The Crucible
Arthur Miller (1953)
“A play about a 1692 witch hunt that Miller wrote while he himself was being hunted — and they were trying to make him name names.”
Short Summary
In Salem, Massachusetts, 1692, a group of young girls led by Abigail Williams accuse their neighbors of witchcraft after being caught dancing in the woods. The accusations spiral into mass hysteria as the court — presided over by Deputy Governor Danforth — convicts people on spectral evidence alone. John Proctor, a farmer with a secret past affair with Abigail, tries to expose the fraud. His wife Elizabeth is accused. Proctor confesses to adultery to destroy Abigail's credibility, but the court ignores him. Faced with signing a false confession to witchcraft or hanging, Proctor tears up the confession and goes to the gallows, reclaiming the only thing left to him: his name.
Detailed Summary
Act One opens in Salem's tightly wound Puritan community in spring 1692. Reverend Parris, minister of Salem's church, discovers his daughter Betty catatonic after he caught her and a group of girls dancing in the woods with his Barbadian slave Tituba. Abigail Williams, his niece and the ringleader, ...