| What was the setting? (date, place, movement style) | Salem, Massachusetts, 1692Theocracy—rule by God through religious officials |
| Who is the Reverend’s Parris’s daughter, and what is she doing in the beginning of the book? | Ten-year-old Betty Parris lies in an unmoving, unresponsive state. |
| Describe Parris | A grim, stern man suffering from paranoia. He believes that the members of his congregation should not lift a finger during religious services without his permission. |
| What was rumored to have happened to Betty? | The rumor that Betty is the victim of witchcraft is running rampant in Salem. |
| Who did Parris send for to consult about Betty’s condition. | He sent for Reverend John Hale of Beverly, an expert on witchcraft, to determine whether Betty is indeed bewitched. |
| What did Parris see in the forest? | he discovered Abigail, Betty, and several other girls dancing in the forest in the middle of the night with his slave, Tituba. Tituba was intoning unintelligible words and waving her arms over a fire, and Parris thought he spotted someone running naked through the trees. |
| How did Abigail react to Reverand Parris’s accusals. | Abigail denies that she and the girls engaged in witchcraft. She states that Betty merely fainted from shock when her father caught them dancing. |
| Why dose Parris fear? What dose he ask Abigail? | Parris fears that his enemies will use the scandal to drive him out of his ministerial office. He asks Abigail if her name and reputation are truly unimpeachable. |
| Who is Elizabeth Protector? What is her relationship to Abigail? | Elizabeth Proctor, a local woman who once employed Abigail at her home but subsequently fired her, has stopped attending church regularly. There are rumors that Elizabeth does not want to sit so close to a soiled woman. Abigail denies any wrongdoing and asserts that Elizabeth hates her because she would not work like a slave. |
| What did Abigail imply when Parris asked why no other family had hired her? | Abigail insinuates that Parris is only worried about her employment status because he begrudges her upkeep. |
| Why dose Thomas Putnam hold a grudge against Parris? | His brother-in-law was a candidate for the Salem ministry, but a small faction thwarted his relative’s aspirations. |
| What is the name and condition of The Putnams’s daughter? What did Mrs. Putnam claim about Betty? | Ruth, is as listless as Betty, and she claims that someone saw Betty flying over a neighbor’s barn. |
| Why did Mrs. Putnam send Ruth to Tituba? | Mrs. Putnam had seven babies that each died within a day of its birth. Convinced that someone used witchcraft to murder them, she sent Ruth to Tituba to contact the spirits of her dead children in order to discover the identity of the murderer |
| Who is Mercy Lewis? What did she report? | Mercy Lewis, the Putnams’ servant, drops in and reports that Ruth seems better. |
| One what condition did Paris agree to lead the town in prayer? | He refuses to mention witchcraft until he gets Reverend Hale’s opinion. |
| Who is Marry Warren? What dose she think will happen to the girls? | Mary Warren, the servant for the Proctor household, frets that they will all be labeled witches before long |
| What dose Betty do when she wakes up? | Betty sits up suddenly and cries for her mother, but her mother is dead and buried. |
| What dose Abigail tell the girls? | Abigail tells the girls that she has told Parris everything about their activities in the woods, but Betty cries that Abigail did not tell Parris about drinking blood as a charm to kill Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor’s wife. |
| What dose Abigail do to Betty after she talks about drinking blood? | Abigail strikes Betty across the face and warns the other girls to confess only that they danced and that Tituba conjured Ruth’s dead sisters. She threatens to kill them if they breathe a word about the other things that they did. She shakes Betty, but Betty has returned to her unmoving, unresponsive state. |
The Crucible: Act I (part i)
February 28, 2020