The Puritan community considered physical labor and strict adherence to religious doctrine the best indicators of faithfulness, honesty, and integrity.
Government and religious authority are virtually inseparable, and individuals who question local authority are accused of questioning divine authority. Although the Puritans left England to avoid religious persecution, they established a society in America founded upon religious intolerance. The inhabitants of Salem live in an extremely restrictive society.
He knows that a group of townspeople want to remove him from Salem, and a witchcraft scandal involving his family would give them the power to oust him from the town. Putnam tries to persuade Parris that he should declare the presence of witchcraft, but Parris is worried. Putnam's children have died as infants under mysterious conditions, convince the Putnams that evil spirits are at work in Salem. Ruth's condition, coupled with the fact that seven of Mrs. They reveal to Parris that their daughter, Ruth, has also fallen into a strange trance. Putnam, members of one of the prominent families in Salem, enter the room and declare that Betty's illness results from witchcraft. Parris also questions Abigail about her character and the reason why Goody Proctor, who is the wife of John Proctor and a very respected woman in Salem, dismissed her from working as the Proctors' servant. He thinks that she and Betty have conjured spells. Abigail denies that she and the other girls were participating in witchcraft, but Parris suspects she is lying. Parris says that he saw her and Betty dancing "like heathen," Tituba moving back and forth over a fire while mumbling unintelligibly, and an unidentified female running naked through the forest. Parris, distraught and troubled because he knows that Abigail has not been entirely truthful regarding her activities in the woods, confronts Abigail.
The town physician, Doctor Griggs, who has not been able to determine why Betty is ill, suggests witchcraft as a possible cause. After Parris came out of the bushes, Betty lost consciousness and has remained in a stupor ever since. Prior to the opening of the play, Parris discovered Betty, his niece Abigail, and Tituba, his black slave from Barbados, dancing in the forest outside of Salem at midnight. The Crucible begins in the house of Reverend Samuel Parris, whose daughter, Betty, lies unconscious in bed upstairs.
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