 Hello and welcome. Now, in this video, I'll be going over a very brief plot overview of all the events that happen in the play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller. Now, this video is really useful, especially if you're a little bit pressed on time. If, for example, you're looking at this video in advance of having to sit an exam very soon or completing your coursework, this video is basically going to give you a very broad overview of all the key events that you need to remember for all four acts in this play. Of course, do remember that I do have another much more detailed video where go into more lots of detail in what happens in each act. Therefore, if you do have a bit of time and you want to kind of become a bit better versed in the key events and the more the detail that happen, do make sure you check out that other video. However, in this video, I'll be giving you just a very general overview of what happens and all the key events that you need to remember. Of course, if you are very comfortable and confident in the play and you know all the different areas, really just see this video as kind of icing on the cake, kind of brushing up your knowledge on these key events. Now, when it comes to Crucible, this very infamous and very controversial play by Arthur Miller, it starts with us meeting Reverend Parris and we learned that his daughter Betty is sick. In fact, he's by her bedside. He's looking at her. He's in her sparse spare room. In other words, her room is very sparse. It's very puritanical. There's not that many decorations. Now, he's by her bedside and we learn that there's this fear in Salem, this town that they live in, that it's witchcraft that has caused her to be sick. Now, as the events develop, of course, other people now come to visit and see and they all start wondering whether witchcraft is afoot. The Putnam's who are very influential family, the wife and Putnam also says, oh, I also lost seven children. I think that's witchcraft. I think somebody, Rebecca Nurse maybe, had a role in playing and bewitching me and bewitching my children and causing them all to die. So there's now all of these fears of witchcraft. Now, as the play progresses, we learn that Abigail and Betty were seen by Reverend Parris himself in the night before dancing in the woods with Tituba. And Tituba is the only black character in this play. She is the slave of Reverend Parris. Do you remember that this happened in the 1600s? So of course, that's when slavery was legal. Now, essentially, we learn that Abigail and Betty, they are somehow connected with this sickness that Betty has. Now, Abigail, when she's asked about this and she's questioned about this, she essentially says Tituba, the slave, called on the devil that night. And that's why Betty is really sick. And then Tituba, when Reverend Parris threatens to whip her, she then confesses out of fear that, yes, she was there and she did this, but she also confesses and says that there are other witches in town too. She's not the only witch. There also are the people. And of course, this is to deflect from her and of course, to make sure that she doesn't get killed. She's saying this out of fear because she's trying to see if there's a way she can get out of this bind that Abigail has put her in. Now, as the play progresses, we then learn that while Reverend Parris and the Putnam's, they then go outside, the Putnam's ask him to lead them in prayer. Whilst they are outside praying to really, for Betty's health, for witchcraft to be removed from the town of Salem, another key character, John Proctor, comes in. And then we learn that Abigail, actually, she used to work for the Proctor household and she was dismissed, she was fired as a servant girl for them under very mysterious circumstances. And now here we learn why. We learned that it's because Abigail and John Proctor had an affair and the wife, Elizabeth, Mrs. Proctor, she then discovered their affair and of course kicks Abigail out. Now, when John Proctor does come in, we get the sense that he's very tall, very good looking and Abigail is still very much in love with him and she does try to seduce him and he really pushes her away and he says what happened between them was before and he doesn't want any more parts of this, okay? So, he comes in and of course, we then learn that they had an affair and his wife, Elizabeth, knows. Now, we then move on to the Proctor household. So, John Proctor and Elizabeth's home and they are essentially arguing because Elizabeth seems very distant, a little bit cold and of course, she's very upset as to John Proctor's past affair with Abigail and she seems to be very insecure whether he's still faithful to her. And of course, on the other hand, John Proctor, he is really angry. He feels like he's shown a lot of penance. He shows, he feels like he's shown that he's really repented for this sin but his wife doesn't seem to appreciate it. So, there's a bit of tension and argument and we sense that there's quite a lot of tension in their marriage. Then, we also learn it's getting quite dark and they have another servant girl, Mary, and she comes in late and John Proctor is very angry. In fact, he threatens to also beat her and Mary, however, tells them that not only is she late because of the court she was there as a key witness but actually, Elizabeth Proctor has been implicated among lots of other people as a witch and she faces the danger of also being killed for witchcraft to which both John Proctor and Elizabeth are really shocked and of course, Elizabeth Proctor suspects that Abigail had testified against her as revenge for not only kicking her out of her home and seemingly disgracing Abigail but also it's revenge because if Elizabeth is killed after being convicted of witchcraft, Abigail will be able to be together with John Proctor and John Proctor could possibly marry her. So, Elizabeth is very angry. Now, Mary then gives Elizabeth a gift that she made her while she was in court. So, she was sowing and creating a little puppet, a small doll and she put a pin inside the puppet. However, men arrive ultimately and not only say that they're there to pick up Elizabeth to take her into court for hering but it's also because in charges that Abigail says that Elizabeth had stuck a needle into her stomach and of course, this is in line with the puppet that Mary has given over to Elizabeth which has the needle stuck in its stomach. So, of course, Elizabeth has no way of proving that this puppet was given to Mary. The men lead her away and of course, John Proctor grows really angry at Abigail's very scheming manner which is going to cost his wife her life. Now, once Elizabeth is arrested and taken away, now we start finding that there's now a lot of hysteria in Salem Town. There's all this hysteria and the pronunciation of witchcraft, it becomes very hard. If you are pronounces a witch, you are just as well basically dead because it's very hard to prove that you are not. Now, John Proctor is really angry that his wife has been accused of something that she's not guilty for and of course, this accusation has come because of him, because of him engaging in a sexual affair with Abigail. So, he also feels very much that he needs to clear his wife's name so that she doesn't lose her life simply because of this affair. Therefore, John Proctor forces Mary to go with him. So, Mary realized that Abigail has got a lot of these servant girls really scared of her and her authority. However, Mary initially at first doesn't really want to testify against Abigail but John Proctor convinces her to go with him to the courthouse in order to show that the puppet not only belongs to her but Abigail is lying about these witchcraft ideas and she's lying by accusing Elizabeth of witchcraft. They get to the courthouse and Mary does testify and show that Abigail is wrong. Abigail was brought in and Proctor in order to now really show that Abigail is not a character that's trustworthy. He therefore confesses confesses to Letcherie, which is basically adultery between him and Abigail. Now, of course, Abigail is she tries to deflect this and the Danforth and the other judges then ask Elizabeth to be brought in in order to confirm whether this letcherie, this adultery took place. Elizabeth doesn't know that John Proctor has confessed that this happened. So, in order to protect her husband's name, she lies for the first time in her life and says that there was no adultery and of course this really sills both her fate and John Proctor's fate because John Proctor is therefore arrested. Now, Abigail, Mercy and Betty, whilst this is all happening in order to deflect and to make people distracted, that Abigail has also committed a sexual sin, she now starts acting with Betty and Mercy as if they are possessed as a result of Mary and of course this is the very same thing that Mary was really scared of. She would be discredited because she realizes that Abigail has this power of almost hypnotizing other people to really see things from her perspective. Now, they basically act bewitched and this causes Mary to go crazy in front of the other men and Mary ultimately accuses Proctor, which obviously seals his fate even further, she accuses him of making her sign the devil's book and this causes Proctor to be arrested also for being involved in witchcraft, being involved in sorcery. Finally, the play ends with basically Proctor, Rebecca and a lot of people in Salem Town being arrested, many of them being hanged and they are languishing by act four. We find that Proctor, John Proctor, Elizabeth, Rebecca Nurse, all of these people are languishing in jail. We also learned that Abigail and Mercy have run away and Abigail has stolen Reverend Parris's money and run off and Reverend Parris is really really scared because I've heard of rebellions in nearby towns, people getting really angry at these false accusations of witchcraft and this makes Reverend Parris really really scared of the consequences of these all these false allegations and of course he also read us as that Abigail was lying. However, whilst they try and get John Proctor to basically confess that he did indeed have a patch of the devil, they try to get him to confess guilt in order to let him off the hook, John Proctor refuses to confess guilt and ultimately the play ends with John Proctor being killed even if he's innocent, Rebecca Nurse being killed and of course we also learned that key characters like the Putnam's benefit financially from all of these killings because it can just take over all of this property, okay? So that's really it when it comes to understanding the plot of the crucible and some of the major issues and major events that happen within this play but do remember that I do have a much more detailed video where I go into detail as to what happens in each particular act, there's four acts in total, so do make sure you check that out if you want a bit more depth. Thanks so much for listening.