The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Paper details:
*write about a character john proctor or Elizabeth Proctor or any other character* 1st paragraph – Thesis 2nd paragraph – 1st trait – Evidence(x2) – Later trait – Evidence(x2) – Why? (why did it happen?) 3rd paragraph – Big Picture – Connect to theme statement? – What do we learn from this character? 4th paragraph – Conclusion – Back to Thesis

44    The Crucible
TiTUBA: I love me Betty!
Hale; You have sent your spirit out upon this child, have you not? Are you gathering
souls for the Devil?
Abigail: She sends her spirit on me in
church; she makes me laugh at prayer!
Parris: She have often laughed at prayer!
Abigail: She comes to me every night to go and drink blood!
TiTUBA: You beg
me
to conjure! She beg
me
make charm –
Abigail: Don?’t lie!
To Hale:
She comes to me while I sleep; she?’s always making me
dream corruptions!
TiTUBA: Why you say that, Abby?
Abigail: Sometimes I wake and find myself
standing in the open doorway and not a
stitch  on  my  body!  I  always  hear  her  laughi
ng  in  my  sleep.  I  hear  her  singing  her
Barbados songs and tempting me with –
TiTUBA: Mister Reverend, I never –
Hale,
resolved now:
Tituba, I want you to wake this child.
TiTUBA: I have no power on this child, sir.
Hale: You most certainly do, and you will free her from it now! When did you compact
with the Devil?
Tituba: I don?’t compact with no Devil!
Parris: You will confess yourself or I will take you out and whip you to your death,
Tituba!
PuTNAM: This woman must be hanged!
She must be taken and hanged!
Tituba,
terrified, falls to her knees:
No, no, don?’t hang Tituba! I tell him I don?’t desire
to work for him, sir.
Parris: The Devil?
Act One
45
Hale:  Then  you  saw  him!
Tituba  weeps.
Now  Tituba,  I  know  that  when  we  bind
ourselves to Hell it is very hard to break with it. We are going to help you tear yourself
free –
Tituba,
frightened  by  the  coming  process:
Mister  Reverend,  I  do  believe
somebody else be witchin?’ these children.
Hale: Who?
Tituba: I don?’t know, sir, but the Devil got him numerous witches.
Hale: Does he!
It is a clue.
Tituba, look into my eyes. Come, look into me.
She
raises her eyes to his fearfully.
You would be a good Christian woman, would
you not, Tituba?
TiTUBA: Aye, sir, a good Christian woman.
Hale: And you love these little children?
Tituba: Oh, yes, sir, I don?’t desire to hurt little children.
Hale: And you love God, Tituba?
TiTUBA: I love God with all my bein?’.
Hale: Now, in God?’s holy name –
Tituba: Bless Him. Bless Him.
She is rocking on her kness, sobbing in terror.
Hale: And to His glory –
Tituba: Eternal glory. Bless Him – bless God…
Hale: Open yourself, Tituba – open yourself and let,God?’s holy light shine on
you.
TiTUBA: Oh, bless the Lord.
Hale: When the Devil comes to you does
he ever come – with another person?
She stares up into his face,
Perhaps another person in the village? Someone you
know.
Parris: Who came with him?
46    The Crucible
Putnam: Sarah Good? Did you ever see
Sarah Good with him? Or Osburn?
Parris: Was it man or woman came with him?
TiTUBA: Man or woman. Was – was woman.
Parris: What woman? A woman, you said. What woman?
TiTUBA: It was black dark, and I –
PaRRis: You could see him, why could you not see her?
Tituba: Well, they was always talking; they was always runnin?’ round and
carryin?’ on –
Parris: You mean out of Salem? Salem witches?
TiTUBA: I believe so, yes, sir.
Now Hale takes her hand. She is surprised.
Hale: Tituba. You must have no fear to
tell us who they are, do you understand?
We will protect you. The Devil can never overcome a minister. You know that,
do you not?
Tituba,
kisses Hale?’s hand:
Aye, sir, oh, I do.
Hale: You have confessed yourself to witchcraft, and that speaks a wish to come
to Heaven?’s side. And we will bless you, Tituba.
Tituba,
deeply relieved:
Oh, God bless you, Mr. Hale!
Hale,
with  rising  exaltation:
You  are  God?’s  instrument  put  in  our  hands  to
discover the Devil?’s agents among us. Y
ou are selected, Tituba, you are chosen
to help us cleanse our village. So speak
utterly, Tituba, turn your back on him
and face God – face God, Tituba, and God will protect you.
TITUBA,
joining with him:
Oh, God, protect Tituba!
Hale,
kindly:
Who came to you with the Devil? Two? Three? Four? How many?
Act One
47
Tituba pants, and begins rocking back and forth again, staring ahead.
Tituba: There was four. There was four.
Parris,
pressing in on her:
Who? Who? Their names, their names!
Tituba,
suddenly bursting out:
Oh, how many times he bid me .kill you, Mr.
Parris!
Parris: Kill me!
TiTUBA,
in a fury:
He say Mr. Parris must be kill! Mr. Parris no goodly man,
Mr. Parris mean man and no gentle man,
and he bid me rise out of my bed and
cut your throat!
They gasp.
But I tell him ?“No! I don?’t hate that man. I don?’t
want kill that man.?” But he say, ?“You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free!
I give you pretty dress to wear, and put you way high up in the air, and you
gone fly back to Barbados!?” And I say,
?“You lie, Devil, you lie!?” And then he
come one stormy night to me, and he say, ?“Look! I have
white
people belong to
me.?” And I look – and there was Goody Good.
Parris: Sarah Good!
TiTUBA,
rocking and weeping:
Aye, sir, and Goody Osburn.
Mrs.  Putnam:  I  knew  it!  Goody  Osburn  were  midwife  to  me  three  times.  I
begged  you,  Thomas,  did  I  not?  I begged him not to call Osburn because I
feared her. My babies always shriveled in her hands!
Hale: Take courage, you must give us all their names. How can you bear to see
this child suffering? Look at her, Tituba.
He is indicating Betty on the bed.
Look
at her God-given innocence; her soul is so
tender; we must protect her, Tituba;
the Devil is out and preying on her like a beast upon the mesh of the pure lamb.
God will bless you for your help.
48   The Crucible
Abigail rises, staring as though inspired, and cries out.
‘ Abigail: I want to open myself!
They turn to her, startled. She is enraptured, as though
in a pearly light.
I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for
the Devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw
Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Os
burn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop
with the Devil!
As she is speaking, Betty is rising from the bed, a fever in her eyes, and picks up the
chant.
Betty,
staring too:
I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the
Devil!
Parris: She speaks!
He rushes to embrace Betty.
She speaks! Hale: Glory to God! It is
broken, they are free!
Betty,
calling  out  hysterically  and  with  great  relief:
I saw Martha Bellows with the
Devil!
Abigail: I saw Goody Sibber with the Devil!
It is rising to o great glee.
PutNAM: The marshal, I?’ll call the marshal!
Parris is shouting a prayer of thanksgiving.
BETTY: I saw Alice Barrow with the Devi1!
The curtain begins to fall.
Hale,
as Putnam goes out:
Let the marshal bring irons!
Abigail: I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil!
BeTTY: I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil!
Abigail: I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!
On their ecstatic cries
THE CURTAIN FALLS
ACT TWO
The common room of Proctor?’s house, eight days later.
At the right is a door opening on the fields outside. A fireplace is at the left, and behind
it a stairway leading upstairs. It is the low, dark, and rather long living room of the
time.  As  the  curtain  rises,  the  room  is  em
pty.  From  above,  Elizabeth  is  heard  softly
singing to the children. Presently the door opens and John Proctor enters, carrying his
gun. He glances about the room as he comes toward the fireplace, then halts for an
instant as he hears her singing. He continues on to the fireplace, leans the gun against
the wall as he swings a pot out of the fire
and smells it. Then he lifts out the ladle and
tastes. He is not quite pleased. He reac
hes to a cupboard, takes a pinch of salt, and
drops it into the pot. As he is tasting again, her footsteps are heard on the stair. He
swings the pot into the fireplace and goes to a basin and washes his hands and face,
Elizabeth enters.
Elizabeth: What keeps you so
late? It?’s almost dark.
Proctor: I were planting far out to the
forest edge. Elizabeth: Oh, you?’re done
then.
Proctor: Aye, the farm is seeded. The boys asleep?
49
50
The Crucible
Elizabeth: They will be soon.
And she goes to the fireplace,
proceeds to ladle up stew in
a dish.
Proctor: Pray now for a fair summer.
Elizabeth: Aye.
Proctor: Are you well today?
Elizabeth: I am.
She brings the plate to the table, and, indi-cating the food:.
It is
a rabbit.
Proctor,
going to the table:
Oh, is it! In Jonathan?’s trap?
Elizabeth: No, she walked into the house
this afternoon; I found her sittin?’ in the
corner like she come to visit.
Proctor: Oh, that?’s a good sign walkin?’ in.
Elizabeth: Pray God. It hurt my heart to strip her, poor rabbit.
She sits and
watches him taste it.
Proctor: It?’s well seasoned.
Elizabeth,
blushing with pleasure:
I took great care. She?’s tender?
Proctor: Aye.
He eats. She watches him.
I think we?’ll see green fields soon. It?’s
warm as blood beneath the clods.
Elizabeth: That?’s well.
Proctor eats, then looks up.
Proctor: If the crop is good I?’ll buy George Jacob?’s heifer. How would that
please you?
Elizabeth: Aye, it would.
Proctor,
with a grin:
I mean to please you, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth –
it is hard to say:
I know it, John.
He gets up, goes to her, kisses her. She receives it. With a certain
disappointment, he returns to the table.
Act Two Proctor,
as gently as he can:
Cider?
51
Elizabeth,
with a sense of reprimanding herself for having forgot:
Aye!
She gets up and
goes and pours a glass for him. He now arches his back.
Proctor: This farm?’s a continent when you go foot by foot droppin?’ seeds in it.
Elizabeth,
coming with the cider:
It must be.
Proctor,
drinks a long draught, then
, putting the glass down:
You ought to bring some
flowers in the house.
Elizabeth: Oh! I forgot! I will tomorrow.
Proctor: It?’s winter in here yet. On Sunday let you come with me, and we?’ll walk the
farm together; I never see such
a load of flowers on the earth.
With good feeling he goes
and looks up at the sky through the open doorway.
Lilacs have a purple smell. Lilac is
the smell of nightfall, I think. Massachusetts is a beauty in the spring!
Elizabeth: Aye, it is.
There is a pause. She is watching him from the table as he stands there absorbing the
night. It is as though she would speak but cannot. Instead, now, she takes up his plate
and glass and fork and goes with them to the basin. Her back is turned to him. He turns
to her and watches her. A sense of their separation rises.
Proctor: I think you?’re sad again. Are you?
Elizabeth –
she doesn?’t want friction, and yet she must:
You come so late I thought
you?’d gone to Salem this afternoon.
Proctor: Why? I have no business in Salem.
Elizabeth: You did speak of going, earlier this week. Proctor –
he knows what she
means:
I thought better of it since.