The Crucible - Characters
Reverend Parris: Salem’s unpopular minister; supports Danforth; becomes worried about discontent in the community and finally fears for his own life.
Betty Parris: Ten-year-old daughter to Reverend Parris; unconscious at the play’s beginning; one of the girls who was dancing in the forest and who names witches.
Tituba: Parris’s slave from Barbados; present with the girls when they danced and ‘conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of the grave’; confesses to having seen the Devil and names Sarah Good and Goody Osburn.
Abigail Williams: Parris’s seventeen-year-old niece; former servant of the Proctors and lover of John; dismissed by Elizabeth, whom she names as a witch; leads the other girls in the naming of witches; manipulates and terrifies Mary Warren by claiming to see her spirit as a ‘yellow bird’; steals from Parris and leaves town when the executions begin.
Susanna Walcott: ‘a nervous, hurried girl’; younger than Abigail; one of the girls who name the witches.
Ann Putnam: Mother to Ruth; has lost seven of eight children; blames Rebecca Nurse and accuses her of witchcraft.
Thomas Putnam: A powerful and well-off man in Salem; leads the accusations of witchcraft, motivated mainly by a desire to acquire more land.
Mercy Lewis: The Putnams’ servant, ‘a fat, sly, merciless girl of eighteen’; one of the girls who danced in the forest and who name the witches; leaves Salem with Abigail when the executions begin.
Mary Warren: The Proctors’ servant; aged seventeen; one of the girls who danced in the forest and who name the witches; makes a deposition against Abigail but then, manipulated by her, accuses Proctor of being ‘the Devil’s man’ and begs forgiveness from Abigail.
John Proctor: Farmer in his mid-thirties; respected in Salem but opposed by Parris and Putnam; has had an affair with Abigail which places pressure on his marriage to Elizabeth; persuades Mary to make a deposition against Abigail; confesses his affair to Danforth; convicted of ‘sending [his] spirit out upon Mary Warren’; confesses but then tears up his confession and is hanged.
Rebecca Nurse: Aged seventy-two; widely liked and admired; named as a witch and convicted of murdering the Putnams’ children; refuses to confess and is hanged.
Giles Corey: A farmer; aged eighty-three; pressed to death because he will not name an informant.
Reverend John Hale: Nearly forty years old; investigates the claims of witchcraft; quits the court in disgust when Proctor and Giles are arrested; realises that the convicted are actually innocent.
Elizabeth Proctor: John’s wife; dismisses Abigail and is later named by her; hurt by Proctor’s affair but stands by him and respects his choice not to confess publicly.
Francis Nurse: Rebecca’s husband; a well-respected, prosperous farmer; attempts to save his wife with a petition, only to realise he has given the court a list of sympathisers to those who are named.
Ezekiel Cheever: A tailor who helps to carry out the court processes and tries not to think about whether they are just or not.
Marshal Herrick: A law officer with a conscience, Herrick does his duty reluctantly, especially in executing Proctor. He tries to speak up for Proctor’s character, and starts drinking when he cannot stand the strain of punishing neighbours and friends.
Judge Hathorn: The judge who presides over the Salem court; has little compassion or self-doubt; convinced that the convictions and hangings are just.
Deputy-Governor Danforth: In his sixties; takes charge of the investigation; sympathises with Abigail and the girls; defends the judicial process and authority of the court; ‘tests’ Proctor’s admission of ‘lechery’ by questioning Elizabeth; obtains Proctor’s confession but is defeated when Proctor tears it up.
Sarah Good: A minor character; Tituba and Sarah are in jail together in Act 4, safe from hanging because they have confessed.
Hopkins: A guard in Salem jail.
Source: Insight Study Guide (2010)
Betty Parris: Ten-year-old daughter to Reverend Parris; unconscious at the play’s beginning; one of the girls who was dancing in the forest and who names witches.
Tituba: Parris’s slave from Barbados; present with the girls when they danced and ‘conjured Ruth’s sisters to come out of the grave’; confesses to having seen the Devil and names Sarah Good and Goody Osburn.
Abigail Williams: Parris’s seventeen-year-old niece; former servant of the Proctors and lover of John; dismissed by Elizabeth, whom she names as a witch; leads the other girls in the naming of witches; manipulates and terrifies Mary Warren by claiming to see her spirit as a ‘yellow bird’; steals from Parris and leaves town when the executions begin.
Susanna Walcott: ‘a nervous, hurried girl’; younger than Abigail; one of the girls who name the witches.
Ann Putnam: Mother to Ruth; has lost seven of eight children; blames Rebecca Nurse and accuses her of witchcraft.
Thomas Putnam: A powerful and well-off man in Salem; leads the accusations of witchcraft, motivated mainly by a desire to acquire more land.
Mercy Lewis: The Putnams’ servant, ‘a fat, sly, merciless girl of eighteen’; one of the girls who danced in the forest and who name the witches; leaves Salem with Abigail when the executions begin.
Mary Warren: The Proctors’ servant; aged seventeen; one of the girls who danced in the forest and who name the witches; makes a deposition against Abigail but then, manipulated by her, accuses Proctor of being ‘the Devil’s man’ and begs forgiveness from Abigail.
John Proctor: Farmer in his mid-thirties; respected in Salem but opposed by Parris and Putnam; has had an affair with Abigail which places pressure on his marriage to Elizabeth; persuades Mary to make a deposition against Abigail; confesses his affair to Danforth; convicted of ‘sending [his] spirit out upon Mary Warren’; confesses but then tears up his confession and is hanged.
Rebecca Nurse: Aged seventy-two; widely liked and admired; named as a witch and convicted of murdering the Putnams’ children; refuses to confess and is hanged.
Giles Corey: A farmer; aged eighty-three; pressed to death because he will not name an informant.
Reverend John Hale: Nearly forty years old; investigates the claims of witchcraft; quits the court in disgust when Proctor and Giles are arrested; realises that the convicted are actually innocent.
Elizabeth Proctor: John’s wife; dismisses Abigail and is later named by her; hurt by Proctor’s affair but stands by him and respects his choice not to confess publicly.
Francis Nurse: Rebecca’s husband; a well-respected, prosperous farmer; attempts to save his wife with a petition, only to realise he has given the court a list of sympathisers to those who are named.
Ezekiel Cheever: A tailor who helps to carry out the court processes and tries not to think about whether they are just or not.
Marshal Herrick: A law officer with a conscience, Herrick does his duty reluctantly, especially in executing Proctor. He tries to speak up for Proctor’s character, and starts drinking when he cannot stand the strain of punishing neighbours and friends.
Judge Hathorn: The judge who presides over the Salem court; has little compassion or self-doubt; convinced that the convictions and hangings are just.
Deputy-Governor Danforth: In his sixties; takes charge of the investigation; sympathises with Abigail and the girls; defends the judicial process and authority of the court; ‘tests’ Proctor’s admission of ‘lechery’ by questioning Elizabeth; obtains Proctor’s confession but is defeated when Proctor tears it up.
Sarah Good: A minor character; Tituba and Sarah are in jail together in Act 4, safe from hanging because they have confessed.
Hopkins: A guard in Salem jail.
Source: Insight Study Guide (2010)