Witch hunt text :1 The Crucible, Arthur Miller

 

The Crucible

By Arthur Miller

ACT I: Scene 1

SETTING: A bedroom in Reverend Samuel Parris‘ house, Salem, Massachusetts, in the Spring of the year, 1692. As the curtain rises we see Parris on his knees, beside a bed. His daughter Betty, aged 10, is asleep in it. Abigail Williams, 17, ENTERS.

ABIGAIL:Uncle? Susanna Wallcott‘s here from Dr. Griggs.

PARRIS: Oh? The Doctor. (Rising.) Let her come, let her come.

ABIGAIL: Come in Susanna.(Susanna Walcott, a little younger than Abigail, enters.)

PARRIS: What does the doctor say, child?

SUSANNA: Dr. Griggs he bid me come and tell you, Reverend sir, that he cannot discover no medicine for it in his books.

PARRIS: Then he must search on.

SUSANNA: Aye, sir, he have been searchin‘ his books since he left you, sir, but he bid me tell you, that you might look to unnatural things for the cause of it.

PARRIS: No-no. There be no unnatural causes here. Tell him I have sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly, and Mister Hale will surely confirm that. Let him look to medicine, and put out all thought of unnatural causes here. There be none.

SUSANNA: Aye, sir. He bid me tell you.

PARRIS: Go directly home and speak nothin‘ of unnatural causes.

SUSANNA: Aye, sir, I pray for her. (Goes out.)ABIGAIL: Uncle, the rumor of witchcraft is all about; I think you‘d best go down and deny it yourself. The parlor‘s packed with people, sir.--I‘ll sit with her.

PARRIS: And what shall I say to them? That my daughter and my niece I discovered dancing like heathen in the forest?!

ABIGAIL: Uncle, we did dance; let you tell them I confessed it. But they‘re speakin‘ of witchcraft; Betty‘s not witched.

PARRIS: Abigail, I cannot go before the congregation when I know you have not been open with me. What did you do with her in the forest?

ABIGAIL: We did dance, Uncle, and when you leaped out of the bush so suddenly, Betty was frightened and then she fainted. And there‘s the whole of it.

PARRIS: Child. Sit you down. Now look you, child-if you trafficked with spirits in the forest, I must know it, for surely my enemies will, and they‘ll ruin me with it...Abigail, do you understand that I have many enemies?

ABIGAIL: I know it, Uncle.

PARRIS: There is a faction that is sworn to drive me from my pulpit. Do you understand that?

ABIGAIL: I think so, sir.

PARRIS: Now then-in the midst of such disruption, my own household is discovered to be the very center of some obscene practice. Abominations are done in the forest...

ABIGAIL: It were only sport, Uncle!

PARRIS: I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came on you; why were she doing that? And I heard a screeching and gibberish comin‘ from her mouth...

ABIGAIL: She always sings her Barbados songs and we dance.

PARRIS: I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail-for my enemies will not blink it. And I thought I saw a....someone naked running through the trees!

ABIGAIL: No one was naked! You mistake yourself, Uncle!

PARRIS: I saw it! Now tell me true, Abigail. Now my ministry‘s at stake; my ministry and perhaps your cousin‘s life.....whatever abomination you have done, give me all of it now, for I dare not be taken unaware when I go before them down there.

ABIGAIL: There is nothin‘ more. I swear it, Uncle.

PARRIS: Abigail, is there any other cause than you have told me, for Goody Proctor dischargin‘ you? It has troubled me that you are now seven months out of their house, and in all this time no other family has called for your service.

ABIGAIL: They want slaves, not such as I. Let them send to Barbados for that, I will not black my face for any of them!

(Enter Mrs. Ann Puttnam. She is a twisted soul of forty-five, a death-ridden woman, haunted by dreams.)

PARRIS: Why, Goody Putnam, come in.

ANN: It is a marvel. It is surely a stroke of hell upon you...

PARRIS: No, Goody Putnam, it is...ANN: How high did she fly, how high?

PARRIS: No—no, she never flew...

ANN: Why, it‘s sure she did; Mister Collins saw her goin‘ over Ingersoll‘s barn, and come down light as bird, he says!

PARRIS: Now, look you, Goody Putnam; she never...(Enter Thomas Putnam, a well-to-do, hard-handed landowner near fifty.) Oh, good morning, Mister Putnam...

PUTNAM: It is a providence the thing is out now! It is a providence.

PARRIS: What‘s out, sir, what‘s...?

PUTNAM: (Looking down at Betty.) Why, her eyes is closed! Look you, Ann.

ANN: Why, that‘s strange. Ours is open.

PARRIS: Your little Ruth is sick?

ANN: I‘d not call it sick, the Devil‘s touch is heavier than sick, it‘s death, y‘know, it‘s death drivin‘ into them forked and hoofed.

PARRIS: Oh, pray not! Why, how does your child ail?

ANN: She ails as she must—she never waked this morning but her eyes open and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat. Her soul is taken, surely.

PUTNAM: They say you‘ve sent for Reverend Hale of Beverly?

PARRIS: A precaution only. He has much experience in all demonic arts, and I ...ANN: He has indeed, and found by a witch in Beverly last year, and let you remember that.

PARRIS: I pray you, leap not to witchcraft. I know that you, you least of all, Thomas, would ever wish so disastrous a charge laid upon me. We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such a corruption in my house.

PUTNAM: Now, look you, Mr. Parris; I have taken your part in all contention here, and I would continue; but cannot if you hold back in this. There are hurtful, vengeful spirits layin‘ hands on these children.