The Crucible Play Guide for AQA GCSE Drama

SECTION B STUDY OF A SET PLAY: THE CRUCIBLE 25 Act 4 Act 3 TIP You will never be asked just to describe the plot of the play. You must show, however, an understanding of the play as a whole and your comprehension of how the events of the play affect the characters and the play’s design. CHECK IT OUT For a complete synopsis of The Crucible , see pages 27–28 of AQA GCSE Drama . The vestry room of the Salem meeting house, next to the room which is serving as the General Court. (The date is not specified, but is approximately a week or two after Act 2.) 4 Off stage, Martha Corey is interrogated by Judge Hathorne. 4 Giles Corey is thrown out of court. 4 Hathorne and Deputy Governor Danforth scold Giles for disrupting the court. 4 Proctor brings in Mary Warren, who says it was all a ‘pretense’. 4 Danforth questions Proctor about his Christian beliefs. 4 Danforth announces that Elizabeth has sent word that she is pregnant. 4 Proctor says that Elizabeth ‘will never lie’ and that the girls were dancing in the woods. 4 Parris asks Mary Warren to pretend to faint in court as she did before, but Mary says that she can’t. 4 While Danforth is questioning Abigail, she claims to feel a cold wind sent by Mary Warren. 4 Proctor grabs Abigail and calls her a ‘whore’. 4 Proctor confesses his previous relationship with Abigail. 4 Elizabeth is brought back in and asked if Proctor had relations with Abigail. 4 When Elizabeth is asked if her husband is a ‘lecher’, she says no. 4 Hale believes Proctor and says that Abigail strikes him as ‘false’. 4 Abigail and the girls claim to see a ‘yellow bird’ and Abigail accuses Mary of trying to hurt her. 4 A frightened and hysterical Mary accuses Proctor of being ‘the Devil’s Man’. 4 Proctor and Giles are arrested, while Hale denounces the actions of the court. A cell in the Salem jail, fall (autumn), three months later 4 Marshall Herrick clears Sarah Good and Tituba out of the cell. 4 Parris tells Hathorne and Danforth that Abigail has robbed him and run away. 4 Parris expresses his fears about executing people like Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, who are admired in the community. 4 Rebecca and Proctor will not confess. Hale asks for them to be pardoned. 4 Danforth refuses to pardon or postpone the executions. 4 Hale and Danforth plead with Elizabeth to get Proctor to confess. 4 Elizabeth tells Proctor of the many who have confessed. 4 Elizabeth says that Rebecca and Giles did not confess, and that he was pressed to death by large stones. 4 Proctor and Elizabeth ask forgiveness of each other. 4 Proctor decides he wants to live, and Hathorne celebrates that he will confess. 4 Rebecca is brought in to witness the confession. 4 Proctor refuses to say that he had seen anyone else with the Devil. 4 Proctor reluctantly signs the confession of involvement with witchcraft. 4 Proctor refuses to have the confession displayed publicly because it is ‘lies’. He tears it up, and he and Rebecca are led away to be hanged. 4 Parris and Hale plead with Elizabeth to get Proctor to change his mind. 4 Elizabeth refuses and Hale weeps and prays.