The Crucible
Extras
Historical Figures
Ezekiel Cheever
Cheever made several accounts of the activities of his fellow towns-people. One such narrative was used against Philip and Mary English before the court, though this document was second-hand and of questionable authenticity. Before the case could be finalised, the English family fled Salem. Note that few records of the English case have survived.
Giles Corey
In court, Putnam recalled an event from seventeen years previous when Giles Corey had been haled into court to account for the death of a man living in his house who had been found 'bruised to death and having cloddens of blood around his heart'. Giles had somehow got clear of the charge of murder, by enchantment Putnam now realised. While Giles was pressed to death in an open field, Putnam's own daughter was seen in her home to be crushed by the spirits of witches, who told her she should be pressed to death before Corey.
Dept. Gov. Danforth
Historically, Danforth was the least important Salem judge he was the lowest ranking of eight officals at the court. Consequently there is little documentation about this man. Miller has combined six of the judges (Stoughton, Phips, Sewell, Richards, Winthrop and Corwin) with Danforth to create a single figure of authority. Only one other judge remains Hathorne who again, in reality, was superior to Danforth.
Sarah Good
Sarah was idle, slovenly, and considered a nuisance by the community. Her husband William worked as a labourer, and people were reluctant to welcome them both into their homes. During the late epidemic, she was accused of spreading smallpox, and had become something of a tramp, begging from door to door. Pity was not a part of Puritan virtue and she was readily, together with her five-year-old daughter Dorcas, accused of witchery.
Rev. John Hale
Even after the events in Salem, the Rev. John Hale could not cover up the fact that his own wife had been accused. Mrs Hale had the warm affection and entrie respect of her fellow townsmen, who united in caller her accuser a liar. Hale himself was not so sure he found a deep symbolic truth in Mary Esty's story. Hale was troubled by the number of 'afflicted' people though he was 'satisified that those who were most concerned... did not willingly depart from the rules of righteousness', he did not deny that they had been mislead.
Judge Hathorn
The fine old English concept of innocent until proven guilty was not favoured by John Hathorne. Trial by jury was indeed recognised, but not the principle that the judge is bound by the jury's verdict. None of the magistrates saw fit to provide the accused with right of council. Hathorne and Corwin, who conducted the preliminary examinations, carefully prepared for their rτle, using the only recognised law, the Bible. To their dismay, though the holy book names the offence and punishment, it does not define Witchcraft.
Marshal Herrick
There is little documentation concerning Marshal Herrick, However, in the neighbouring town Wenham, Mary Herrick was visited by Mary Esty's Shape. 'I am going up a ladder to be hanged a witch,' Goody Esty told her, 'but I am innocent and before a twelfth-month be past you shall believe it'. Though Mark Herrick said nothing about this Mary Esty's message, she did denounce the next witch who sent her Shape to her, none other than the wife of Rev. John Hale.
Mercy Lewis
Deliverence Hobbs at one point accused Mercy Lewis of sending her shape out against her. On remembering Mercy's honoured position among the accusers, Goody Hobbs swiftly dropped the charge. Mercy's reputation remained unblemished.
Francis Nurse
No one in Salem village would call the Francis and Rebecca 'gentry'. In 1692 they still had six years of repayments to Rev. Allen for their land. Though no one could deny that the Nurses were decent, their conspicuous prosperity had somewhat questionable; their cheerful self-sufficiency was often resented. There was some confusion as to the ownership of some of Allen's land, which ended up in many feuds over felling trees in the north-west wood-lot. This lawsuit fell away to more important events in 1692.
Rebecca Nurse
Rebecca was deeply pious, so steeped in Scripture that the townspeople called her 'blessed'. However, when Rebecca was ill, she did not clearly understand what was said to her. On discovering the events in Salem she said 'I am troubled at some of their crying out. Some of the persons they have spoken of are, as I believe, as innocent as I'. Rebecca was, though ill, soon called to the court. When accused she said 'I know not what to think the devil may appear in my shape'. During the following noise in the court, Goody Nurse, grown too hard of hearing to hear a crucial question from the jurors was finally sentenced.
Betty Parris
Parris' nine-year-old daughter was a sweet biddable girl. She was ready to obey anyone who spoke to her, including to her misfortune, her cousin Abigail Williams. Betty was the sort of child whoreally shared her parents attempt to look at the terrors of Puritan life in an unflinching. The activities in the woods weighed heavily on Betty, and she fell to self-damnation.
Samuel Parris
In November 1694 Samuel Nurse and Thomas Wilkins declared their reluctance to attend the Church was because Parris' sermons were 'dark and dismal', his dwelling on 'mysteries of iniquity... offensive'. When they said they could not join in his prayers, and found no charity in him, Parris offered to release the men to another parish. In April 1695 the council of churches of the North Shore met in Salem, and decreed that 'unwarranted and uncomfortable steps' had been taken by Parris during the 'dark time of confusion'. If there were any who belived that Proctor, Rebecca or Mary Esty were justly put to death, none declared it. Parris elected to leave Salem with £79 9s 6d. His young son Noyes lived with the shadow of the events in Salem, and died insane.
Elizabeth Proctor
Elizabeth was accused some three days after Rebecca's examination and Proctor's outburst ('Hang them! Hang them!') against the girls. One of the children saw her and cried 'there's Goody Proctor Old witch! I'll have her hang!' Elizabeth was about to be released un-accused when John Indian yelled 'There is the woman who came in her shift and choked me!' Half a dozen of the girls said that she had been after them to sign the book. 'Did you not tell me that your maid had written' cried Abigail. 'Dear child, it is not so,' replied Elizabeth. 'There is another judgment, dear child.'
John Proctor
Proctor's involvement with the Salem affair is not well documented. He came, un-summoned, to stand by his accused wife. When Abigail and the other girls fell to a frenzy, he began to raise his voice in the courtroom. 'Why,' exclaimed Abigail, 'he can pinch as well as she!' While Parris did not hear Proctor's outburst, he did indeed hear Abigail. Proctor claimed the girls would 'make devils of us all', and that the common sense of the men had been abdicated before the crazed fantasies of the girls. Proctor knew how to handle the girls, perhaps this was why Mary Warren was absent from the court that day. Proctor's reasoning was seen as blasphemy, and he was soon taken with five others to Boston to await trial.
Ann Putnam
Along with her daughter, also Ann, Goody Putnam became vociferous in her crying out of Rebecca Nurse for the alleged murder of her sister's children. It was also Ann who was visited by the spirt of a man 'murdered' by Giles Corey who insisted on Vengence. He received it. Ann Putnam cried out, accusing Giles Corey of witchery.
Thomas Putnam
Putnam wrote to the magistrates, expressing his gratitude for their 'cares and pains' in behalf of his little girl, Ann, 'for which you know we are never able to make you recompense'. He said it was his duty to 'inform your honours of what we conceive you have not heard, which are high and dreadful... of a wheel within a wheel at which our ears do tingle'. That very day, the girls began seeing spirits and shapes, and all manner of 'Things'.
Tituba
There were two slaves in Parris' household, John Indian, and his consort, Tituba, said to be half Carib and half negro. Tituba spent much time idling with little girls, showing them fragments of forgotten Barbados voodoo. The girls were given over to primal orgy and she released them of the tediums and inhibitions placed on the by their elders. Later, Betty Parris fell ill, and when Parris discovered their enchantments, Betty, torn between devotion and duty cried, 'Tituba... she... oh, Tituba!' Soon the other girls agreed to the charge of witchery on Tituba.
Suzanna Walcott
Suzanna Walcott is Miller's combination of 18 year old Suzanna Sheldon and 16 year old Mary Walcott. Both girls lived close to the Parsonage, and took to visiting Tituba with Abigail Williams and Betty Parris. The girls chose to forget the well-known damnation of such sport - but they did not keep their practice secret. As news spread of Abigail's early afflications, both girls fell into convulsions at the Walcott house. When Dr. Griggs failed to cure the girls, it was clear that the Devil was in Salem.
Mary Warren
Mary Warren was absent from court on the day of the Proctor's trial and for good reason. She was seen as his 'jade', or harlot, and Proctor had indeed won her repsect, if not love. This did not, however, extend to his wife, who was now in the early stages of pregnancy. Yet she would not testify against his wife, and the day the Proctors were taken she was shocked back to sanity. When Mary was summoned, she declared 'I look up to God, and I take it to be a mercy.' The girls began to cry out, and Mary cried 'I will speak, I am sorry for it', but soon she fell to a great fit that rendered her speechless. 22 days later she broke, and denounced Proctor. She was pronounced clensed and joined the other girls in place of honour at the court.
Abigail Williams
Eleven-year-old Abigail was not at all like her younger cousin. She was a robust child, ready to take damnation, death, and most other unpleasant htinds as something that happened to other folk. As the accusations formed, she became the leader of the group of young girls, being the first to accuse the witches: 'Look! There sits Goody Cory on the beam suckling a yellow bird betiwxt her fingers'. It was also Abigail who cried out against John Proctor's jade, Mary Warren.
