... all of whom died during their infancy. Parris along with the Putmans then exit the room and leave Abigail along with her companions Mary Warren and Mercy Lewis, servants of the Putmans and Proctors, to look over Betty. Abigail takes this opportunity to threaten the girls not to speak a word of anything ... other than the dancing that took place in the woods and the conjuring of Ruth's sister. John Procter then enters the room looking for Mary whom he is there to take home. He is then left alone with Abigail, whom his wife had ... many of the villiage begin to think that these accusations...

• Word Count: 991
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and Abigail Williams display this vindictiveness and narcissistic behavior through Putnam's land-lust, Parris' fixation with his reputation, and Abigail's obsession over John Proctor. Reverend Samuel Parris' greed and obsession with his reputation is shown when he refuses to admit that he has found witchcraft, his ... to which Reverend Hale protests. Reverend Parris' proclivity for protecting his own interests backfires however, when he, instead of agreeing with Danforth about executing John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse in Act IV, is imploring him to spare them. "Tonight, when I open my do...

• Word Count: 2562
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... . Elizabeth is supremely virtuous, but often cold. Reverend Parris The minister of Salem's church. Reverend Parris is a paranoid, power-hungry, yet oddly self-pitying figure. Many of the townsfolk, especially John Proctor, dislike him, and Parris is very concerned with building his position in the community. Rebecca Nurse Francis Nurse's wife. Rebecca is a wise, sensible, and upright woman, held in tremendous ... trials. He is upright and determined to do his duty for justice. Judge Hathorne A judge who presides, along with Danforth, over the witch trials. Herrick he marshal of Salem. Me...

• Word Count: 4038
• Approx Pages: 16
• Grade Level: High School

... . At the same time, Boston minister Cotton Mather published a book, Memorable Provinces, which mentioned a woman with similar symptoms like Betty. The friends of Betty; Ann Putnam, Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, also began to show symptoms of bewitchment. Dr. William Griggs, the same physician who examined Betty, brought to the conclusion that the four girls may have a ... scapegoat for the inevitable. The girls finally confessed that the women who attacked them were Tituba, Sarah Good, and Sarah Osborne. With their suspect list already intact, John Hawthorn and John Corwin investigated t...

• Word Count: 1235
• Approx Pages: 5

... Betty, his daughter, who is in a state of comatose. Earlier, Parris had heard a commotion in the forest and discovered his niece, Abigail, and her friends: Betty, Mary Warren, and Mercy Lewis, and Tituba, his Caribbean slave, swaying and dancing in the forest to Tituba's Barbados songs. Parris is shocked by their anti-Puritan actions and sinfulness. He reprimands Abigail, but the ... -body Mrs. Putnam is convinced the devil is active in Salem, and she forces the notion upon Hale at every chance she can. On the other hand, Salem's resident logician, John Proctor, is irked by the inanity o...

• Word Count: 2297
• Approx Pages: 9
• Grade Level: High School

... entertained them with imaginative tales of fairies and supernatural spirits. Sometimes, other girls joined them. There was Ann Putman, the twelve-year-old daughter of leading citizen Thomas Putman. Mercy Lewis, the Putman's nineteen-year-old-servant, also came along. Elizabeth Hubbard, the seventeen-year-old niece of Dr. William Griggs, sometimes showed up. So did Mary Walcott, sixteen, daughter of ... Putman in-law Jonathan Walcott. Twenty-year-old Mary Warren, the servant of tavern keeper John Proctor, occasionally visited. After seeing the girls acting so strangly, their parents took...

• Word Count: 731
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Salem, to be hung. Hundreds of others faced accusations of witchcraft; dozens spent months in jails with any trials until the hysteria that swept through Puritan Massachusetts subsided. In 1688, John Putnam, one of the most influential elders of Salem Village, invited Samuel Parris to preach in the village church. A year later, after negotiations over salary, inflation adjustments, and free firewood ... was close at hand. Sudden and violent death occupied everyone's minds. Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-ol...

• Word Count: 1724
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... than seventy miles away that the devil was close at hand. Talk of witchcraft increased when other playmates of Betty, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to show signs of similar unusual behavior. When his own nostrums failed to affect a cure, William Griggs, a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the ... house her, and Osborn was old, quarrelsome, and had not attended church for over a year. The Putnams brought their complaint against the three women to county magistrates Jonathan Corwin and John Hathorne. At the e...

• Word Count: 1822
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School