The Crucible: Act One

by Arthur Miller
This scathing dramatization of the Salem Witch Trials is also an allegory of Senator Joseph McCarthy's pursuit of Communists in the 1950s.

Here are the links to our lists for the play: Act One, Act Two, Act Three, Act Four–Echoes Down the Corridor
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. predilection
    a predisposition in favor of something
    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.
  2. manifestation
    a public display of group feelings
    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.
  3. injunction
    a formal command or admonition
    Long-held hatreds of neighbors could now be openly expressed, and vengeance taken, despite the Bible’s charitable injunctions.
    "Jungere" means "to join" — this Latin root can be seen more clearly in words such as "junction" and "conjunction" but it is hinted at here, since the "injunctions" described are those that are charitable and that should keep neighbors joined in peaceful harmony. However, the example sentence focuses on the breaking of commands and rules.
  4. dissembling
    pretending with intention to deceive
    He is bending to kneel again when his niece, Abigail Williams, seventeen, enters — a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling.
  5. blatantly
    in a completely obvious manner
    He undoubtedly felt it poor payment that the village should so blatantly disregard his candidate for one of its more important offices, especially since he regarded himself as the intellectual superior of most of the people around him.
  6. vindictive
    disposed to seek revenge or intended for revenge
    His vindictive nature was demonstrated long before the witchcraft began.
  7. corroborate
    support with evidence or authority or make more certain
    So it is not surprising to find that so many accusations against people are in the handwriting of Thomas Putnam, or that his name is so often found as a witness corroborating the supernatural testimony, or that his daughter led the crying-out at the most opportune junctures of the trials, especially when — But we’ll speak of that when we come to it.
  8. intimation
    a slight suggestion or vague understanding
    Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born. And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothin’, but my heart has clamored intimations.
  9. trepidation
    a feeling of alarm or dread
    ABIGAIL, with hushed trepidation: How is Ruth sick?
    On the surface, this word suggest that Abigail is worried about her cousin and friend's health. But the phrasing of the question here hints at Abigail's more selfish concern, because her focus is not on how sick Ruth is, but on how Ruth got sick, which could be traced back to their improper activities in the forest.
  10. calumny
    an abusive attack on a person's character or good name
    In Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly — and a Proctor is always marked for calumny therefore.
  11. arbitrate
    act between parties with a view to reconciling differences
    He was called upon to arbitrate disputes as though he were an unofficial judge, and Rebecca also enjoyed the high opinion most people had for him.
  12. contiguous
    having a common boundary or edge
    In addition, certain families allied to the Nurses by blood or friendship, and whose farms were contiguous with the Nurse farm or close to it, combined to break away from the Salem town authority and set up Topsfield, a new and independent entity whose existence was resented by old Salemites.
  13. iniquity
    morally objectionable behavior
    To top it all, Mrs. Putnam — who is now staring at the bewitched child on the bed — soon accused Rebecca’s spirit of “tempting her to iniquity,” a charge that had more truth in it than Mrs. Putnam could know.
  14. inculcation
    teaching or impressing upon the mind by frequent instruction
    ...when we see the steady and methodical inculcation into humanity of the idea of man’s worthlessness — until redeemed — the necessity of the Devil may become evident as a weapon, a weapon designed and used time and time again in every age to whip men into a surrender to a particular church or church-state.
  15. abrogation
    an official or legal cancellation
    Political opposition, thereby, is given an inhumane overlay which then justifies the abrogation of all normally applied customs of civilized intercourse.
Created on Mon Nov 25 22:34:24 EST 2013 (updated Wed Jul 02 12:43:36 EDT 2025)

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