Cheever is trying to avoid personal responsibility for his actions by repeatedly insisting that he is just doing his job as an official and following orders. He wants to portray himself as having no choice in the matter, so that any negative consequences cannot be blamed on him personally. By emphasizing his role as an official, he aims to deflect criticism or judgment of his own decisions and morality.

1. “The Crucible” Act 2
Think of a time when you have done
something in hopes of making someone
happy, only to have your effort fail. How does
that experience help you understand
Proctor’s feelings when Elizabeth fails to
respond to his attempts to make her feel
better?

2. “I mean to please you,
Elizabeth”?
• He wants her to know
that he is trying to
make up for his past
infidelity He tries to be affectionate
• She doesn’t trust him – and agreeable with
thinks he goes to Salem Elizabeth. Elizabeth is still
to see Abigail hurt and perhaps angry
with him; she cannot or
will not forgive him.

3. What do you think their relationship
was like before the affair? What kinds
of person does Elizabeth seem to you?

4. • Mary Warren is normally
a timid, mousy girl, but
she went into town, even
though she was forbidden
by her mistress.
• Feels herself to be
important now that she is
a witness at court
• the power has started to
go into her head

5. • witchcraft cases in the
court
• 14 people are jailed
• pressured to confess on
punishment of hanging.
• Both John and Elizabeth
know the charges are
fraudulent

6. • Abigail: treated like a saint, they
part for her when she walks with
her girls, listen to her when she
howls and falls to the floor
• Elizabeth urges John to go to
Salem and convince the people
they are being misled; wants
John to repeat Abigail’s denial of
witchcraft when he first talked to
her about the events in town
• Problem: he would have to
reveal that Abigail and he were
alone together

7. • Elizabeth still does not trust
John after his infidelity
• thinks he refuses to accuse
Abigail
• John is angry that she will not
forgive him; is upset at her
judging him still, even though
she is not prefect herself
• Implies that he cheated
because Elizabeth was not a
good/warm wife.
• He will allow God to judge
him, not his wife.

8. “you forget nothing, and you forgive
nothing”
• House is now like a courthouse where he is
constantly judged for lies.
• He has been trying to please her and is sick of
being put down.

9. Read lines 170-180 and paraphrase.
• John says he was weak when he confessed to
her, thinking she was God
• Elizabeth claims that she does not judge
him, but the “magistrate in his heart”
• Guilt makes John think everyone is judging
him

10. Mary Warren is
tired, upset, anxiou
s, overwhelmed by
what is happening.
Mary Warren brings Elizabeth a cloth
doll she had made in court

11. 39 people have now been
accused, Goody Osborn has been
sentenced to hang, Sarah Good
confessed to witchcraft

12. • Mary experiences symptoms of Goody Good’s
“witchcraft” that she describes in lines 249-
256
• Sarah Good described: sleeps in
ditches, old, poor, a beggar, uneducated –
doesn’t know the commandments

13. “But the proof, the proof!”
• the hysteria of the town has caused them
to make accusations and judgments on an
old woman’s faulty memory – that’s no
proof of witchcraft

14. • Mary will no longer
stand for beating
and will go to Salem
despite Proctor’s
disapproval
• she will not be told
what to do
• the girls now have
authority, when
before they were
controlled by the
adult males

15. Abigail accused
Elizabeth - wants
her out of the
way to rekindle
her relationship
with John
• the previously accused women
were of low social status and
easy targets, while Elizabeth is
an upstanding Puritan woman
= girls getting more bold

16. • John blushed when he sees Abigail - says he
blushes for his sin, Abigail sees it as
encouragement and proof of his feelings for
her

17. “The promise that a stallion gives a
mare I gave that girl!”
• no promise at all, John was using her
• Elizabeth thinks John has made Abigail an
unspoken promise that they will be together
• Elizabeth wants John to tell Abby she is a
whore and that he has no interest in a
relationship with her – maybe she would take
back her accusation

18. • Hale’s arrival affect the
mood of the Proctor
house: nervous; Elizabeth
never lets him out of sight
• Accusations: they don’t
often attend church, one
of the boys is not
baptized, John stumbles
over his
commandments, they
deny the existence of
witches

19. • Rebecca Nurse has been recently accused
• she is the most charitable and pious person in
the village
• Accused because she believes in reason, not
witchcraft

20. • Proctor criticizes
Parris: greed – Parris
needs gold candle
sticks to pray and
dreams of
cathedrals
• John would rather
pray at home and
communicate with
God directly

21. • Proctor forgets the commandment against
adultery – it is the sin he has committed

22. • Hale suspects in line 619 that the confessions
are only because the women don’t want to
hang

23. • Elizabeth sees Hale is disturbed by the
Proctors’ answers and he suspects them of
witchcraft
• But doesn’t reveal the information about
Abigail herself - she would never reveal
anything about her husband without his
consent
• Proctor attempts to protect himself and his
wife from scandal – so he stays silent

24. Do you think that Elizabeth will make a
favorable impression in court?
• she is willing to speak her mind even though
her thoughts may be unpopular

25. • Rebecca Nurse is charged with “the marvelous
and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s
babies”
• Hale believes she will be found innocent in
court

26. Explain the lines “remember, until an
hour before the Devil fell, God
thought him beautiful in Heaven.”

27. • Martha Corey is accused of witchcraft
• Walcott says he cannot keep a pig alive
because Martha bewitches them with her
books

28. • Poppet: there is a
needle stuck in the doll;
Abigail had a needle
stuck in her abdomen
and testified that it was
Elizabeth’s spirit that
stuck it in
• Abigail saw Mary make
the poppet and knew
she would give it to
Elizabeth; she injured
herself on purpose

29. Explain lines 876-884: “Is the accuser
always holy now?”
• The justice system in Salem is a sham
• “I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem – vengeance is
walking Salem”
• people are venting their own hatreds and
resentments on others and calling them witches
• “We are only what we always were, but naked
now.”
• the hypocrisy of Salem is now revealed by
vindictive accusations

30. Lines 941-954.
• The town is being punished by God for some
former sin – murder, abomination, secret
blasphemy
• John believes his adultery is the secret

31. • Mary is afraid of going to
the court and telling them
about the poppet
because Abigail has
threatened murder. The
girls will turn on her and
call her a witch
• Abigail threatened
Proctor - she will ruin his
name and reveal his sin of
lechery
• If she does that, then the
town will no longer think
of her as a saint. They
share the crime.

32. • Virtuous
• honest
• courageous
• defensive of her
position as a
Describe Elizabeth wronged wife
• cold toward
John

33. How would you judge John’s behavior
so far? Cite evidence from the play to
support your judgment?
• weak and defensive
• hesitates to expose Abigail
• angry that Elizabeth is
disappointed with him
• full of rage by the end

34. Why do you think that Cheever keeps
repeatedly insisting that he is now an
official and can’t help but do what he
was told?
• defers the blame and
responsibility
• denies his personal
morality