Plot and setting
Where the story takes place.
What is Salem, Massachusetts?
The specific commandment that John Proctor ironically forgets when questioned by Reverend Hale.
What is adultery?
The enslaved woman from Barbados who is the first person accused of witchcraft.
Who is Tituba?
A story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden political or moral meaning.
What is an allegory?
The total number of people who are physically hanged during the Salem witch trials in the play.
What is nineteen?
The year the Salem Witch Trials occurred, and the year The Crucible is set.
What is 1692?
The literary technique used when the audience knows Abigail is lying, but the judges believe her.
What is dramatic irony?
The wealthy landowner who uses the witch trials to accuse neighbors and buy up their land.
Who is Thomas Putnam?
The literary technique used when the audience knows Abigail is lying, but the judges believe her.
What is dramatic irony?
The action Abigail Williams takes at the end of the play to escape justice.
What is robbing her uncle and fleeing on a ship?
What the girls were actually caught doing in the forest in the beginning of the play.
What is dancing?
The animal Abigail claims to see on the courtroom rafters, pretending it is Mary Warren's spirit.
What is a yellow bird?
The deeply religious, gentle grandmother whose execution marks a turning point for the town's conscience.
Who is Rebecca Nurse?
The legal term for the oral lies Abigail spreads to ruin reputations in the village.
What is slander?
The final words uttered by Giles Corey as he is being pressed to death.
What is "More weight"?
The genre of government set up in Salem that merges church and state.
What is a theocracy?
The number of times John Proctor attends church per month, which the court uses against him.
What is once a month?
The local judge who assists Danforth and shows bitter prejudice throughout the trials.
Who is Judge Hathorne?
The specific word used in the play to describe the signed legal confessions of witchcraft.
What is a deposition?
The town that overthrew its court for similar witchcraft hysteria, making Salem's judges panic.
What is Andover?
The historical event of the 1950s that Arthur Miller’s play is an allegory for.
What is the Red Scare (or McCarthyism)?
The specific activity John Proctor is caught doing on Sundays instead of attending church services.
What is plowing?
The town marshal who turns to alcohol to cope with the guilt of arresting his neighbors.
Who is Marshal Herrick?
The type of evidence based on dreams and visions that the Salem court uniquely allowed as proof.
What is spectral evidence?
The fate of Reverend Parris after the trials end and the town turns against him.
What is being voted out of office and leaving Salem?