The Crucible Act 2 Study GuideThe Crucible Act 2 Study Guide

The Crucible

Act Two

Study Guide for an English III / AP-level test

Contents

1. Scene-by-Scene Summary

2. Characters

3. Key Quotations

4. Themes, Motifs and Symbols

5. Dramatic Irony, Conflict and Character Development

6. Narrative and Historical Notes

7. Vocabulary in Context

8. Common Misconceptions and Traps

9. Practice Prompts

Arthur Miller, The Crucible (1953). Quotations are kept short and used for analysis.

The Crucible, Act Two: Study Guide

Setting: the common room of the Proctors' farmhouse, eight days after Act One. It is evening; the room is "low, dark, and rather long."

The act in one sentence: The court is now official and spreading fast. The tension in the Proctor marriage comes out into the open, and Abigail's revenge reaches the house through Mary Warren's poppet, ending with Elizabeth's arrest.

1. Scene-by-Scene Summary

# Scene What happens Why it matters

1 A careful

marriage

Proctor comes in from planting, quietly adds salt to Elizabeth's

stew, then praises its seasoning. Elizabeth serves rabbit and

forgets his cider. He kisses her; she "receives it," and he is

disappointed. He wants flowers in the house: "It's winter in

here yet."

Small gestures show a

marriage of politeness

and hurt. Proctor tries to

please; Elizabeth cannot

yet trust.

2 News of the

court

Mary Warren has gone to Salem against Proctor's order.

Elizabeth reports what she heard: four judges out of Boston,

headed by the Deputy Governor, fourteen people jailed, and the

threat of hanging for those who will not confess. Abigail walks

like a saint, and the crowd parts "like the sea for Israel."

The situation has

escalated from a

household scare to state

power.

3 The quarrel Elizabeth urges John to tell Ezekiel Cheever that Abigail admitted it was not witchcraft. He admits he was alone with

Abigail "for a moment," and Elizabeth loses faith. John

explodes: "You forget nothin' and forgive nothin'." Elizabeth:

"The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you." John: "your

justice would freeze beer!"

It is the core conflict of

the marriage: his guilt

against her suspicion. It

also shows Proctor's

delay in exposing

Abigail, because

exposing her means

exposing himself.

4 Mary Warren

returns

Mary is pale and strange. She gives Elizabeth a rag doll

("poppet") she sewed in court and says thirty-nine are now

arrested. Goody Osburn will hang; Sarah Good confessed and is

spared. Mary describes "remembering" Sarah Good's curses,

and Sarah failing to recite the Commandments. Sarah Good is

said to be pregnant. Mary now calls herself "an official of the

court."

It shows how the court

works: pressure,

suggestion, and "proof"

from mumbling and

failed recitations. Mary's

new power undoes the

household order.

5 "I saved her

life today!"

Proctor reaches for the whip; Mary blurts that Elizabeth was

"somewhat mentioned" in court and that she defended her. She

will not name the accuser. She declares, "I am eighteen and a

woman."

The first sign that

Elizabeth is a target, and

a reversal of power in

the house

6 "She wants

me dead"

Elizabeth knows Abigail is behind it. She explains that "There is

a promise made in any bed," and asks John to go to Abigail and

break it. John resents being judged again. Elizabeth: "She has

an arrow in you yet."

Elizabeth reads Abigail's

motive precisely and

pushes John toward

action.

7 Hale's visit Hale comes "of my own, without the court's authority." He has visited Rebecca Nurse, who is "mentioned." He questions the

household's Christianity: church attendance ("Twenty-six time

It is darkly comic and

painfully ironic: the one

commandment Proctor

in seventeen month"), the golden candlesticks, the third son not

baptized. In the Commandments test, Proctor forgets adultery;

Elizabeth supplies it. Hale: "Theology, sir, is a fortress."

forgets is the one he

broke. Hale's growing

doubts appear.

8 Proctor tells

Hale

Pushed by Elizabeth, Proctor says Abigail told him the sickness

"had naught to do with witchcraft." He points out that people

confess to avoid hanging. Asked about witches, Elizabeth says,

"If you think that I am one, then I say there are none."

Proctor finally speaks

up, but only privately.

Hale starts to waver ("I

have. I - I have indeed").

9 Rebecca and

Martha

arrested

Giles and Francis Nurse arrive: Rebecca and Martha Corey are

taken. Rebecca is charged with the "marvelous and

supernatural murder" of Goody Putnam's babies. Martha is

accused by Walcott over pigs. Giles regrets mentioning her

books. Hale wavers but defends the court: "the Devil is alive in

Salem."

If Rebecca can be

charged, no one is safe.

The motives (the

Putnams' grief, a petty

pig dispute) are obvious.

10 Cheever's

warrant and

the poppet

Cheever (now clerk of the court) and Marshal Herrick bring a

warrant for Elizabeth; Abigail charged her. Cheever finds the

poppet with a needle in it. He reports that Abigail fell at

Parris's dinner with a needle stuck "two inches in the flesh of

her belly" and said Elizabeth's familiar spirit did it. Mary admits

she made the poppet and stuck the needle in herself, and says

Abigail sat beside her when she made it.

The trap is set. Abigail

used Mary's innocent

gift as "evidence."

Spectral and planted

evidence outweighs the

truth.

11 Elizabeth

taken

Elizabeth: "The girl is murder! She must be ripped out of the

world!" Cheever takes this down. Proctor rips the warrant

("Damn the Deputy Governor!"), denounces vengeance, and

calls Hale "Pontius Pilate!" Elizabeth goes calmly, giving

instructions for the children, and is chained.

Proctor's passionate

defense will later be

used against him (the

ripped warrant).

Elizabeth's dignity

contrasts with the chaos.

12 Hale's "cause

proportionate"

Hale suggests some hidden crime ("murder… abomination…

secret blasphemy") must have drawn God's wrath.

Without knowing it, Hale

points at the hidden sin,

the affair. Proctor is

struck by his words.

13 Proctor and

Mary

Proctor demands that Mary testify about the poppet. She warns

that Abigail will "charge lechery" on him. He accepts the cost:

"We will slide together into our pit." He grabs her by the throat;

she sobs, "I cannot." Proctor: "we are only what we always