The play The Crucible takes place in the Puritan New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, a quite and normal little town during the 1890's. The play begins with a small group of girls that go dancing in the forest with a black slave woman named Tituba. During their dancing, they are caught by Reverend Parris, the local minister. One of the girls, in fact Parris's own daughter Betty, falls into a coma-like state after the dancing. A crowd gathers in the Parris home to see what happened to Betty, while rumors of witchcraft quickly spread in the little town. But this was only the beginning of what was about to come, much more was on its way, many people were to suffer, and many people were to go the gallows. In each of the four acts there are several critical episodes, which are critical to the drama. Miller develops these episodes in a way, which keeps the readers attention to the drama.
             "I saw Goody Hawkins with the devil", "I saw Goody Bibber with the devil", "I saw Goody Booth with the devil". This is how Act I ends just before the curtain falls. It is a situation where everyone is screaming out hysterically, in a very chaotic situation that takes place in Reverend Parris' house next to Betty lying on the bed, with all of the girls that went dancing in the woods, standing next to the bed. All of them are worried about Betty's current situation. This whole chaotic situation has Miller organized so that the reader pays full attention to the play, and by then end of act one when the curtains fall, the reader is left with a feeling, sort of saying: "Oh no, what is going to happen next.." It is a situation based largely upon hysteria and the protection of ones reputation, which eventually could led to hanging if someone said you were in compact with the devil, which in most cases were accusations with no evidence to support it, and yet the people would still get hanged....