The narrator breaks in to describe Thomas Putnam as a money-grubbing, vindictive man.Parris admits he has called for Reverend Hale, a renowned witch-hunter, from the neighboring town of Beverly, but only as a precaution. Putnam believes it is the Devil’s sickness. Thomas Putnam enters and the Reverend learns that their daughter, Ruth, is sick too.Ann Putnam enters and wants to know “how high” Betty flew, indicating the kind of rumors going around. Abigail claims that Goody Proctor is a “lying, cold, sniveling woman” who just wanted a slave. Then he wonders what the people in the village say about Abigail, especially since Goody (Mrs.) Proctor fired her. Abigail protests that what they did was all in fun and they were never naked, but the minister says she has still created problems.He says she has put his position in the church in jeopardy, as he has many enemies. Abigail and the Reverend Parris discuss the rumors of witchcraft in the village-and the minister confronts Abigail about how he found girls dancing in the forest.Abigail and the Reverend tell Susanna to go home but not to spread these kinds of rumors in the village.He thinks there might be an “unnatural cause” to the illness, but Reverend Parris denies this possibility. Susanna tells the Reverend that Doctor Griggs can find no cure for Betty’s sickness.(Click the summary infographic to download.) The door opens and seventeen-year-old Abigail Williams, the Reverend’s niece, announces the arrival of Susanna Walcott.
They exchange brief words, as Tituba asks if Betty is getting better, but the Reverend tells her to get out of his sight. Reverend Parris is weeping and praying over his daughter Betty’s bed. The first scene opens as Tituba, the Rev.And all while sounding righteous and religious! The Salem Witch Trials were an opportunity for neighbors to vent against neighbors, to publicly air long-standing jealousy, to accuse those they disliked. But by 1692 much that was good about the Puritans, the narrator suggests, has been lost to history.Because the Puritans sought a community, they managed to survive. The town saw itself as persecuted, a legacy of the persecution Puritans faced in the Old World (Europe).
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