"The Crucible" -- Vocabulary from Act 1

He believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God to his side.

Salem had been established hardly forty years before> To the European world the whole province wasa a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics who, nevertheless were shipping out products of slowly increasing quantity and value.

Salem had been established hardly forty years before> To the European world the whole province wasa a barbaric frontier inhabited by a sect of fanatics who, nevertheless were shipping out products of slowly increasing quantity and value.

Their creed forbade anything resembling a theater or “vain enjoyment.”

Which is not to say that nothing broke into this strict and somber way of life.

That there were some jokers, however, is indicated by the practice of appointing a two-man patrol whose duty was to “walk forth in the time of God’s worship to take notice of such as either lye about the meeting hous, without attending to the word and ordinances, or that lye at home or in the fields without giving good account thereof, and to take the names of such persons and to present them to the magistrates, whereby they may be accordingly proceeded against.”

That there were some jokers, however, is indicated by the practice of appointing a two-man patrol whose duty was to “walk forth in the time of God’s worship to take notice of such as either lye about the meeting hous, without attending to the word and ordinances, or that lye at home or in the fields without giving good account thereof, and to take the names of such persons and to present them to the magistrates, whereby they may be accordingly proceeded against.”

This predilection for minding other people’s business was time-honored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many of the suspicions which were to feed the coming madness.

It stood, dark and threatening, over their shoulders night and day, for out of it Indian tribes marauded from time to time and Reverend Parris had parishioners who had lost relatives to these heathen.

It stood, dark and threatening, over their shoulders night and day, for out of it Indian tribes marauded from time to time and Reverend Parris had parishioners who had lost relatives to these heathen.

Abigail: But we never conjured spirits.

Parris: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit?

Abominations are done in the forest –

A certain deference springs into him., although his worry remains.]

Parris, with dwindling conviction now: A precaution only.

They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.

Mary Warren, with hysterical fright: What’s got her?

He need not have been a partisan of any faction in the town, but there is evidence to suggest that he had a sharp and biting way with hypocrites.

In Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly – and a Proctor is always marked for calumny therefore.

I never knew what pretense Salem was, I never knew the lying lessons I was taught by all these Christian women and their covenanted men!

Gentleness exudes from her.

He defers to her.

Parris: It is agreed, sir – it is agreed – we will abide by your judgement.

Hale, with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit: Here is the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated.

Hale, with a tasty love of intellectual pursuit: Here is the invisible world, caught, defined, and calculated.

Does someone afflict you, child?

Hale: You cannot evade me, Abigail.

Hale, with rising exaltation: You are God’s instrument put in our hands to discover the Devil’s agents among us.

She is enraptured, and though in a pearly light.