"The Crucible" - Key Moments - Act 1 Cont.

The Interrogation

Tituba is brought in and Abigail accuses her of making her do it. She says that Tituba makes her drink blood, and the slave admits to giving the girls chicken blood. Abigail blames her wicked dreams on Tituba, and Hale tells the slave to wake Betty. Putnam threatens to have Tituba hanged and, as a result, Tituba is terrifed and clearly willing to say whatever she thinks the men want to hear. In fact, most of what Tituba says is at the prompting of Parris, Putnam, and Hale. This grows more pronounced as the interrogation goes on and she simply repeats the last thing that is said to her. tituba mixes her feelings for Parris and her desire to return to Barbados with her statements about the Devil. She is clearly very confused, but the men are too excited to notice.

Hale asks Tituba if the Devil came alone or with someone whom she recognised. putnam asks is he came with Sarah Good or Osborn. Parris presses her as to whether it was a man or a woman who came and Tituba says that they were all witches out of Salem. Hale tells TItuba that she has confessed and so can be forgiven. She says that four people came with the Devil and that the Devil tried to get her to kill Parris. Tituba names one of the people as Goody Osborn. Mrs. Putnam seizes upon this information as Osborn was her midwife three times.

Mass Hysteria

Abigail uses the confession of Tituba to divert attention from her own actions. She is soon caught up in the hysteria of the moment, albeit pretence on her part. At this point, Abigail realises the effect that strong emotions can hae on a group of weak-minded people. It is here that she witnesses the unusal behaviour of several people who are carried along on a tide of hysteria and it is clear that her actions in Act 3 reflect this new knowledge.