How old is betty parris in the crucible

This fully emerges in his final act, where he refuses to formalize his sham confession. Rebecca Nurse is the ultimate good, religious community member. She takes on a near godlike aura when she first appears onstage and quiets a troubled child merely by her loving, calm presence. Corey is independent and brave, and he has a lot of knowledge by experience, such as knowing how trials operate due to having been in court multiple times.

He claims that the witch trials are orchestrated just so that the land of those found guilty can be seized, and brings evidence to court, albeit refusing to name his sources.

Reverend John Hale comes from a nearby town and is the recognized authority on witchcraft. He relies on knowledge coming from books, which, he believes hold all the answers. Elizabeth is one of the most upright members of the community, but she is more complex than a stereotype of goodness. At the beginning of the play, she is the aggrieved wife of John Proctor, but, by the end of the play, she becomes more loving and understanding of her husband.

Abigail wants to frame her for witchcraft: After piercing her own abdomen with a needle, she falsely accuses Elizabeth of having pierced the abdomen of a witch's "poppet" doll with a needle in order to torment her, an accusation of witchcraft.

This event leads many in the community to find other reasons to suspect Elizabeth Proctor. Judge Hathorne is one of the officials sent to question the accused witches. He acts as a foil for Proctor and the upright citizens. Thomas Danforth is the chief judge of the court, and views the proceedings as a pretext to cement his power and influence, eagerly convicting anyone brought before him.

He refuses to suspend the trials even as they tear Salem apart. He remains firm in his conviction that the condemned should not be executed. When John refuses to let him post his confession in town, Danforth sends him away to be hanged.

Unable to find anything physically wrong with the girls, the doctor determined they must be bewitched. Samuel Parris, pastor of the church is Salem Village, had a daughter of nine, and a niece of about eleven years of age, sadly afflicted of they knew not what distempers; and he made his application to the physicians, yet still they grew worse: And at length one physician gave his opinion, that they were under an evil hand.

This the neighbours quickly took up, and concluded they were bewitched. After this, the afflicted persons cryed out of the Indian woman, named Tituba, that she did pinch, prick and grievously torment them, and that they saw her here and there, where nobody else could. Yet they could not tell where she was, and what she did, when out of their humane sight.

These children were bitten and pinched by invisible agents: their arms, necks and backs turned this way and that way, and returned back again, so as it was, impossible for them to do of themselves, and beyond the power of any epileptick fits, or natural disease disease to effect. Sometimes they were taken dumb, their mouth flopped, their throats choaked, their limbs wracked and tormented so as might move an heart of stone, to sympathize with them, with bowels of compassion for them.

Although the residents of Salem believed the girls were bewitched, modern theories suggest the girls were possibly suffering from either boredom, child abuse, epilepsy, mental illness or even a disease brought on by eating fungus infected rye. She was sent by her father, at the commencement of the delusion, to reside at Salem with Capt. Stephen Sewall. While there, the Captain and his wife were much discouraged in effecting a cure, as she continued to have sore fits.

Elizabeth said that the great black man, came to her, and told her, if she would be ruled by him, she should have whatever she desired, and go to a Golden city. She related this to Mrs. Sewall, who immediately told the child it was the devil, and he was a liar, and bid her to tell him so if he came to her again; which she did accordingly the next time the black man came to her. The devil, it it would seem, unaccustomed, in those days, to experience such resistance, and utterly astonished at the cool impudence of Betty Parris, never troubled her afterwards; and, although this girl was one of the first originators of the witchcraft delusion, in connection with her cousin Abigail Williams, she appears to have had, afterwards, but little to do with witchcraft.

This arose in consequence of following the sage advice of Mrs. Sewall, in getting rid of the devil; or, what was more probable, in her father taking her from the weekly circle of accusing and bewitching girls, and placing her in a very respectable family in Salem. The Salem Witch Trials ended in and Samuel Parris was later dismissed from his job, in , after years of quarrels and lawsuits between him and his parishioners. Parris then moved away from Salem with Betty and his family, serving as a preacher in Dunstable and then Sudbury, where Betty lived until adulthood.

Putnam accuses her of witchcraft. Francis Nurse Farmer and landowner in Salem. He is a respected member of the community often called upon to settle disagreements between individuals.

Susanna Walcott Friend to Abigail. She also takes part in the trials by falsely accusing others of witchcraft. Giles Corey Elderly inhabitant of Salem. He challenges the court in an attempt to defend his wife who has been convicted of witchcraft. He is pressed to death as a result. Sarah Good Beggar in Salem. She is the first individual accused of witchcraft. Deputy Governor Danforth A special judge serving in the Salem court during the witch trials.

He signs the death sentences for those individuals who refuse to confess their crimes. He refuses to delay any execution for fear that he will appear weak and irresolute. Susanna works for Doctor Griggs and is described by Miller as " a little younger than Abigail, a nervous, hurried girl " p. Eventually, she joins in with Abigail, Betty, Mercy, and Mary as the "afflicted girls" who accuse others of witchcraft.

Mercy is a servant to the Putnams and seems to be the particular caretaker of Ruth. She also appears friendly with Abigail Williams which makes sense, as they were dancing in the woods together and contemptuous of Mary Warren. Mercy is described by Miller as " a fat, sly, merciless [get it, get it, because her name is MERCY yet she shows no mercy] girl of eighteen " p.

She gets to confer with Abigail about getting their stories straight about what happened in the woods since Mercy was apparently running around naked in the woods before she's sent away to get Doctor Griggs for Ruth. Act 4 : Parris says that he believes Mercy has run away with his niece, Abigail Williams p.

Ann Putnam is wife to Thomas Putnam and the mother of the afflicted Ruth who we never see onstage and seven other dead children who we also never see onstage — because they're dead. There appears to be some friction between her and Rebecca Nurse, possibly because Rebecca Nurse has many living children and grandchildren while Ann only has the one child; it also seems that Rebecca may have chided Ann in the past for not being up to snuff p. Let God blame me, not you, not you, Rebecca!

So clearly the woman has some issues. Ann is ready and willing to believe any explanation for why her children died except that it was natural causes understandable for a grieving mother. Goody Osburn were midwife to me three times. I begged you, Thomas, did I not? I begged him not to call Osburn because I feared her. My babies always shriveled in her hands! Thomas Putnam is husband to Ann Putnam and father of the afflicted Ruth.

Described by Miller as " a well-to-do, hard-handed landowner, near fifty " p. Francis is described by Miller as "one of those men for whom both sides of the argument had to have respect," although "as he gradually paid for [the land he'd originally rented] and raised his social status, there were those who resented his rise" p.

Basically, Francis is seen as a fair and upstanding citizen of Salem, although there are some who resent his social-climbing.

Act 1 : Thomas Putnam floats her name as a possible witch p. Act 4 : The first and only time Sarah Good appears onstage is at the beginning of this act: she is hanging out with Tituba in the jail, acting a little crazy, and seeming to see the Devil.

Elizabeth that he "knows [John Proctor] well" p. Act 2 : Cheever comes to arrest Elizabeth Proctor on orders from the court; he is convinced of her guilt when he finds a poppet with a needle stuck in it p.

Act 3 : Cheever testifies about his experience with Goody Proctor and John Proctor in the previous Act finding the poppet after Elizabeth denied keeping them, John ripping up the arrest warrant ; though he prefaces his testimony with an apology to Proctor.

Herrick is the marshal for the court system in Salem, which is to say that he is the person sent to gather up prisoners, stop people from leaving the court and from attacking other people in the court, and lead convicted witches to be hanged.

Act 2 : Along with Cheever, Herrick comes to the Proctors' house to take Elizabeth Proctor away to the jail, as per orders of the court. He also shepherds the prisoners Elizabeth Proctor, John Proctor, and Rebecca Nurse back and forth between the cells, the main room, and ultimately the gallows.

Judge Hathorne is a Salem judge presiding over the witchcraft trials. Judge Hathorne appears in Acts 3 and 4 of The Crucible. Act 3 : Hathorne is very concerned with all civilians showing the proper respect to the court and the law although he's less shrill about it than Parris is.

Fun fact : The character of Judge Hathorne is based on the historical Hathorne who was so reviled that his descendant, author Nathaniel Hawthorne The Scarlet Letter, House of the Seven Gables , changed the spelling of his last name to avoid being associated with him. At the time of the events in the play, Danforth is the Deputy Governor of the entire Province of Massachusetts.

Danforth oversees all of the court proceedings in the play as the highest legal authority. He is described by Miller as " a grave man in his sixties, of some humor and sophistication that do not, however, interfere with an exact loyalty to his position and his cause " p.

While no one in the play seems to like him, exactly, he does command respect from most of the characters, at least at first - as the play continues and it becomes clear that Danforth is more concerned about procedure than justice, characters including Giles Corey and John Proctor vocally display their loss of respect for Danforth. Act 3 : The audience first sees Danforth in his position as the presiding court judge for the witch trials. Act 4 : Danforth fills the audience in on what has been going on in Salem between Acts 3 and 4.

He continues to lack detectable emotions and base his decisions on legality e. When he senses that John Proctor might not be entirely aboveboard in his confession, he warns that if Proctor is lying about being a witch, then he can't stop Proctor from hanging; when Proctor rips up his confession, Danforth feels no qualms about sending him to the gallows p.

Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption! He sweeps out past them. In one case, a character actually has more lines from offstage Martha Corey than another character does onstage Hopkins , while in other cases these offstage, unseen characters are used to move along the action of the play. Martha Corey is the third wife of Giles Corey, accused of witchcraft directly by Walcott and indirectly by Giles himself.

We learn through Francis Nurse that Martha Corey is highly thought of in town - or at least, she was until she was accused of witchcraft p. While Martha never appears onstage, she is mentioned in all four acts and has three offstage lines in Act 3.

Act 1 : Giles first brings up his suspicions that Martha's bookishness is somehow causing him to falter at his prayers despite the fact that he only started regularly going to church when he married her, and so "it didn't take much to make him stumble over [his prayers]" p.

Act 3 : Martha is heard from offstage being questioned by Judge Hathorne about witchcraft at the opening of the act; later, she is mentioned as being one of two accused witches who 91 people declared their good opinion of in a petition p. According to Ruth's parents, Ruth was sent by her mother to Tituba to figure out who supernaturally murdered Ruth's seven dead infant siblings; this is no doubt the reason why Ruth "never waked this morning, but her eyes open and she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat" p.