Vocabulary The Crucible ACT I Ingratiating Charming Flattering

Vocabulary The Crucible

ACT I

Ingratiating: Charming; Flattering • The new neighbor's ingratiating ways of sending over baked goodies went unappreciated by the neighborhood scrooge.

Lucifer: referring to Satan; the devil • “Old scores could be settled on a plane of heavenly combat between Lucifer and the Lord; suspicions and the envy of the miserable toward the happy could and did burst out in the general revenge. ” (The Crucible, Act I)

Dissembling: concealing one’s true motives • “Abigail Williams, seventeen, enters—a strikingly beautiful girl, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling. ” (The Crucible, Act I)

Blink: deny or ignore • “I cannot blink what I saw, Abigail, for my enemies will not blink it. I saw a dress lying on the grass. ” (The Crucible, Act I)

Goody: precedes the surname of a married woman. • “You did, you did! You drank a charm to kill John Proctor’s wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!” (The Crucible, Act I)

(name is. . ) white: unblemished, free from moral impurities • “Your name in the town - it is entirely white, is it not? Abigail, with an edge of resentment: Why, I am sure it is, sir. There be no blush about my name. ” (The Crucible,

Succubi: a female demon • “Here all your familiar spirits - your incubi and succubi; your witches that go by land, by air, and by sea; your wizards of the night and of the day. ” (The Crucible,

Predilection: having a preexisting preference for something. • “This predilection for minding other people’s business was timehonored among the people of Salem, and it undoubtedly created many of the suspicions which were to feed the coming madness. ” (The Crucible, Act I)

Calumny: slander; defamation • “Proctor was a farmer in his middle thirties, He need not have been a partisan of any faction in the town, but there is evidence to suggest that he had a sharp and biting way with hypocrites. He was the kind of man powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led. . . In Proctor’s presence a fool felt his foolishness instantly - and a Proctor is always marked for calumny therefore. ” (The Crucible, Act I)

ACT II

Pallor: paleness • “Mary Warren: I am sick, Mr. Proctor. Pray, pray, hurt me not. Her strangeness throws him op, and her evident pallor and weakness. He frees her. My insides are all shuddery; I am in the proceedings all day, sir. ” (The Crucible, Act II)

Ameliorate: to make more tolerable • “Mary Warren: Goody Osborn will hang!. . . He sentenced her. He must. To ameliorate it: But not Sarah Good. For Sarah Good confessed, y’see. ” (The Crucible, Act II)

Base: immoral; corrupt • Elizabeth: Then go and tell her she’s a whore. Whatever promise she may sense break it, John, break it. Proctor, between his teeth: Good, then. I’ll go. He starts for his rifle. Elizabeth, trembling, fearfully: Oh, how unwillingly! Proctor, turning on her, ripe in hand: I will curse her hotter than the oldest cinder in hell. But pray, begrudge me not“ Elizabeth: Your anger! I only ask you - Proctor: Woman, am I so base? Do you truly think me base? Elizabeth: I never called you base. ” (The Crucible, Act II)

Deference: respect; regard to superior or elder • “Parris, as soon as the door begins to open: No - no, I cannot have anyone'. He sees her, and a certain deference springs into him, although his worry remains. Why, Goody Putnam, come in. ” (The Crucible, Act II)

ACT III

Contentious: causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial • As a rule, I tend to avoid contentious topics of conversation which might lead to arguments.

Deposition: testimony taken down under writing an oath. • “Giles, pointing at his deposition: The proof is there! I have it from an honest man who heard Putnam say it! The day his daughter cried out on Jacobs, he said she’d given him a fair gift of land. ”

Imperceptible: impossible to perceive • The physical differences among a pair of identical siblings are typically imperceptible.

Anonymity: the condition of being anonymous; the concealment of idenification • “Danforth, to Giles: Old man, if your informant tells the truth let him come here openly like a decent man. But if he hide in anonymity I must know why. ”

Effrontery: a very confident attitude or way of behaving that is shocking or rude • “Danforth: This is a court of law, Mister. I’ll have no effrontery here!”

Incredulously: skeptically : with disbelief • “Danforth, pointing at Abigail, incredulously: This child would murder your wife? ”

Affidavit: a sworn statement in writing that made especially under oath or on affirmation before an authorized magistrate or officer • “Danforth: Then let him submit his evidence in proper affidavit. You are certainly aware of our procedure here, Mr. Hale. ”

Gulling: fooling or deceiving • “Mary Warren, staring at Abigail: I - have no power. Girls: I have no power. Proctor: They’re gulling you, Mister!”

ACT IV

Beguile: charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in a deceptive way • The car salesman tried to beguile the customer with an offer of free gas for a year.

Cleave: 1. to adhere closely; stick; cling 2. to remain faithful • “Beware, Goody Proctor - cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is mistaken law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. ”

Conciliatory: intended or likely to calm or pacify • The mediator made a conciliatory statement which helped the two parties find common ground.

Allegory: a story in which the characters & events are symbols that stand for ideas about human life or for a political or historical situation • The Crucible is an allegory of the 1950’s communist “witch hunt”.