The Crucible by Arthur Miller

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.