The Crucible—Act One, Overture
Guided Reading Questions: The following questions can be answered in your Writer’s
Notebook OR on this page
1. What did Reverend Parris believe about himself?
2. Paraphrase the Reverend’s attitude toward children.
3. After reading page 4, what seems to be most important to the townspeople of Salem?
4. What did the Puritans believe about the forest?
5. What is a theocracy and why did Salem create one?
6. What does “…the time came in New England when the repressions of order were
heavier than seemed warranted by the dangers against which the order was organized”
mean? (Middle of page 7).
7. Based on the final page of the Overture (page 8), why were so many townspeople
accusing others of witchcraft? In other words, what were the accusers’ motives?