After this conversation, the magistrates, along with the reverends of the town, call Hester to look at them. ... Unable to get a hint out of her, the magistrates call on the Reverend Dimmesdale, the most popular minister of the town, to decide Hester's fate. Reverend Dimmesdale pleads to Hester to reveal the father's identity, but still, she refuses. ... Meanwhile, venerable Reverend Dimmesdale's body starts to waste away from a mysterious heart condition. ... As he stands on the scaffold, his fellow minister, Reverend Wilson, coming back from the house of late Governor Winthrop...

• Word Count: 3653
• Approx Pages: 15
• Grade Level: High School

Chapter One: The Prison Door Summary A large crowd of Puritans stands outside of the prison, waiting for the door to open. The prison is described as a, "wooden jail...already marked with weather-stains and other indications of age which gave a yet darker aspect to its beetle-browed and gloomy fr...

• Word Count: 5572
• Approx Pages: 22
• Grade Level: High School

Arthur Miller's The Crucible best illustrates this hypocritical attraction-abhorrence nature of the Puritans. They believe that the forest was "the Devil's last preserve."33 Hence, when the Salem minister, Reverend Parris, discovers a group of girls from the town, including his daughter, Betty, and niece, Abigail, dancing and "conjuring up spirits"34 with his slave girl, Tituba, "the rumor of witchcraft [spreads] all about."35 Betty will not wake from what seems to be a deep sleep36. ... Exasperated, Reverend Parris calls on Rev. ... This novel does not deal so much with w...

• Word Count: 3126
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School