The Crucible

John Proctor

Arguably one of the most flawed heroes in all of literature, John Proctor is known throughout the village as being an honest, hardworking and upright citizen. Six months prior to the commencement of the play, when his wife Elizabeth was unwell, John had an affair with the young housemaid Abigail Williams. His dalliance cost him dearly; Elizabeth’s suspicion causes a rift between them, but his own self-guilt is far worse. This guilt propels him to work tirelessly to please his wife and family and live quietly among the community.

At first, John is keen to stay away from the village proper when rumours of witchcraft begin to rise, but he is soon called to answer for his sins when his ambivalence to the trials is seen as suspicious. His absence from attending regular church sessions, brought on by his disdain of the Reverend Parris and his forthright manner of addressing the officials of the court, brings him under scrutiny. The play culminates in him having to admit his affair with Abigail and dash away his reputation to save his and Elizabeth’s life. John’s worst critic is himself, as he suffers immensely as a result of what he perceives has been weak behaviour on his part. At the last moment possible, John finds the strength needed to prevail and he mounts the gibbet to be hung, a man of goodness with God.

John Proctor Quotes

‘Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut of my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again.’ (Proctor to Abigail) Act 1

‘I cannot speak but I am doubted, every moment judged for lies, as though I come into a court when I come into this house!’ (Proctor to Elizabeth) Act 2

‘Oh Francis, I wish you had some evil in you that you might know me! A man will not cast away his good name. You surely know that.’ (Proctor in court after confessing to lechery with Abby) Act 3

‘I am not that man. My honesty is broke, Elizabeth. I am no good man. Nothing’s spoiled by giving them this lie that were not rotten long before.’ (Proctor just before he considers confessing) Act 4

Elizabeth Proctor

Goody Proctor is described as cold and critical, her demeanour is significantly removed from that of the more passionate women in Salem such as Goodwife Putnam, Abby and Mary Warren. Aware of her husband’s previous indiscretion with the young Abby, Elizabeth has dismissed the girl and has held onto the secret out of respect for her husband, of whom she still believes is a good man who was just misled. Audiences believe that it is because of John’s affair that an ‘everlasting funeral marches round your [her] heart’ (Act 2) and she remains chilly toward her husband throughout the play but as their affection for one another rekindles, Elizabeth admits that she ‘counted herself so plain, so poorly made… no honest love could come to me [her]’ (Act 4), and explains that her poor esteem meant she judged him under a constant cloud of suspicion.

Most notably, her refusal to agree with Hale when he suggests that anyone might fall under the devil’s spell during the ‘monstrous attack’ (Act 2) shows her to be a woman of great strength and conviction. In addition, she acts with wisdom and reason when faced with conflict, reasoning with Hale that she cannot believe ‘the Devil may own a woman’s soul… when she keeps an upright way’ (Act 2). In the same way, she shows great courage when she is parted from her husband and children under a false accusation and simply resigns that ‘I [she] think[s] I [she] must go with them’ (Act 2) and instructs Mary on how to tend for the boys and to make their breakfast. Her sensibility, which is perceived by many as coldness, is chastised by Judge Danforth when he questions the ‘wifely tenderness’ (Act 4) within her and comments that had ‘I [he] no other proof of your [her] unnatural life, your [her] dry eyes now would be sufficient evidence that you [she] delivered up your [her] soul to Hell’ (Act 4).

Goody Proctor’s loyalty to her husband becomes their undoing – she lies for the first time in her life and denies the affair, sentencing both John and herself to be hung.

Elizabeth Proctor Quotes

‘…I will be your only wife, or no wife at all! She [Abigail] has an arrow in you yet, John Proctor, and you know it well!’ (Elizabeth to Proctor) Act 2

‘In her [Elizabeth’s] life, sir, she have never lied. There are them that cannot sing, and them that cannot weep – my wife cannot lie. I have paid much to learn it, sir.’ (Proctor to the court) Act 3

‘Whatever you do, it is a good man does it. I have read my heart this three month, John. I have sins of my own to count. It takes a cold wife to prompt lechery.’ (Elizabeth to Proctor on the morning he is set to hang) Act 4

Abigail Williams

In direct comparison to Elizabeth’s sensibility and stoicism, Abigail’s manipulation of the court and her extraordinary efforts to gain back John Proctor, of whom she has been infatuated with since their affair, is what propels the narrative forward. Abby is relentless in her pursuit of her goal, to be rid of Goody Proctor and to claim John Proctor as her own, finally; she instigates and leads the hysterical pack of girls whom she threatens into submission. Her terrible threat to bring a ‘pointy reckoning’ (Act 1) in them all if they ‘breath a word, or the edge of a word about the other things’ (Act 1) paints her as vicious and capable of brutish violence in order to achieve her goals and keep her name clean in the village. We might have sympathy for a young girl, who having experienced the brutality of frontier life is made to reside with her self-obsessed uncle and is tossed aside by an older married man, but Abigail is hard to forgive when audiences see the devastation she causes in her wickedness.

Both clever and cunning, Abigail is cynical about the respectability of the town, she believes the town is hypocritical, pretending to be one way when in reality they have ambitions to be another – ‘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!’ (Act 1). Abby believes that her affair with John, whilst short-lived, awakened her sexuality and she considers that his affection and tenderness toward her during that time ‘put knowledge in her heart’ (Act 1) and refuses to let him ‘tear the light out of my [her] eyes’ (Act 1). Believing herself to be enlightened in some way, when Danforth questions her accusations she exclaims that she believes it to be her ‘duty [to] point[ing] out the Devil’s people’ (Act 3) and refuses to back down from her false allegations. But she misjudges her power, and in an effort to confirm it accuses Judge Danforth of being within the Devil’s grasp; this accusation was clearly out of order and she moves to distract the court once more by screaming that a spectre is attacking her and the other girls.

The way she sacrifices her friends, such as Tituba, cements her immorality and soon the only thing left for her to do is turn on John as well by denying the affair and sentencing him to the hangman’s noose. In a last resort for a new life, she robs her uncle of the parish funds and sets off to Boston.

Abigail Williams Quotes

‘My name is good in the village! I will not have it said my name is soiled! Goody Proctor is a gossiping liar!’ (Abby tries to defend her name when Parris asks her) Act 1

‘You drank blood, Abby! You didn’t tell him [Parris] that… you drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!’ (Betty Parris) Act 1

‘I saw your face when she [Elizabeth Proctor] put me out, and you loved me then and you do now!’ (Abby is still infatuated with Proctor) Act 1

‘I have been near to murdered every day because I done my duty pointing out the Devil’s people – and this is my reward? To be mistrusted, denied, questioned…’ (Abby in court) Act 3

‘Let you beware, Mr Danforth. Think you be so mighty that the power of Hell may not turn your wits?’ (Abby in court) Act 3

Reverend Samuel Parris

Salem’s resident minister hasn’t always been a man of the cloth, having resided in the Caribbean islands as a merchant at one time, Parris has yet to lose his materialistic manner and this is evident from the first act of the play. Within the first scene we see him fretting, not over the sudden illness of his youngest daughter Betty, or even the souls of his parishioners that he has caught dancing in the woods, but rather over the ‘faction [in the town] that is sworn to drive me [him] from my [his] pulpit’ (Act 1). Miller leaves no ambiguity over why Parris has enemies in the small village, as his notes teach us ‘there is very little good to be said for him’ and he does nothing to redeem himself further in the play.

He is the third minister in the last seven years in Salem proper, hence his anxiety at being ‘howl[ed]… out of Salem’ (Act 1); but rather unforgivably, he is a tyrannical man that barters over his allowance and demands the deed to his parishioners’ homes in order to secure his position. He is not respected by anyone within the town, and characters that enter the text throughout soon begin to disrespect him as well – Danforth finds him intolerable and Proctor lists a myriad of reasons why he ‘like it not that Mr Parris should lay his hand upon my baby [for baptismal]’ (Act 2). Proctor’s further concerns about Salem’s minister is his tendency to preach ‘only hellfire and damnation’ (Act 1), a term used to describe the practice of preaching about God’s judgement and eternal damnation in an effort to scare the attending congregation into obedience. He, and many other Salem citizens express their dislike of Parris’ materialistic tendency and prefer not to attend service when ‘the man dreams cathedrals, not clapboard meetin’ houses’ (Act 2).

His treatment of his slave Tituba (who he has purchased in Barbados to serve him in the ‘new world’ of America) speaks of a cruel man who quickly offers himself as punisher in an effort to try and force a confession from her – and she confirms this notion in a guised manner by stating that the devil has seen Parris and called him ‘mean man and no gentle man’ (Act 1).

Reverend Samuel Parris Quotes

‘We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.’ (Parris) Act 1

‘Mr Corey, you will look far for a man of my kind at sixty pound a year! I am not used to this poverty; I left a thrifty business in Barbados to serve the Lord. I do not fathom why I am persecuted here?’ (Parris) Act 1

‘This way, unconfessed and claiming innocence, doubts are multiplied, many honest people will weep for them, and our good purpose is lost in their tears.’ (Parris is worried that he will be rejected if innocents hang) Act 4

Reverend John Hale

Summoned from the nearby town of Beverly, an appointed expert in medicine and the detection of witchcraft, Hale has faith in his own abilities to solve the mysteries of the demonic arts and is much anticipated by the townsfolk of Salem, who look to him for sound logic in the hysteria of it all. Beginning the play as somewhat conceited, he is dismissive of the concerns shared by Parris and denotes a familiarity with ‘tracking down the Old Boy’ (Act 1), a demeanour that puts many at ease. He is good intentioned and is disinclined to rumour or superstition, demanding that the citizens agree that he ‘shall not proceed unless you [they] are prepared to believe me [him] should I [he] find no bruise of hell’ upon the victims, a fruitless demand given how the play progresses. He shows that he is not at all tainted by prejudice when he takes Tituba’s hand during her emotional confession and expresses that she is ‘God’s instrument’ and has been ‘chosen to help us cleanse our village’ (Act 1), a declaration that proves his desire to be non-discriminate in his search for witchcraft in Salem.

Although their initial meeting is tense, Proctor and Hale come to share a similarly critical view on the court proceedings. Both place a high value on reason and upon interrogation, Hale believing Proctor and his household satisfied that they ‘keep a solemn, quiet way’ (Act 2). But upon Elizabeth’s arrest, Proctor calls him ‘Pontius Pilate’, a biblical reference to the leader of Jerusalem that ‘washed his hands clean’ of Jesus’ crucifixion and did nothing to stop the citizens from exacting their execution.

Despite his efforts to maintain reason and equity, justice escapes him as the hysteria of the court and the manipulation of the citizens force him to become a bystander, powerless to interject. He shoulders the blame for what happens to the citizens, in the end trying to convince Goody Proctor to save her husband despite this meaning she would admit to a lie, believing ‘myself [himself] his [Proctor’s] murderer’ (Act 4). He ends up a sad figure, wandering from house to house begging the accused to confess to save their lives, desperate to ‘have more time’ (Act 4) to gain confessions.

Reverend John Hale Quotes

‘Here is all the invisible world, caught, defined and calculated. In these books the Devil stands stripped of all his brute disguises…have no fear now – we shall find him out if her has come among us, and I mean to crush him utterly if he has shown his face!’ (Hale upon arriving at Salem) Act 1

‘Theology, sir, is a fortress; no crack in a fortress may be accounted small.’ (Hale when he is visiting the Proctor household) Act 2

‘There is blood on my head! Can you not see the blood on my head!!’ (Hale just before Proctor hangs) Act 4

‘Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own.’ (Hale to Elizabeth) Act 4

Giles Corey

Giles Corey, an elderly member of the Salem community, is a vexatious litigate, a man who proudly admits to being the plaintiff in court thirty-three times and who is considered ‘contentious’ (Act 3) by all who know him. Although he and Proctor ally together under the shadow of the witch-hunt, even John has known the sting of Corey’s legal obsession when ‘last month [Giles] collected four pound damages for you [Proctor] publicly sayin’ I [he] burned the roof off your [his] house…’ (Act 1) to which Proctor vehemently denies saying.

Giles Corey has a pioneering will to work but he is not a man of great learning and thus, when his third wife Martha begins the practice of the ‘readin’ of strange books’ (Act 1), his uneducated intolerance has dire consequences which eventually leads to his wife being swept up into the witch-hunt. When he realises that he has been the cause of her execution, Giles concludes that a way of redeeming his actions would be to shed light on the land-grapping conspiracy involving the Putnams. By refusing to name the man involved in the accusation, he condemns himself to torture and death. His fate is gruesome, yet borne with bravery and a stubbornness that we would expect to see from a tough pioneer who has spent his whole life working the land. By remaining silent until his death, he ensures that his sons will inherit his lands and they will not be forfeited to anyone such as Putnam (or any other property-grabber) to claim for a cheap price. Giles’ pride is his land, introducing himself to men of authority such as Danforth by exclaiming, ‘I have six hundred acres, and timber in addition’ (Act 3) and he proves himself keen to impress the learned men on more then one occasion. There is a bold, rustic simplicity about him which at times is embarrassing, and it makes him old-fashioned in the new Salem which has lost its pioneering honesty and close community spirit.

Giles Corey Quotes

‘It discomforts me! Last night – mark this – I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she [Martha, his wife] closes her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly – mark this – I could pray again!’ (Corey to Hale and the Salem elders) Act 1

‘I’m never put upon; I know my rights, sir, and I will have them.’ (Corey in court) Act 3

‘I will give you no name. I mentioned my wife’s name once and I’ll burn in hell long enough for that. I stand mute.’ (Corey in court) Act 3

Tituba

The Barbadian slave of Salem’s Reverend Parris has the ambiguous distinction of being considered psychic by the superstitious group of God-fearing Puritans. The citizens often consult her when it suits them but she is aware that she must remain wary if she is to stay clean of any accusation of black magic. Tituba’s stage notes speak volumes about her life in Salem. In the first scene she is said to enter the room ‘very frightened because her slave sense has warned her that, as always, trouble in this house eventually lands on her back’ (Act 1). Tituba’s affection for Betty is unquestionable as she quails ‘my Betty no goin’ die…’ (Act 1) but all this is soon dismissed when the blame is placed on her shoulders for the suspected ‘trafficked[ing] with spirits in the forest’ (Act 1) that she is said to have instigated. It doesn’t take long for other citizens to see an easy target in Tituba and as the strain of the accusations grows, even Abby begins to weave a deception that ‘Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters’ (Act 1), feeding the suggestion to the girls who would do almost anything to avoid being whipped or worse.

The apex in Tituba’s storyline occurs when she is interrogated by Hale, who despite his relentless questioning claims to be doing so in order to help her realise her potential to ‘cleanse the village’ (Act 1). The right responses are fed to her and under scrutiny, she parrots Hale’s and Parris’ answers back to them and finally confesses to communing with the devil.

Tituba Quotes

‘Mr Parris’s slaves has knowledge of conjurin’, sir…she [Ruth] should learn from Tituba who murdered her sisters…’ (Ann Putnam to Hale) Act 1

‘You [Abigail] beg me to conjure! She beg me make charm… I have no power on this child [Betty], sir…’ (Tituba to Parris and Hale) Act 1

‘But he [the Devil] say, “You work for me, Tituba, and I make you free! I give you pretty dress to wear, and put you way high up in the air, and you gone fly back to Barbados!’’’ (Tituba when she is being questioned by Hale) Act 1

Deputy-Governor Danforth

Danforth is the civil deputy-governor and in the absence of the Governor himself he is the principal officer in charge of the overall pioneer state. In the Puritan community, he rules the theocracy in all aspects of law and order, civil and religious. By virtue of the fact that his speeches are longer in the play and there are more of them then any other character, Danforth is awarded more weight than his partner, the ‘bitter, remorseless Salem judge’ (stage notes) Judge Hathorne.

Danforth is a pious fanatic, overruling justice from his lofty position of high responsibility and is convinced of the legality and justice of the cause of the true religion. He will not stand for anyone that tries to undermine the court and believes any ‘defence [to be] an attack on the court’ (Act 3). He is hard, cruel and unrelenting; even contemptuous of these lesser Salem folk caught up in affairs beyond their comprehension – any opposing pleas he treats as contempt of court and any petitions that are mustered he uses as charge-sheets to swell the ranks of those arrested under suspicion.

From the moment he begins hearing the preceding evidence, he is convinced in the genuine presence of witchcraft and feels empowered to deal with it using the accepted means of harsh imprisonment, torture and death. Danforth inexorably pursues what he must believe to be right. He is dogmatic and bigoted, appalled when he discovers Proctor plows his field on Sunday, or that Abby often laughs at church. He admits the very nature of the crime of witchery as being ‘ipso facto… an invisible crime’ (Act 3), and feels obliged to rely upon the ‘victim’ Abby and her witnesses; he considers Abby and the other girls to be children, and that their innocence protects them from the lies of adults. Therefore when Elizabeth refuses to condemn her husband of lechery, Danforth is utterly reinforced in his original convictions.

He remains hard to the end, when he comments the condemned must feel the ‘perfection of their punishment’ (Act 4) and he believes himself to have been empowered, and he must help the other officials ‘draw yourselves [themselves] up like men and help me’ (Act 4) to exact justice in the name of God.

Many audiences interpret him as evil beyond reprieve but Miller’s depiction allows for contention that some men can be capable of monstrous evil because they do not fully know, or care to understand, exactly what they are doing. Danforth truly believes he is doing the will of God in ousting those hidden and afflicted by the Devil, and the history of religious and political persecution surely gives weight to this view. He must be seen beyond the play, both allegorically and symbolically – he sums up the human struggle between the individual and external authority. Danforth is not a fictional monster, but merely a product of the system; the law personified, a model of Puritan justice.

Judge Danforth Quotes

‘Children, a very augur bit will now be turned into your souls until your honesty is proved. Will either of you change your positions now, or do you force me to hard questioning?’ (Danforth to the girls in court) Act 3

‘Postponement now speaks a floundering on my part; reprieve or pardon must cast doubt upon the guilt of them that dies till now. While I speak God’s law, I will not crack its voice with whimpering. If retaliation is your fear, know this – I should hang ten thousand that dared to rise against the law…’ Danforth (Act 4)

‘Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption!’ Danforth (Act 4)

Thomas and Ann Putnam

The Putnams are characterised as vindictive, superstitious and deceitful. Their opportunistic ways see them not only survive amidst the chaos of the witch-hunt but flourish, having expanded their acreage after acquiring land from those that have been wrongly accused.

Goody Putnam’s obsession with having ‘laid seven babies unbaptised in the earth’ (Act 1) sees her riddled with guilt and eager to lay the fault on someone else. At first, she suggests that Tituba should be questioned about their deaths, then the blame shifts to Goody Osburn ‘who were midwife to me [Ann Putnam] three times…my babies always shrivelled in her hands’ (Act 1) and finally it is Rebecca Nurse that stands accused of the ‘the marvellous and unnatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies’ (Act 2). Goody Putnam’s grief has addled her brain and she feels victimised at having lost so many children; a tragic situation to be sure but one that is once more abused in Salem city. Her husband Thomas however, is a powerful community leader that Miller describes as having a ‘vindictive nature’ (stage notes). His behaviour throughout the play indicates his fervent desire to seize the land of his neighbours and the witch-hunt merely provides him with the facilities to do so, with relative ease.

Thomas and Ann Putnam Quotes

‘For how else is she [Ruth] struck dumb now except some power of darkness would stop her mouth? It is a marvellous sign, Mr Parris.’ (Putnam) Act 1

‘You think it God’s work you should never lose a child, nor grandchild either, and I bury all but one?’ (Goody Putnam is envious of Goody Nurse’s prospering family) Act 1

‘That tract is in my bounds, it’s in my bounds, Mr Proctor… you load one oak of mine and you’ll fight to drag it home!’ (Putnam threatening Proctor and Corey about his land) Act 1

‘This man [Putnam] is killing his neighbours for their land!’ (Giles Corey accuses Putnam for his evil plots) Act 3

Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn

Sarah Good is a ‘drunkard and a vagrant’ (Miller’s stage notes) and Mary Warren accuses her of making her ill by ‘mumbling’ (Act 2) when she was refused anything to eat or drink.

Sarah Osburn, first accused by Tituba as being one of the names in the Devil’s book, was a midwife to Goody Putnam. Goody Putnam lost all her children but one and is looking for someone to blame for it. Goody Proctor also calls her a drunk.

Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn Quote

‘There be certain danger in calling such a name – I am not Goody Good that sleeps in ditches, nor Osburn, drunk and half-witted… she means to take my place, John.’ (Elizabeth believes Abigail has ulterior motives for accusing her) Act 2

Rebecca and Francis Nurse

The Nurse family are an atypical foundation in any pioneering village – morally strong, hard working and forthright. Rebecca Nurse attracts envy and resentment for being far more sensible and spiritual than most others and it is for this reason that she is an easy target. She warns Parris to stay calm and ‘let us go to God for the cause of it [the strife with the young girls]… let us rather blame ourselves’ (Act 1), a notion which would have sat uneasily with the more paranoid citizens who operated in the community. Hale, likewise, reaches this sensible conclusion when he suggests the community ‘counsel among yourselves [themselves], think on your village and what may have drawn from heaven such a thundering wrath upon you all’ (Act 3).

Miller’s note on the Nurses suggests that land disputes were the basis for naming Rebecca, but in testament to her character, others cannot believe that ‘such a one be charged’ (Act 2) and many are willing to testify to the good nature of her. It is a shame that her sensibility is not heeded from the outset of the play for she concludes that the children (Ruth and Betty) are merely playing at a game when they pretend to be ill, and that they will ‘wake when she [they] tire of it’ (Act 1), dismissing the severity that others such as Parris and the Putnams have leapt to and dismissing it as an act in their ‘silly seasons’ (Act 1). Her reputation as a wise and upright citizen is such that even Proctor ‘defers to her’ (stage notes, Act 1) when the conversation gets heated and he responds favourably to her when she tries to quell his fury at the Putnam’s claims.

The same goodness can be seen in Francis Nurse, when he attends the court with Giles and John to free their wives and he becomes fretful that he has ‘brought trouble on these people [those that signed the petition to the character of the women]’ (Act 3) when Danforth orders warrants drawn up for all those that are named in the deposition.

As his beloved wife is hung, Francis becomes the carer for the Proctor children and a more reliable caretaker there could not be. The Nurses act as a moral compass to those within the play, even as Rebecca mounts the scaffold she sets an example to Proctor by refusing to confess to ‘a lie’ (Act 4). Her humility is evident until the very end when she begins to collapse on her way to the gallows and excuses her reaction to Proctor, who catches her. In the same way, her compassion is indicated in her attempts to soothe her fellow accused with ‘let you fear nothing… another judgement waits us all’ (Act 4) marking her as a true Christian woman with no qualms about her own righteousness.

Rebecca and Francis Nurse Quotes

‘A child’s spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still. And, for love, it will soon itself come back.’ (Rebecca) Act 1

‘There is prodigious danger in the seeking of loose spirits. I fear it, I fear it.’ (Rebecca) Act 1

‘My wife is the very brick and mortar of the church, Mr Hale…’ (Francis defending his wife when she is arrested) Act 2

Ezekiel Cheever

Ezekiel Cheever is the town tailor. As a member of the Salem society, Cheever’s decision to help the court carry out their process does not bode well for him. He is ambivalent and thinks nothing of arresting those who have been issued with a warrant.

Ezekiel Cheever Quote

‘You know yourself I must do as I’m told. You surely know that, Giles.’ (Cheever defending his actions in arresting his fellow neighbours) Act 2

Marshall Herrick

A law officer who appears to have a conscience about the happenings; he does his duty reluctantly but begins drinking in the fourth and final act when the strain of punishing neighbours and friends becomes too much and he tries to drown out his guilt.

The Girls

Susanna Walcott is one of the girls who name the witches.

Mercy Lewis is the Putnams’ servant, who escapes during the night with Abby at the end of the play. In Miller’s stage notes, he observes that she is ‘closest in spirit’ to Abby and is also seemingly attracted to Proctor’s oozing masculinity.

Ruth Putnam is the Putnams’ last-living child and is afflicted by the ‘illness’ that befalls the two youngest members of the girls when they are caught dancing in the woods. Ruth, whether she wants to or not, is doing this for her father in order that he may seize the land cheaply from the accused.

Betty Parris falls into a coma-like state as well, literally paralysed by fear at being caught out doing the wrong thing. Interestingly, other than Proctor and Tituba she is the only other character that accuses Abby of drinking ‘a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife’ (Act 1) and lying about it.

Mary Warren is a simpler soul who seems genuinely caught up in the hysteria of the girls. She is the Proctors’ new maid and as such, delivers updates to them about the happenings in the court, allowing the audience to see how wrapped up in the ‘weighty work we [the girls] do’ (Act 2) and how easily they become drunk on the power. Uneasy in conflict, Mary has always been the weakest of the group, petrified from the beginning of the punishment, desperately trying to convince the others to admit that they danced. Her shift from one side to the next throughout the play foreshadows the eventual travesty, that she will inevitably dishonour the truth and condemn Proctor at the last minute in order to save herself from the rope.

The Dressmaker

Tilly (Myrtle) Dunnage

Tilly (Myrtle) Dunnage is the glamorous outcast and the novel’s protagonist. As a child, she was banished from her hometown of Dungatar after the townsfolk believed she had murdered a fellow school student Stewart Pettyman. From her unhappy education at a school in Melbourne, Tilly ‘ran away… to London… then Spain, Milan, Paris’ (Part 2) and learnt the skill of creating haute couture outfits, training under the prestigious fashion designers in Europe.

Tilly offers the small-minded women in Dungatar the chance to transform themselves but this does little to alter their petty meanness and judgmental behaviours. Having experienced the world outside the parochial limitations of Dungatar, Tilly is worldly and understands the power of creativity and flair. Likewise, she is confident in her own ability and is not threatened whatsoever when she ‘see[s] there is a new seamstress in town’ (Part 3), Una Pleasance.

Despite the promise of promotion in Europe, Tilly is drawn back to her childhood home to care for her mother who in her absence has become a ‘skeleton’ (Part 1) with ‘sunken eyes’ (Part 1) and a mouth like a ‘charcoal hole’ (Part 1). Tilly navigates her mother’s madness expertly, treating her with a healthy dose of tough love as she cleans up both the decrepit residence atop The Hill and also the woman that the townsfolk have been referring to as ‘Mad Molly’ (Part 1). No task is too revolting or confronting as she ‘evicts snug families’ (Part 1) of pests from the house, cleans her mother’s dentures and ties her to the outside toilet with the rope of her dressing robe to avoid her wandering off. Although the relationship between mother and daughter is strong, Tilly, like many children of elderly and eccentric parents, resorts to sarcasm and derision as a coping mechanism. Mother and daughter banter back and forth but their reciprocal devotion for one another, albeit bruised, is evident. In the final chapters, Tilly’s adoration for her mother who endured so much hardship is still present and their commitment to one another is cemented when Teddy passes away and Tilly ‘got on her knees in front of her mother and buried her face in her lap… Molly stroked her head fondly and they wept’ (Part 3).

Tilly’s reluctance to become involved with her childhood friend Teddy derives from a belief that she is ‘cursed’ (Part 3) and that should she become involved with anyone, it would be to their detriment. Tilly believes that her actions as a child and the unfortunate death of Stewart Pettyman plagues her and this notion is precipitated by the townspeople who treat her with disdain and suspicion. Her belief in her ill-fated luck is only confirmed when she loses her own son Pablo, who she finds dead in his cot at seven months, whilst still living in Paris. However, Tilly’s strength of will is to be admired. Her devotion to her mother, her acceptance of those such as Sergeant Farrat and Barney McSwiney show her to be a woman of tolerance who has felt the brunt of societal stigma and is keen to be a far more accepting member of the town. Although the sudden loss of Teddy and her mother shake her resolve and she is at risk of being propelled along the same path as Molly, she dismisses the bitterness that begins festering inside her and channels an inner discipline and conniving spirit that allows her to wreak a havoc that provides satisfying revenge.

Tilly (Myrtle) Dunnage Quotes

Little Myrtle Dunnage had alabaster skin and her mother’s eyes and hair. She seemed strong, but damaged. (Sergeant Farrat upon seeing Tilly again as a grown woman) Part 1

‘It’s not that – it’s what I’ve done. Sometimes I forget about it and just when I’m… it’s guilt, and the evil inside me – I carry it around with me, in me, all the time.’ (Tilly speaking to Teddy about the affect her past has on her) Part 2

Bitterness rested on Tilly’s soul and wore itself on her face. (after Teddy’s death) Part 3

‘Well then I’m afraid you’ve made a mistake,’ said Tilly. ‘ I’m a qualified tailoress and dressmaker. You just need someone handy with a needle and thread.’ (Tilly to Una Pleasance) Part 3

She could tie up the loose ends, leave, go to Melbourne, take a job with the traveller who’d visited last autumn. Yet there was the matter of the sour people of Dungatar. In light of all they had done, and what they had not done, what they had decided not to do – they mustn’t be abandoned. Not yet. (Tilly considering to herself after Teddy and Molly have passed and she is on her own) Part 3

Molly Dunnage

Molly is first introduced to the reader through the eyes of her daughter, Tilly. She lives in a small shack on The Hill, an overwatch for the village that ‘was dank and smelled like possum piss’ (Part 1). At first, Molly is reticent to have her daughter help her and this is primarily because, despite missing her terribly, Molly had always hoped that her only daughter ‘wouldn’t come back to this awful place’ (Part 3).

Molly’s appearance is haggard, her ‘wayward grey hair’ (Part 1) and scrawny features belying her as a nervous, scattered woman suffering the first affects of dementia. Despite her mental infirm, Molly still has a fighting spirit and a wicked sense of humour, providing comedic relief to parts of the novel and teasing Tilly by constantly referring to her as her ‘captor’ (Part 1). Molly’s crudeness and impropriety is renowned and a constant cause of embarrassment for Tilly, such as when Molly insults the three visiting women from Winyerp with ‘there’s a bunch of old stools from out at fart hill trespassing out here’ (Part 3) and Tilly makes an attempt to disguise her mother’s incivility to the visitors – ‘can I help you… the ash is very good and we get the sun up here’ (Part 3). Nevertheless, Molly understands far more about the town dynamics then anyone, predicting the damage of the rumour mill – ‘you can’t keep anything secret here… everybody knows everything about everyone…’ (Part 1).

Despite the heartache, Molly is a kindly woman who makes cakes laced with drugs to alleviate Irma Almanac’s pain – ‘Irma felt light…she could hear her bones scraping inside her body but they no longer hurt and the aching had stopped’ (Part 2) and tolerates the simple-minded Barney McSwiney. She is staunchly proud of her daughter Tilly and her skills in dressmaking and the women share an affinity for creating things to enhance the dull life they find themselves in.

However, the sad story of ‘Mad Molly Dunnage’ is not known until the latter half of the novel when it is revealed that she got pregnant to Evan Pettyman and because she wouldn’t give her baby (Tilly) away, ‘I [she] had to leave my [her] home and my [her] parents’ (Part 3). But her humiliation was not complete there, Pettyman ‘came after me [her] and used me [her]’ (Part 3); in turn for this privilege, he supported Molly and Tilly in early childhood.

When Evan and Marigold’s only child Stewart died, Tilly had to be sent away. Molly’s admittance that she ‘went mad with loneliness’ (Part 3) for the loss of Tilly means she is seen as a character that evokes great sympathy – she has lost everything and had no where to run away to so living atop The Hill in squalor amidst rumour and prejudice became her only option.

Like many of the woman from Ham’s text, Molly is a product of her circumstances and is subjected to ridicule and insult unfairly; unlike Pettyman (the elected town councillor) who was just as much at fault for the illegitimacy of Tilly’s birth but escapes their wrath because of his gender and status.

Molly Dunnage Quotes

She [Molly] gestured at a crowd of invisible people around her bed. (When Tilly arrives and first sees her mother, she is shocked at how mad she is acting) Part 1

As food has nourished her body and therefore her mind, some sense had returned to her. She realised she’d have to be crafty, employ stubborn resistance and subtle violence against this stronger woman (Tilly) who was determined to stay. Part 1

‘Dunny’s mum’s a slut, Dunnybum’s Mum’s a slut.’ (Stewart Pettyman and the other school children tease Tilly as a child) Part 1

‘She has good days and not-so-good, but she’s always entertaining and things come back to her from time-to-time’. (Tilly talks to Farrat about her mother) Part 2

‘…we’re used to being badly treated.’ Part 3

Sergeant Horatio Farrat

Horatio Farrat was raised in inner city Melbourne that may explain his more open-minded approach to the town’s goings-on. His posting to the remote town of Dungatar was an urgent response to him approaching his superiors in the Metropolitan Police Force with patterns and swatches of a design for a new and improved police uniform. Naturally, he was swiftly reassigned to the community of Dungatar where he kept to himself, ‘settled at his Singer, pumping the treadle with stockinged feet, and guided the skirt seams beneath the pounding needle’ (Part 1) rather than attend the weekend football game. He is a kind character, who allows the guilt of sending Tilly away when the Pettyman boy died to riddle him and become the motivation for his befriending Tilly.

A complex character that is immediately attracted to ‘little Myrtle Dunnage’ (Part 1) and her perchance for fashion yet he is the first to observe that despite her guise, Tilly has returned to Dungatar ‘strong, but damaged’ (Part 1). Their affinity with fashion and the concept of transformation gives Farrat the confidence to emerge as a cross-dresser in a town that would undoubtedly shun his oddity instead of embrace him like the cosmopolitan Tilly does. The burden of holding this secret to himself explodes when he is in the presence of Tilly as ‘he clutched it to his heart and ripped the brown paper apart and freed yards of brilliant magenta silk organza’ (Part 2), before checking himself, his face reddened ‘appalled by his abandonment’ (Part 2). But with Tilly, Molly and even Teddy, Farrat finds a safe space to admit his skill with sewing and stitching. In return for their acceptance, when Molly and Teddy die, Farrat omits Tilly’s role in Teddy’s unfortunate accident and uses the burial as a platform to lecture the townsfolk in their treatment of outcasts, reminding them that they loved the outcast Teddy and therefore should try and find it within themselves to love another outcast – Myrtle Dunnage, just as Teddy had loved her.

Despite his attempts to make amends for his actions, Tilly remains unforgiving and Farrat re-groups with the other townsfolk to watch their town burn, and with it, all the frocks and fabrics he had cherished so secretly.

Sergeant Horatio Farrat Quotes

They [the townsfolk] were used to the sergeant’s bachelor ways; he’d often purchased materials for tablecloths and curtains. Muriel said he must have the fanciest linen in town. (Gertrude when Sergeant Farrat buys a bolt of blue gingham fabric from the Pratt’s General Store) Part 1

‘I don’t care, Tilly,’ he said. ‘I’m beyond caring what those people think or say anymore. I’m sure everyone’s seen what’s on my clothes line of the years, and I’m about due to retire anyway.’ (Tilly confirms that Farrat wants to attend Molly’s funeral in a black knee-length frock) Part 4

Evan Pettyman

‘Dungatar’s richest man’ (Part 3), Town Councillor Evan Pettyman is Tilly’s real father. We learn about his mistreatment of Molly later in the novel when it is revealed that upon getting her pregnant and coming to live in Dungatar, Evan ‘used me [her]’ (Part 3) in exchange for him keeping the two women, until the untimely death of his only son Stewart causes him to become vindictive and force Farrat to take Tilly away to a reform school in Melbourne.

Evan is a known philanderer who drugs and mistreats his wife, while scandalously parading with other women. His most recent affair is with Una Pleasance, the new dressmaker in town and direct business adversary to Tilly. His wife Marigold murders him viciously and upon inspecting the house, Farrat discovers a cornucopia of filthy movies and photos as well as illicit drugs in the house.

Marigold Pettyman

Marigold has compulsive OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), which was precipitated by the sudden death of her only son, Stewart. Marigold’s preoccupation with people leaving footprints on her bi-daily washed floor and the possibility the visitors might ‘leave fingerprints on her polish’ (Part 3) blinds her from seeing the truth of her horrid husband Evan. But her insistence of having Tilly make her a dress ‘better than everyone else’ (Part 4) means that like all the other townswomen, Marigold is vain and competitive.

Once reminded of Evan’s impregnation of the sweet Molly Dunnage and how he manipulated the blame of his son’s death to land on Tilly, Marigold’s repressed memories come flooding back and she goes on to seek terrible revenge on Evan. The reader’s initial perceptions of her as weak and mentally unstable are only suspended for a brief moment as she callously leaves her husband in the kitchen of their house bleeding out and she concocts a draught of a half bottle of her sleeping tonic and sherry in an attempt to end her own life.

Stewart Pettyman

A school bully, who relentlessly teased Tilly Dunnage when they were children and in an effort to wind her by running toward her like a bull, died by slamming his head into the wall. Even as a child, his vileness was evident as he often called her a ‘bastard’ (Part 3) and Edward McSwiney (Teddy’s father) recalled ‘your [Evan’s] Stewart [he] had the poor little thing [Tilly, Myrtle as was] cornered beside the library…’ (Part 3). The progeny of Evan, it is not hard to imagine the young boy as a brute bully who made Tilly’s childhood a living nightmare, in the same way as his father destroyed Molly’s life.

He is dead when the novel begins but is the reason why Tilly had been sent away from Dungatar. Any information we learn about him is in retrospect.

Teddy McSwiney

Despite his family’s status as outcasts, Teddy is the much-loved son of Dungatar. Captain of the local football team, his rambunctious ways seem to charm most of the residents. His involvement with ‘the card game on Thursday nights and two-up on Fridays… organising the Saturday night dances, owning all the sweeps on Cup Day and the first to raffle a chook if funds were needed’ (Part 1), Teddy was additionally ‘cheeky, quick and canny’ (Part 1) and incredibly kind to the undeserving townsfolk of Dungatar. His devotion to caring for Barney, his brother and inheriting some of the responsibility for feeding his impoverished siblings, Teddy takes it upon himself to care for Molly in Tilly’s absence. He is thrilled for the return of his school friend Myrtle and for weeks on end at the beginning stages of Tilly’s return, he delivers yabbies, eggs and Murray cod fillets to feed the ladies who had yet to establish a healthy income and avoided venturing into town for fear of ridicule. He even delivers a ‘freshly scrubbed’ (Part 1) wheelchair to The Hill for Molly’s use, a testament to his kindly nature.

His logical approach to Tilly’s soiled reputation is refreshing but Tilly is unconvinced that things are that easy and that all can be solved by ‘have[ing] a big wedding in Dungatar’ (Part 2). His flippancy is born of a naivety about the world and although at first Tilly finds this charming, she is reluctant to enter into a relationship because she does not want to tarnish his reputation as he aligns himself to the ‘murderess’ (Part 3). In his attempts to release her of this notion and to convince her that she is not cursed, Teddy childishly dives into what he believes to be a wheat silo to reinforce his devotion to her but sinks in the grain and dies by suffocation.

Teddy McSwiney Quotes

‘Girls like her [Tilly] need a bloke like me about.’ (Teddy speaks to Molly about wanting to go on a date with Tilly) Part 1

‘I can look after you… that is, if you want me to.’ (Teddy’s proposal to Tilly) Part 2

He could sell seawater to a sailor. (Teddy’s entrepreneurial skills) Part 1

She [Tilly] thought about Teddy McSwiney, and wondered if the rest of town would be as friendly. Part 1

‘…we’d jump into the grain trucks as they pulled out of the loading dock then stay on top of the wheat until we crossed the creek, where we’d jump in…’ (Teddy moments before he dies) Part 2

But it wasn’t a bin brimming with wheat. It was a bin filled with sorghum…. And Teddy vanished like a bolt into a tub of sump oil and slid to suffocate at the bottom of that huge bin in a pond of slippery brown seeds like polished liquid sand. Part 3

Barney McSwiney

Teddy’s younger brother, Barney, is considered an outcast amongst the community due to him being ‘… not quite finished… crooked, with an upside-down head and a crooked foot’ (Part 1). Despite his slow-mindedness, Barney is loyal and although he lacks the means to effectively communicate, he understands a lot more than people give him credit for. Although not fully understanding why, Barney is sensitive to the town’s aversion to Tilly and when her name is scribbled out on the table list at the town’s social gathering, he childishly writes his and her names at the bottom of the list in an effort to include her.

Barney is understandably distraught when Teddy dies; he’s lost his brother, best friend and someone who promised to always watch out for him. He leaves town with his family after Teddy’s funeral, leaving the family cow and a handful of chickens on Tilly’s doorstep as a gesture of peace between them.

Barney McSwiney Quotes

‘Mum says I’m not quite finished. Dad says I’m only five bob out of ten.’ (Barney explaining himself to Tilly) Part 2

She [Tilly] stood unsteadily and held out a hand to him [Barney] but his mouth screwed open and he turned and stumbled away, yowling, holding his arms across his chest. (The final time Tilly sees Barney after Teddy’s death) Part 3

Una Pleasance

A rival dressmaker that arrives in Dungatar; for a time the women prefer using Una as their tailor but her commissioned dresses lack the finesse and speciality that Tilly’s creations do – ‘…no one was ever displeased with anything you [Tilly] made them here, not like that Una…’ (Part 4). She has an affair with Evan Pettyman that ends quickly as Marigold discovers them and murders her husband.

Mr Percival and Mrs Irma Almanac

Being the town chemist, Mr Almanac has access to the citizens’ medical history and as such, believes he is in a more lofty position then the other residents. Ironically, advanced Parkinson’s disease has left him a ‘curved, mumbling question-mark, forever face-down…’ (Part 1) who comically bumps into most things in his shop and most people who roam the main street are wary of his ‘balding head’ (Part 1) hurtling toward them with unstoppable momentum.

Despite his comical relief throughout the novel, he is known to have beaten his wife Irma senseless and although as his condition worsened, her ‘injuries ceased’ (Part 1), the beatings haunt her and she is riddled with the guilt her husband plies her with, believing her to be a sinner and deserving of his violent wrath. Despite the hypocrisy of his claims, her husband believes it is her own sins that have crippled her thusly, and refuses to medicate her pain leading her to resort to eating food that Molly provides her that is laced with narcotics.

Her husband’s sinister methods of dealing with the medical afflictions of the townsfolk leave readers questioning his qualifications in pharmacy, choosing to treat any ailment with the ‘contents of his refrigerator’ (Part 1) and taking it upon himself to punish loose women – this is seen when Faith O’Brien attends the chemist with a vaginal itch brought on by promiscuity and he prescribes ‘White Lily abrasive cleaner’ (Part 1) in disguise. A pious man who embodies the traditional ideology of an aged era – ‘[Drugs are] addictive… all that’s needed is God’s forgiveness, a clean mind and a wholesome diet, plenty of red meat and well-cooked vegetables’ (Part 1).

In a freak accident, Mr Almanac drowns in the small creek in the back yard of his home. As he is retrieved from the mire by Sergeant Farrat, he forms a grotesque image with ‘yabbies’ clinging to his ear lobes and leeches hanging from his lips’ (Part 4).

In her older years, his wife Irma is riddled with arthritis but is still relied on by farmers as a means to predict the weather – a superstition that is not extraordinary in small rural towns.

Miss Prudence Dimm and Miss Ruth Dimm

As the schoolteacher of all the children in Dungatar, Miss Dimm is not thought of fondly, especially by Tilly who remembered her to be a nasty woman who bullied Tilly as a child – ‘Miss Dimm came, cuffed Myrtle [Tilly] over the head and dragged her from the room by her plait’ (Part 2). Typical of a small town, in addition to being the Dungatar teacher, Prudence also held the station of being librarian on Saturday mornings and on every other Wednesday.

Her sister Ruth, another meddlesome woman, works at the post office and telephone exchange and thinks nothing of opening Tilly’s mail and snooping around to unearth information on the other citizens of Dunagatar. Her taboo affair with the pharmaceutical assistant Nancy Pickett is ignored with most of the women refusing to acknowledge the possibility of a lesbian relationship in their midst.

Beula Harridene

Beula is the atypical sticky-beak that every small town has – relentless in her pursuit of gossip and hearsay, thriving off being a loud busybody that is difficult to please. As she lives a decidedly dull life herself, she finds pleasure in creating drama with others’ lives and is a problematic citizen to Sergeant Farrat who must constantly deal with her meddling complaints to him as the law in town. At times, Beula is more like a petulant child then a grown woman, ‘stamped[ing] her feet’ (Part 1) with disappointment that Tilly has returned to town. She is full of nervous energy, constantly ‘hopped[ing] from one foot to the other’ (Part 1) in an action that Farrat suspects is due to her being buck-teethed and therefore ‘starving… malnourished and mad’ (Part 1).

Gertrude (Trudy) Pratt

Beginning the novel as a shy girl who works diligently behind the counter of her parent’s general store, she is transformed by Tilly’s creation for her and insists her ‘gown’ (Part 2) will cement William’s affection for her and erase any suspicion that he was only marrying her because she was pregnant to him. Her ‘dark chestnut locks… swept up in a poised wave’ (Part 2) and ‘the bodice… wrapped firmly about her waist and snugly around her hips…’ (Part 2) is a sharp contrast to the ‘full-faced girl with [the] soft brown eyes’ (Part 2) who worked at the smallgoods counter of her father’s store and made every attempt to woo William by reapplying red lipstick in his presence and speaking in breathy tones.

Once this transformation has occurred, Gertrude (not unlike Tilly) changes her name to Trudy to symbolise her new self and insists everyone, including her family and new husband call her this. Interestingly, Ham is careful to remind us that glamour is fleeting as ‘pregnancy had added almost three stone to Trudy… her face had swelled… [and] fluid bobbed about her stern like lifebuoys of rough waves…’ (Part 2).

Power and ambition play havoc with her inherent ambition to elevate beyond her ranks and she becomes and casualty of these ambitions. By manipulating William into a hasty marriage, they grow further apart from one another until William finally admits over a drink at the bar that ‘I [he] don’t’ [doesn’t] really love my [his] wife’ (Part 3) to which the reply is ‘you’re [he’s] not alone there.’ (Part 3) Trudy is barely tolerated by her husband and his family, becomes an embarrassment to her father and mother and, rightfully, plays a dedicated portrayal of evil Lady Macbeth in the town play.

Gertrude (Trudy) Pratt Quotes

At home, Tilly sat by the fire with a glass of beer and a cigarette, thinking about her schooldays with dumpy little Gertrude who had to wear extra elastic in her plaits because her hair was so thick. Part 2

She let the tea-coloured silk negligee slide over her chilly nipples and looked in the mirror again. ‘I am Mrs William Beaumont of Windswept Crest,’ she said. Part 2

Trudy stepped close to Elsbeth and, leaning down over her, yelled, ‘ You’re always telling me what I can’t do. I can do anything I want.’ (Trudy as the play director) Part 4

Elsbeth Beaumont

Elsbeth is a controlling woman who resides outside of Dungatar on her husband’s farm. Despite her having high hopes that her ‘travelled… worldly’ (Part 1) son William will ‘need to look much further than here to find suitable companionship’ (Part 1), he gets Gertrude Pratt pregnant and there is a hasty wedding to disguise their infidelity.

Predictably, she and her daughter-in-law Gertrude argue about most things and when it is established (albeit foolishly) that the cast of the Eisteddfod no longer require Elsbeth’s funding for the play, she exits the novel calling the residents ‘a bunch of fools… half-wits… uncouth, grotesque and common…’ (Part 4) in a sudden barrage of truths.

William Beaumont Junior

William, an eligible bachelor in the Dungatar town, returns from agricultural college in the first half of the novel. Although Gertrude is originally infatuated with him, William is relatively ambivalent toward the ‘girl leaning over a bin shovelling chaff into a hessian sack’ (Part 1) and believes a man who has ‘mixed in society’ (Part 1) will be able to snag a wife from better circles than the Pratts. William, typical of many young men of the era is pressured to be successful and his mother reminds anyone that will listen that he must ‘work towards our [his family’s] future’ (Part 1) but self-doubt overwhelms him and although he toys with the idea of Tilly as a potential match, in an effort to lose himself in blissful oblivion, he and Gertrude sleep together and a hasty marriage much ensue. Interestingly, in the Eisteddfod, William is cast as King Duncan in the Scottish play, a role of the great King that is betrayed by his loyal friends and dies in the first act.

William Beaumont Junior Quote

‘My future,’ muttered William determinedly, ‘I will make a life worth living here.’ Then self-doubt engulfed him and he looked at his lap, his chin quivering. Part 1

Muriel and Alvin Pratt

The Pratts are owners of the Pratt General Store, the mercantile shop in the centre of Dungatar. Alvin was said to have ‘a courteous manner, but he was mean’ (Part 1) and this is probably why he was not liked by the townsfolk and they usually turned their backs on him. He refers to his daughter as a ‘great calico bag of water…’ (Part 1) and exhibits very little affection toward her throughout the rest of the novel.

His wife Muriel is a pushy snob. She is a meddler and an opinionated gossip who, despite her husband’s insistence that there’s no ‘chance of unloading her [their daughter, Gertrude] to anyone’, pushes her daughter to attend the dance on Saturday in hopes to strike a connection with the town’s newest bachelor, William Beaumont.

Muriel and Alvin Pratt Quote

‘This is the Pratts’ store,’ said Lesley, breaking the trance. ‘The only supply outlet for miles, a gold mine! It’s got everything – the bread monopoly, the butcher, haberdashery, hardware, even veterinary products…’ (Lesley introducing the town to Una) Part 3