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ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSIn the spring of 1692, Salem, Massachusetts, a group of girls is discovered dancing in the forest by the local minister, Reverend Parris, whose daughter Betty falls into a mysterious stupor afterward. As rumors of witchcraft spread through the tightly wound Puritan community, Parris's niece Abigail Williams, a seventeen-year-old with a secret past, begins pointing fingers at her neighbors to deflect suspicion from herself. When respected minister Reverend Hale arrives to investigate and the accusations begin to spiral out of control, farmer John Proctor, a man with his own private guilt, must decide whether to stay silent or risk everything to expose the fraud taking hold of his town.
Free Battle of the Books questions for The Crucible
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about The Crucible. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does a grieving mother insist a midwife murdered her babies because they always shriveled in her hands?
✓ Answer
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Mrs. Putnam seizes on Tituba's confession to declare that Goody Osburn, who had served as midwife for her, must have killed her infants. Her vengeful certainty turns her grief into a powerful engine of accusation.
- First half
In what book does a husband recite the Ten Commandments and forget the one about adultery?
✓ Answer
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
John Proctor stumbles through the Commandments at Reverend Hale's request and cannot recall the one against adultery. Elizabeth quietly supplies the word, and the moment is a devastating bit of dramatic irony given his affair with Abigail.
- First half
In what book does a husband call a respected minister "a broken minister" and a "Pontius Pilate"?
✓ Answer
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
John Proctor turns on Reverend Hale in his own kitchen when Hale refuses to stop Elizabeth's arrest. The accusation that Hale is washing his hands of injustice begins Hale's slow awakening to the wrongness of the trials.
- Second half
In what book does a judge admit that nearly four hundred people sit in jail upon his signature?
✓ Answer
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Danforth tells Francis Nurse that four hundred people are jailed from Marblehead to Lynn and seventy-two are condemned to hang, all by his signature. He says this to impress the weight of his authority on anyone challenging the court.
- Second half
In what book does a wife lie under oath to protect her husband's name and unknowingly seal his doom?
✓ Answer
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Elizabeth Proctor, brought in to confirm John's confession of lechery, instead denies it to shield his reputation. Her well-meant lie destroys the case against the girls, since John has just sworn his wife cannot lie.
- Near the end
In what book do two ragged women in a jail cell wait for the Devil to fly them to Barbados?
✓ Answer
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
At the opening of Act Four, Sarah Good and Tituba have gone half mad in jail. They tell Marshal Herrick that Satan is coming to fly them south as a pair of bluebirds, mistaking a bellowing cow for his arrival.
