The+Crucible+Characters

**Below you will find a list of main characters. As we read, we will add information that we learn about each character. We may also add characters that we find important.**
Abigail Williams: One of the main accusers in the Salem Witch trials. The 11-year-old niece of Reverend Samuel Parris showed signs of fits and hysterics in mid-January 1692. She and her 9-year-old cousin Betty were the first two afflicted girls in Salem Village. Abigail gave formal testimony at 7 cases, and she was involved in as many as 17 capital cases.

John Proctor: An elderly man of 60 years of age, was accused, tried, and hanged for practicing witchcraft in 1692. Maintaining his innocence until death, he challenged the court to reexamine the validity of spectral evidence. Though it did not save him, his legacy is remembered in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Though not an historically accurate depiction, The Crucible does bring attention to the story of John Proctor and his struggle as an innocent man.

Elizabeth Proctor-Like many puritan women, Elizabeth Proctor is reserved, slow to complain, and dutiful. Yet, Elizabeth is pained by the fact that her husband was having an affair with their “strikingly beautiful” young servant.

Reverend Parris:

Betty Parris: Elizabeth "Betty" Parris ( November 28, 1682 – March 21 , 1760 ) was the nine-year-old daughter of the Salem villages' reverend Samuel Parris (1653–1720) and was the first to become ill after being "bewitched" as most people thought. Her contortions, convulsions and outbursts of gibberish at first baffled everyone, especially when other girls began to show similar symptoms. Shortly after her illness, the Salem witch trials began, with the girls accusing neighbours of witchcraft.

Reverend Hale: Reverend John Hale was born on June 3rd, 1636 in Charlestown Massachusetts. He attended the prestigious Harvard College in Boston and graduated in 1657. Ten years later on September 20th, he was ordained as the first minister of the First Parish Church in Beverly. Rev. Hale is best known for his involvement with the Salem witchcraft trials in 1692. After being at the forefront of the prosecutions he was stricken by a dramatic change of heart when his second wife Sarah was accused of witchcraft. She was never convicted as much of what is now Beverly Ma. strongly believed that such a pure and honest woman could never be a witch. Shortly thereafter the trials were concluded. After Sarah's death in 1697 Rev. Hale wrote a book titled A Modern Enquiry into the Nature of Witchcraft, which condemns those who took leading roles in the trials.

John Hathorne: Born into a well-established Salem family on August 5, 1641, John Hathorne became a local Salem magistrate and was chosen by Governor Sir William Phips to be a judge in the Salem Witch Trials. During the trials, Hathorne took on the role of a prosecutor rather than an impartial judge. Hathorne's questioning always began with a presumption of guilt rather than innocence, and he appeared to be on the side of the accusers. Hathorne altered the tradition of previous witch trials by encouraging those under examination not only to confess to witchcraft but also to name others who might be witches - a move that accelerated the number of accusations. He died in Salem on May 10, 1717, and was later a prominent target of criticism by his own great-grandson, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Tituba: Holds one of the most infamous (yet still debated) places in the history of the Salem Witchcraft Trials. Tituba was an Indian slave in the service of Reverend Samuel Parris, in whose home the diagnosis of witchcraft was first made. She was the first accused (along with Sarah Osborne) and was also the first to confess. Tituba's confession set a precedent and pattern that would run the course of the trials -- accused witches confessed and then became accusers themselves, thereby validating the previous accusations and the need for continuing investigations and trials, as the court desired. Though Tituba was not executed for her participation as a "detestable Witch," she was forced to languish in jail for thirteen months after Parris refused to pay her imprisonment costs. She was finally freed from jail when an unknown person redeemed her jail fees and took her from the Village. Nothing is known about her life beyond Salem Village.

Thomas DanforthHe was born in Framlingham, Suffolk, England as the eldest son of Nicholas Danforth (1589-1639) and Elizabeth Symmes (1596-1629). Danforth immigrated with his father, brothers Samuel Danforth and Jonathan, and sisters Anna, Elizabeth, and Lydia to New England in 1634 on the ship the Griffin; Anne Hutchinson was also aboard ship. The family along with the 200 or so other passengers aboard left to escape persecution for their Puritan beliefs. (Archbishop William Laud had begun his persecution of Puritans in England in 1633).

Mary Warren: Born twenty years before the Salem Witch Trials began, Mary Warren became one of the most rigorous accusers -- and also a defender and confessor, a unique role among the accusing girls of Salem Village. As the servant of John and Elizabeth Procter, opponents of the trials who thought that the accusers should be punished, Mary encountered much resistance from the two regarding her participation in the trials. Most significantly, Warren introduced the possibility of fraud on the part of the accusing girls when she stated that they "did but dissemble." Arthur Miller's play The Crucible focuses on this unique aspect of Mary Warren's behavior. After her own confession, Warren more actively participated in the accusations, including those against the Procters. She was released from jail in June, 1692.