The Crucible In-Class Work

I. Characters in the Play
1. Reverend Parris:

• in his mid forties
  
• suspicious but religious - "He believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people & God to his side"
  
• over-sensitive & tetchy - "In meeting, he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door without first asking his permission"
• unamiable - "He was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them"

2. Betty Parris：

• Reverend's daughter at the age of ten
• probably ill beyond cure - "but his daughter does not stir on the bed"
  

3. John Proctor

• A rebel - "would rebel against, for he time of he armed camp had almost passed, the old disciplines were beginning to rankle"
  

4. Tituba

• a female slave Parris brought from Barbados
• frightened - "trouble in this house eventually lands on her back"

II. Background Information
Although some of the senses were dramatized by the author, the play was written based on historical facts. Most events were true & all the characters in the play have the same or similar references from the history.

The play took place in Salem, a small village in Massachusetts early in the year of 1692. The village people were extremely religious. "The people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies.” (p7) People were frightened by the rumors of the arrival of devil, so they began the ridiculous witch hunt, which a lot of people were hanged for witchcraft.

As the book said, "The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom. (p7)"