A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement. Act I. Act II. Character Analysis. Important Quotes.
Essay Topics. Discussion Questions. Ten-year-old Betty Parris lies motionless in bed, and a distraught Parris interrogates his niece, Abigail Williams , about her activities the previous night. Get access to this full Study Guide and much more!
Parris tells Abigail that the night before, he saw her in the woods with his Barbadian slave, Tituba , dancing and attempting to conjure spirits. He claims he saw a dress in the grass and someone naked running away. Parris warns Abigail that if the villagers believe she was conjuring spiritsβand practicing witchcraftβthe congregation will rise up against him. Rumors of witchcraft are already spreading through the village, and Parris knows that he must respond quickly before he loses all control.
Parris does not believe her, and he questions her reputation prior to joining his household. Moreover, no other household in the village will accept her as a servant. The SuperSummary difference. Thomas Putnam and his wife, Ann, enter the scene. Putnam harbors a grudge against Parris because his brother-in-law vied for the position Parris holds. Ann believes that her daughter, Ruth, is bewitched.
She claims that Ruth is walking about as though possessed by evil spirits, and that she does not respond to her. This is not the first time, however, that Ann has concerned herself with witchcraft. Parris worries that accusations of witchcraft will send the village into a frenzy. As Mary worries that the town will accuse them of witchcraft, Betty rises from bed and begins to cry out for her dead mother.
