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.