1. At the beginning of class… Have The Crucibleon your desk.

2. Last Week What did we do last week? Someone give us a recap on Act One!

3. This Week… • Monday • Act 2 • Tuesday • Act 2 • Wednesday • PSAT, so we will not have classes. • Thursday • Surprise! Bring in food perhaps? • Friday • I will be on the Zoo Retreat, so you will have a free day.

4. Historical Background • In 1692, in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, 24 people were killed after being tried as witches.  Hundreds others were accused of being witches and wizards, but managed to escape the gallows.

5. Historical Background • The unfortunate combination of economic conditions, congregational strife, teenage boredom, and personal jealousies account for the spiraling accusations, trials, and executions that occurred in the spring and summer of 1692.

6. Historical Background • Talk of witchcraft increased when other of Betty's playmates, including eleven-year-old Ann Putnam, seventeen-year-old Mercy Lewis, and Mary Walcott, began to exhibit similar unusual behavior. William Griggs, a doctor called to examine the girls, suggested that the girls' problems might have a supernatural origin when his own nostrums failed to effect a cure.

7. Historical Background • By the time the witchhunt ended, nineteen convicted witches were executed, at least four accused witches had died in prison, and one man, Giles Corey, had been pressed to death. About one to two hundred other persons were arrested and imprisoned on witchcraft charges. Two dogs were executed as suspected accomplices of witches

8. Possible Causes • 1. Strong belief that Satan is acting in the world. • "The invisible world": disease, natural catastophes, and bad fortune attributed to work of the devil 
 • 2.  A belief that Satan recruits witches and wizards to work for him. • Prior witchcraft cases in New England (and Europe before)

9. Possible Causes • 3.  A belief that a person afflicted by witchcraft exhibits certain symptoms. • b. Most symptoms could be made up and pretended. • 4.  A time of troubles, making it seem likely that Satan was active. • a. Smallpox • b. Congregational strife in Salem Village • c. Frontier wars with Indians 


10. Possible Causes 5.  Stimulation of imaginations by Tituba. 6.   A disease caused by eating infecting rye that can produce hallucinations, causing strange behavior.

11. Possible Causes • 7. Teenage boredom. • a. No television, no CDs, and lots of Bible reading • b. Strict and humorless Parris household 
 • 8. Magistrates and judges receptive to accusations of witchcraft. 
 • a. See as way to shift blame for their own wartime failures 
 • b. Admission of spectral evidence 


12. Possible Causes • 9.  Confessing "witches" adding credibility to earlier charges.
 • 10.  Old feuds (disputes within congregation, property disputes) between the accusers and the accused spurring charges of witchcraft.

13. Today We will begin Act 2– so we need people to play the parts.

14. Question • How many days have passed from the end of Act I to the beginning of Act II?

15. Question • What has Salem developed to handle with which situation?

16. Question • What does Elizabeth want John to do? Why is John apprehensive?

17. Question • Why are Elizabeth and John arguing?

18. Tomorrow We will continue the Act.