told him: that Betty wasn’t bewitched, but John says he’ll think about it.
John is concerned that he doesn’t have proof of what Abigail said since no one else was privy to their conversation.
Elizabeth still distrusts her husband: “Why, then, it is not as you told me” (18).
He is frustrated that he is being judged and viewed as being dishonest: “You will not judge me more, Elizabeth” (18).
He wants her to look at herself and own behaviour before continuing to judge him: “Let you look to your own improvement before you go to judge your husband anymore” (18).
This conveys the “coldness” of the situation and of the chilly reception that Elizabeth gives John
John is displeased with Mary’s absence and berates her for not doing her job

4. Mary tells John and Elizabeth that Goody (Sarah) Osborne will be hanged. She is one of the first women to be accused by Tituba, and is found guilty of witchcraft. In Act I, we are told that she was Mrs. Putnam’s midwife for three of her children’s births.
Sarah Osborne did not confess and therefore will be hanged; Sarah Good confessed and will not be hanged (19).
Mary gives Elizabeth a puppet that she says she made for her while sitting in the court in Salem
Although John forbids Mary to go back to the Salem court, Mary clearly states that she must go there every day. It’s clear that the situation makes the girls feel important as Mary says: “I am amazed you do not see what weighty work we do” (20).
We also learn that Sarah Good, who is 60 years old, is pregnant, and won’t be harmed because of this.

5. Mary also now holds power over the Proctors as she says that she “saved [Elizabeth’s] life” (21).
This makes it clear that Elizabeth is now in danger: “Oh,…the noose is up”(21) and “[Abigail] thinks to take my place” (22).
Mary asks John to go speak to Abigail to tell her that it’s over between them and that he doesn’t have any feelings for her.
Rev. Hale arrives to tell the Proctors that Elizabeth’s name was mentioned in the court (23) and to investigate the allegations further.
Hale also tells them that Rebecca Nurse has been charged, despite being a pious, elderly woman

6. Close readings, section 1(p. 16-23), #1
Elizabeth: “The town’s gone wild, I think – Mary Warren speak of Abigail as though she were a saint, to hear her. She brings the other girls into the court, and where she walks the crowd will part like the sea for Israel. And if Abigail scream, and howl and fall to the floor – the person’s clapped in the jail for bewitchin’ her” (17).

7. Close readings, section 1, #2
Mary: (Innocently.) I never knew it myself before. I never knew anything before. When she come into the court I say to myself, I must not accuse this woman, for she sleep in ditches, and so very old and poor…But then… then she sit there, denying and denying, and I feel a misty coldness climbin’ up my back, and the skin on my skull begin to creep, and I feel a clamp around my neck and I cannot breath air; and then…(Entranced as though it were a miracle.) I hear a voice, a screamin’ voice, and it were my voice…and all at once I remembered everything she done to me” (19).

8. Close readings, section 2, #3
Proctor: “I…have no knowledge in that line. But it’s hard to think so pious a woman be secretly a Devil’s bitch after seventy year of such good prayer” (23).

9. Act II, second section
Hale is there to determine if the Proctors are good Christians.
When asked to recite the commandments, Proctor misses the commandment about adultery. He makes note that one of the Proctors’ sons hasn’t been baptized, and also questions whether John and Elizabeth believe in witches; Elizabeth states she does not (26).
Giles Corey and Francis Nurse arrive and tell the others that their wives have both been accused/arrested.
Rebecca Nurse has been charged with murder (of Mrs. Putnam’s babies)
Martha Corey has been deemed a witch because she reads books and because Walcott bought a pig from her, and it didn’t live long. Because Corey told Walcott that if he didn’t have the sense to feed his animals, he wouldn’t be able to keep many (alive), it is viewed as the reason that he can’t keep a pig alive for more than four weeks.

10. Clerk Cheever arrives with a warrant to arrest Elizabeth and to confiscate any puppets she has in her possession.
Abigail testified that Elizabeth harmed her (by using a voodoo doll and sticking needles into its stomach), and Abigail suffered pain and needles were found in her stomach. This is “proof”.
Elizabeth goes with Cheever, even though John protests and clearly shows that Mary gave the puppet to Elizabeth, and that Abigail was there when Mary sewed the puppet, Elizabeth is still arrested .
John tells Mary they must go to the court and she must tell the truth about Abigail (even though Mary says she can’t because Abigail will kill her…).

11. Close readings, section 2 of act II
Hale: Theology sir is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small (25).
Hale: “Man, remember, until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven” (27).
Elizabeth: “Why…! – The girl is murder! She must be ripped out of the world!
Cheever: “You’ve hear that, sir! – Ripped out of the world! You heard it! (29).