The Crucible and Abigail Williams
The Crucible Act One Study Guide
Identifying Facts: 1) Where and when is the opening scene of the play set?
A small upper bedroom in the home of Revernd Samual Paris, Salum Massachusets Spring 1692.
2) Why is the Reverend Samuel Parris so distraught at the beginning of Act
One? What unnerves him about the report Susanna Walcott brings from
Doctor Griggs? Why has Parris sent for Reverend Hale from Beverly?
Because Betty would not wake up. The Doctor said he could not help, He doesn’t know what medicine to use or give. Paris saw the girl dancing naked.
3) What do we learn in the exposition of the play about the events in the forest? About Abigail Williams’s past connections with the Proctor family?
Abigail Williams put or wished for proctors wife to die. Abigail use to do service for the Procter’s household until she had an affair with john proctor.
4) What information about Thomas Putnam does Arthur Miller tell us in his expository aside? What does Ann Putnam claim in the play about her dead babies?
Thomas Putnam is a wealthy man and that the village should look or appreciate him more. Her baby’s were murdered by a women.
5) Before the arrival of John Hale, what are some of the subjects for petty disagreement among John Proctor, Giles Corey, Thomas Putnam, and
Samuel Parris?
They were disagreeing about the fire wood, and land.
6) What happens when John Hale interrogates Tituba? How does the atmosphere of the scene become hysterical at the end of the act?
At first tituba deneys she was using witch craft but then she admits to it and said she did use witchcraft. At the end the girls started listing people that are witches. Interpreting Meanings:
1) What is the meaning of crucible in the title of the play? What kind of play does this title lead you to expect?
2) Consider the stage directions that describe the physical setting of the play as the curtain rises on Act One. Together with the opening lines
Identifying Facts: 1) Where and when is the opening scene of the play set?
A small upper bedroom in the home of Revernd Samual Paris, Salum Massachusets Spring 1692.
2) Why is the Reverend Samuel Parris so distraught at the beginning of Act
One? What unnerves him about the report Susanna Walcott brings from
Doctor Griggs? Why has Parris sent for Reverend Hale from Beverly?
Because Betty would not wake up. The Doctor said he could not help, He doesn’t know what medicine to use or give. Paris saw the girl dancing naked.
3) What do we learn in the exposition of the play about the events in the forest? About Abigail Williams’s past connections with the Proctor family?
Abigail Williams put or wished for proctors wife to die. Abigail use to do service for the Procter’s household until she had an affair with john proctor.
4) What information about Thomas Putnam does Arthur Miller tell us in his expository aside? What does Ann Putnam claim in the play about her dead babies?
Thomas Putnam is a wealthy man and that the village should look or appreciate him more. Her baby’s were murdered by a women.
5) Before the arrival of John Hale, what are some of the subjects for petty disagreement among John Proctor, Giles Corey, Thomas Putnam, and
Samuel Parris?
They were disagreeing about the fire wood, and land.
6) What happens when John Hale interrogates Tituba? How does the atmosphere of the scene become hysterical at the end of the act?
At first tituba deneys she was using witch craft but then she admits to it and said she did use witchcraft. At the end the girls started listing people that are witches. Interpreting Meanings:
1) What is the meaning of crucible in the title of the play? What kind of play does this title lead you to expect?
2) Consider the stage directions that describe the physical setting of the play as the curtain rises on Act One. Together with the opening lines