Crucible Act 3 Study GuideCrucible Act 3 Study Guide

The Crucible — Act 3 Study Guide Page 1

The Crucible — Act Three Study Guide

The vestry room of the Salem meeting house, serving as the anteroom of the General Court

At a Glance

Act Three is the courtroom climax. Proctor brings his evidence (Mary Warren's deposition, a petition, and Giles's deposition) and tries to fight the court with facts. Each piece is turned against the people who offer it. Proctor then plays his last card: he confesses the affair, staking his "good name" on the truth. The plan depends on Elizabeth, who "cannot lie." Her one lie, told to protect him, destroys it. Abigail stages a "yellow bird" attack, Mary Warren breaks and accuses Proctor, Proctor cries "God is dead!", and Hale quits the court.

Item Detail

Setting The vestry room, now "the anteroom of the General Court"; sunlight through two high windows; "solemn, even forbidding"

Time Some weeks after Act Two (Mary has been "strivin' with her soul all week"); Rebecca was condemned "this morning" Court Deputy Governor Danforth presiding, with Hathorne; Judges Stoughton and Sewall are offstage Scale "Near to four hundred are in the jails… seventy-two condemned"; Hale has "signed seventy-two death warrants" Climax Proctor confesses: "I have known her, sir"; Elizabeth denies it; the "yellow bird"; Mary accuses Proctor Ending Proctor and Giles are arrested; Hale: "I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!" Scene-by-Scene Summary

1. Voices through the wall

The audience hears Hathorne examining Martha Corey ("How do you know, then, that you are not a witch?") and Giles shouting "Thomas Putnam is reaching out for land!" He is carried into the vestry. Giles meets Danforth, says he has "six hundred acres," and breaks down: "I have broke charity with the woman." He feels guilty that his comment about her books helped get her arrested.

2. Francis Nurse: "The girls are frauds"

Francis has tried "three days" to be heard and tells Danforth "you are deceived." Danforth answers with numbers: "near to four hundred are in the jails from Marblehead to Lynn, and upon my signature… seventy-two condemned to hang by that signature." What he means is that admitting fraud would make him responsible for hundreds of wrongful imprisonments.

3. Mary Warren's turnabout and the pregnancy test

Proctor brings Mary, who says "It were pretense, sir." Danforth tests Proctor's motives. Cheever reports that he tore the warrant, Parris notes his poor church attendance, and Cheever adds "He plow on Sunday." Danforth then says Elizabeth claims to be pregnant and will be spared for "another year" if it proves true. He asks whether Proctor will now drop the charge. Proctor says "I think I cannot," because his friends' wives are also accused. Danforth concludes "your purpose is somewhat larger."

4. The petition of ninety-one

Proctor submits a statement signed by ninety-one landholders vouching for Rebecca, Elizabeth and Martha. Parris demands they be "summoned… for questioning," and Danforth orders "warrants drawn for all of these — arrest for

The Crucible — Act 3 Study Guide Page 2

examination." Francis is horrified because he had promised them "no harm." Danforth sets the court's terms: "a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between… the shining sun is up." 5. Giles's deposition: Putnam and the land

Giles charges that Putnam "coldly prompted" his daughter to cry out George Jacobs, so that Jacobs's forfeited land could be bought by Putnam, the only man "with the coin to buy so great a piece." He has it from "an honest man," but won't name him: "He'll lay in jail." Danforth declares the court in session so he can hold Giles in contempt and arrest him. Hale protests that "there is a prodigious fear of this court in the country." Danforth replies "Then there is a prodigious guilt in the country… No uncorrupted man may fear this court." Giles lunges at Putnam. 6. Hale's plea and Danforth's logic

Hale admits "I have this morning signed away the soul of Rebecca Nurse… my hand shakes yet as with a wound!" and asks Danforth to let lawyers argue. Danforth gives his "invisible crime" argument. Witchcraft is "ipso facto… an invisible crime," so the only witnesses are "the witch and the victim." The witch won't accuse herself, so the court "must rely upon her victims." In other words, the accusers' word is the only evidence possible, and nothing can disprove it.

7. Mary Warren under pressure: "faint now"

Danforth reads the deposition and summons the girls. Abigail denies everything and claims "Goody Proctor always kept poppets." Proctor reveals that the girls danced in the woods and Abigail was "twice this year put out of this meetin' house for laughter during prayer." Parris admits the dancing. Hathorne and Parris demand that Mary "faint now" to prove she was pretending. She cannot without the crowd's energy ("I — have no sense of it now"). She explains: "I heard the other girls screaming, and you, Your Honor, you seemed to believe them… I only thought I saw them but I did not." This is an exact description of mass hysteria.

8. Abigail's counterattack: the cold wind

Danforth asks Abigail to consider whether the spirits were "illusion only." She threatens him: "Let you beware, Mr. Danforth. Think you to be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits?" Then she suddenly feels "A wind, a cold wind." The girls copy her ("I freeze!"), and Danforth asks Mary, "do you witch her?" 9. Proctor's confession

Proctor grabs Abigail by the hair and cries "Whore! Whore!" Then he says it outright: "I have known her, sir. I have known her… In the proper place — where my beasts are bedded. On the last night of my joy, some eight months past." He explains her motive: "She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave!… it is a whore's vengeance." And "I have made a bell of my honor! I have rung the doom of my good name."

10. Elizabeth's lie