The Crucible Act 1 Summary & Analysis
May 31, 2024
Published in 1953 as a critique of McCarthyism and the Red Scare , Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a nail-biting depiction of how paranoia leads to internecine violence. Even more crucially, the text illustrates the theocratic origins of modern American sexual mores. This article will provide a detailed summary and analysis of Act 1 of The Crucible. (If you’re looking for a movie version, I highly recommend Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal of John Proctor.)
All page numbers reference the 2015 edition of the text from Penguin Classics.
Summary of The Crucible, Act One (An Overture)
The play opens in the upstairs bedroom of Reverend Samuel Parris’ house. Parris is praying at the bedside of his daughter, Betty, who refuses to wake. Tituba, the woman enslaved to Parris, comes in to check on Betty. Parris yells at her to leave and continues to pray. Abigail, Parris’ niece, comes in to announce Susanna Walcott, a messenger from Doctor Griggs. Susanna tells Parris that Doctor Griggs can find no physical cause for Betty’s sickness. The tension mounts when Susanna tells him that Doctor Griggs suggested that he “might look to unnatural things for the cause of [Betty’s illness]” (18). Parris refuses to accept this and tells Susanna to go straight home and say nothing of “unnatural causes.”
Abigail tells her uncle that rumors of witchcraft are already spreading – there’s a crowd already downstairs in the parlor. Parris then shocks the reader by asking if he should tell the assembled crowd that he saw Abigail on Betty “dancing like heathen in the forest” (19) Abigail admits to dancing with Betty, but claims that that was all they did. Parris is skeptical and presses Abigail to admit what she has done. He adds that he has enemies in the community and that they will use any rumor of impropriety to drive him out of town. Parris then tells Abigail that he saw Tituba waving her arms and “screeching” in some “gibberish.” He adds that he thought saw someone running naked through the trees. Abigail steadfastly claims that they only danced – Tituba was merely singing “Barbados songs.”
The Crucible Act 1 Summary & Analysis (Continued)
Witchcraft is only one of Parris’ concerns. He asks Abigail whether her reputation in the town is “entirely white.” Parris is concerned because seven months previous, Abigail was dismissed from the service of the Proctor’s home. Since then, no one has engaged Abigail in their house. Furthermore, Parris has heard Goody Proctor call Abigail “soiled.” Abigail becomes enraged and claims that Goody Proctor and the other women want slaves, not servants. She ends her tirade by calling Goody Proctor a “gossiping liar.”
It’s worth pausing here to examine the intersection of witchcraft and sexuality. Parris’ primary concern is certainly witchcraft, but he’s also worried about the sexual purity of his niece, Abigail. These two themes are inextricably linked in The Crucible. Any deviation from the sexual mores of the time risks accusations of witchcraft. At the same time, sexual guilt drives people to accuse women of witchcraft. As Miller writes in his secondary narration, sexual sin functions as a fundamental mode of discipline in most societies (40).
Goody Putnam enters and immediately asks “How high did she [Betty] fly? (21). Mr. Putnam joins them and says that their daughter Ruth is sick as well, adding, “her soul is taken, surely” (22). We find out from Mr. Putnam that Parris has called for Reverend Hale, an expert in “all demonic arts,” though Parris asks that Mr. Putnam, “leap not to witchcraft.”
Summary (Continued)
Putnam will not be swayed. (Understandably, as the stage directions indicate that Mr. Putnam has “only contempt” for Parris. (23)) We then hear from Goody Putnam that she sent her daughter (Ruth) to Tituba to conjure the spirits of her seven dead siblings (they all died in childbirth). Though she knows it is a sin to conjure the dead, Goody Putnam believes that Ruth now knows who killed her siblings. Furthermore, she takes Ruth’s silence as evidence that some witchery is covering up the evidence. When Parris turns to Abigail for confirmation, Abigail throws Tituba and Ruth under the bus, saying that they were the ones conjuring spirits. Mercy Lewis, the Putnam’s servant, comes into the room to see Betty. Mr. Putnam gets Parris to go down to the assembled crowd and lead them in a psalm.
Then the s*** hits the fan. Now that Abigail, Mercy, and Betty are alone, they begin to speak freely. It turns out that Mercy was with Abigail, Betty, and Ruth in the forest. What’s more, Mercy was the one running naked through the trees. Abigail tells them what she told her uncle so they can keep their story straight. Mary Warren (described as “subservient, naive, lonely”) joins them in the bedroom. Mary was with them in the forest as well – Mercy thinks Mary’s ready to snitch.
Betty rouses briefly and makes for the window to fly. Abigail tries to soothe her, to no avail. To everyone’s shock, Betty reveals that Abigail drank blood to kill John Proctor’s wife. At this revelation, Abigail “smashes her across the face.” Betty collapses back into bed and Abigail turns to Mary and Mercy. Abigail then delivers one of the scariest threats I’ve ever read, telling them that if they breathe a word, she “will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you.” Their conversation comes to an end when John Proctor enters the room.
The Crucible Act 1 Summary & Analysis (Continued)
A momentary aside: It could rightly be claimed that all the chaos of the play, all the accusations, and all the deaths stem from John and Abigail’s illicit sexual relationship. At the same time, I want to foreground Abigail’s shortage of options and her lack of agency in this society. As a woman in a patriarchal theocracy, Abigail’s social mobility is contingent on her reproductive agency, an agency that can only be utilized through marriage. Once Abigail is “soiled” by John, her agency disappears. Her only option is to become his wife – a desire which leads to her drink blood in an attempt to kill John’s wife.
If it wasn’t already clear, John and Abigail had some sort of sexual relation while she was working in the Proctor house. When John arrives, Abigail flirts with him, hoping to rekindle their relationship. John rebukes her, saying that he “will cut off my hand before I ever reach for you again” (29). Just as John attempts to leave, the crowd downstairs can be heard singing “going up to Jesus.” At this moment, Betty begins to wail – her father, the Putnams, and Mercy rush to the room. Believing that Betty can no longer stand to hear the Lord’s name, Parris and the Putnams start to freak out. Rebecca Nurse (early seventies, white-haired) enters and walks over to Betty, who calms at her presence.
Summary (Continued)
Astonished, Parris and the Putnams ask Rebecca what she’s done. Rebecca replies that all children go through their “silly seasons” – the best thing is to wait and let them tire of it. She chides Parris for going in search of “loose spirits” – John voices his agreement. Mr. Putnam orders Parris to look for witchcraft – John protests. Putnam remarks that it’s strange John cares so much when he doesn’t bother coming to church. John says he doesn’t care for the content of Parris’ sermons – too much “hellfire and bloody damnation.” This is John’s mistake.
Parris now turns on John. He complains about his salary and his lack of firewood. John counters, pointing out that Parris is the first minister to demand the deed to the house. Enraged, Parris declares that “There is obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning” (35). Parris then suggests that John leads a “faction and a party” against Parris and all authority. John responds that he “like[s] not the smell of this ‘authority’” (35). Proctor spars with Putnam over the border of his land before he starts to leave.
As Proctor leaves, Reverend John Hale (expert on all demonic arts) arrives. Putnam and Parris start to list out symptoms of witchcraft before Hale stops them, saying, “We cannot look to superstition in this…The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone” (41). Parris tells of seeing Abigail dancing, Mrs. Putnam of conjuring the spirits of her seven dead babies. Hale notes it all and says that he “mean[s] to crush [the Devil] utterly” (42). At this development, Rebecca leaves with a note of resignation in her voice.
The Crucible Act 1 Summary & Analysis (Continued)
Hale begins to question Betty. When she fails to answer, he turns to Abigail. Abigail throws Tituba under the bus, claiming that Tituba tried to get her to drink some sort of Devil’s soup. When they call for Tituba, Abigail says Tituba made her drink blood. When Tituba starts to tell Hale about the charm (against Elizabeth Proctor) Abigail escalates her accusations, claiming that Tituba sends her spirit at night to make her do all sorts of things. Tituba denies it but Hale is unconvinced and orders her to free Betty. Parris threatens to whip her to death – Putnam says she should be hanged.
At this point, Tituba is in a bind. She can no longer deny doing something – Abigail has seen to that. If she doesn’t want to be hanged as a witch, she has to say that the Devil came to her and she rejected him. Consequently, when Hale asks if the Devil came to her “with another person,” Tituba knows that she has to start naming names if she’s going to save herself. Tituba claims that the Devil told her to kill Parris numerous times. Even more significantly, she says she saw Goody Good and Goody Osburn with the Devil.
The die is cast. Abigail now sees a way out for herself. Tituba has saved herself by claiming to have seen other women with the Devil. Abigail now pursues the same strategy, claiming “I want to open myself…I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand” (49). Betty gets in on the act. Between the two, they name Bridget Bishop, George Jacobs, Goody Howe, Martha Bellows, Goody Sibber, Alice Barrow, Goody Hawkins, Goody Bibber, and Goody Booth.
The Crucible Act 1 Summary & Analysis – Wrapping Up
Miller calls Act one of The Crucible “An Overture,” in that it introduces the themes and concerns that will play out over the course of the play. Act one presents the anxieties – sexual, supernatural, gender, and economic – that will destroy the lives of the people of Salem.
If you’ve enjoyed this article, I’ve also written on 1984, The Great Gatsby, Hamlet, and Brave New World.
Additional Resources
