GENRE

NARRATOR

The play is occasionally interrupted by an omniscient, third-person narrator who fills in background details for the characters

CLIMAX

John Proctor tells the Salem court that he committed adultery with Abigail Williams

PROTAGONIST

John Proctor

ANTAGONIST

Abigail Williams

SETTING (TIME)

1692

SETTING (PLACE)

Salem, a small town in colonial Massachusetts

POINT OF VIEW

The Crucible is a play, so the audience and reader are entirely outside the action

FALLING ACTION

The events from John Proctor's attempt to expose Abigail in Act IV to his decision to die rather than confess at the end of Act V

TENSE

Present

FORESHADOWING

The time frame of the play is extremely compressed, and the action proceeds so quickly that there is little time for foreshadowing

TONE

Serious and tragic-the language is almost Biblical

THEMES

Intolerance; hysteria; reputation

MOTIFS

Accusation; confession; legal proceedings in general

SYMBOLS

Though the play itself has very few examples of symbolism beyond typical witchcraft symbols (rats, toads, and bats), the entire play is meant to be symbolic, with its witch trials standing in for the anti-Communist "witch-hunts" of the 1950s.