The Crucible Act I

From reading the introduction and Act I, I can already tell several things about this time in Massachusetts. Paranoia spread through the town at rapid speed, everything you said and everything you did was all watched closely and analyzed because there was always a chance you were possessed by the Devil. No one was safe and, as we said in class, betrayal was not uncommon by any stretch of the imagination.

I generally don’t like reading plays because they feel choppy but Miller uses notes and stage directions to make it read smoothly and cohesively. It’s ironic that we see in this opening scene that Reverend Parris’ daughter, Betty, is one of the girls accused of doing witchcraft. During this time, religion was the government and it was what people relied on in every aspect of their life, and the witch trials were really the first time religion was put to the test. You can see in the first act just how distraught Parris is that his daughter might have been participating in witchcraft. But, I don’t think he was really that worried about his daughter and her health, I think he really only cared about his reputation. He told Susanna, “Go home and speak nothing of unnatural causes” (9) and then pondered what he was going to tell people when they asked him about Betty.

When it was revealed that John Proctor and Abigail had an affair but that he no longer feels anything for her, it made me think that he was saying that because he didn’t want to be accused of being with a witch. I’m not sure it that is accurate, but it is an example of a betrayal that could happen during this time. Husbands and wives could turn on each other because one was accused, there were no limits. It was also interesting that an affair is already a betrayal between husband and wife, so it’s almost like “if you think this is bad wait until you see how other people betrayed their spouses”.

We know, looking back, that Betty was not possessed by the Devil when she collapsed at the sound of Jesus’ name and was instead, like Rebecca said, just an overwhelmed child who was ashamed of her un-Christian behavior and frightful of the punishment that could accompany her actions.

Act I laid the groundwork for the rest of the play by introducing issues that will continue to boil up and eventually overflow as well as some background knowledge about the witch trials that will be needed to understand the rest of the play.