John Proctor
A farmer who lives just outside of Salem. He serves as the voice of reason in the play yet he is compromised by a scandalous secret. He is the one who exposes the girls and their lies about practicing witchcraft and for this reason he is the tragic hero in the play. But because of his affair with Abigail, he questions his own moral standing in the community. In the end he cannot take a final stand for justice and gives himself over to the gallows.
The wife of John Proctor. She shares her husband’s strict moral and religious views. She has a confidence in her morality. She believes there through strict adherence to these moral and Christian principles a person can maintain their principles even when those principles conflict with strict Christian doctrine. Because she is considered to be of such high moral character, this very quality is what ultimately gets her husband condemned when she lies about his affair with Abigail. However, Elizabeth comes over as cold and demanding and we are led to suspect that this demeanor is what may have led her husband to have an affair with Abigail.
The seventeen year-old niece of Reverend Parris. Abigail was a servant to the Proctors before she was let go by Elizabeth for having an affair with her husband John. She seems malicious and vengeful in the play. It is Abigail who creates the hysteria over witchcraft after she is caught dancing by Reverend Parris. She wrongfully accuses the others of witchcraft to cover herself from charges. She also charges Elizabeth Proctor of witchcraft in order to take her husband. We learn that much of her vicious nature is largely due to childhood trauma. She was orphaned after watching her parents murdered by Indians.
Deputy Governor Danforth
As the Deputy Governor of Massachusetts, he presides over the Salem witch trials. He is cold and stern man, more interested in preserving the dignity of the court than in justice or fairness. He adheres to the rule of law over any considerations for real justice or fairness. To this end, he is a figure of irrationality in the play. He equates the accusation of witchcraft with guilt. He is made ineffective as he attempts to compel John Proctor to sign a confession to avoid execution, thus preserving the dignity of the court. When Proctor defies him and willingly goes to the gallows, the irrationality of the law is made exposed.
Reverend Samuel Parris
A paranoid and fearful man, Parris sets much of the witchcraft hysteria in motion after he finds his daughter and niece dancing in the woods with the other girls. He is paranoid and continually afraid that others will conspire against him. He knows that Abigail is lying about witchcraft but he perpetuates this lie because he sees it as in his own self-interest. He perceives any attack of the charges of witchcraft as an attack on the court and on him. He seeks personal aggrandizement and monetary gain through the acquisition of property in the form of the preacher’s house.
Reverend John Hale
Hale is a scholar who comes to Salem for Beverly at the request of Reverend Parris in order to investigate charges of supernatural activity and witchcraft. His approach is rational and intellectual. He believes he can explain these events in purely rational and natural terms. Though initially enthusiastic about the events in Salem, he soon grows tired of the accusations and eventually defends Proctor. He goes so far as to challenge the allegations from Abigail, largely out of a sense of guilt for the potential wrongful conviction of Proctor.
Giles Corey
Something of a comic figure in the play, Corey is known for having brought numerous suits to the court. He may have unwittingly fanned the flames of the witchcraft hysteria by wondering aloud at the strange things his wife had been reading. However, he remains on the side of Proctor and defends him against the charges of the girls. He believes that it is Thomas Putnam who caused the charges to be filed in order to secure land. He refuses to name this in court and he is killed when the court weighs him down with stones in order to force him to tell what he knows.
Mary Warren
The servant in the Proctor household, eighteen year-old Mary is found dancing in the woods with the other girls. She is a weak person and easily influenced by others. Although she defies the Proctors by going to court to testify against Abigail, she eventually breaks down when she is accused of witchcraft by Abigail.
Tituba
A black slave from Barbados, she was with the other girls when they were dancing and attempting to conjure the spirits of Ann Putnam’s dead children. She is the first person to be accused of witchcraft and she is also the one who first accuses the others. She readily accuses the other girls primarily to avoid her own punishment.
Thomas Putnam
Putnam is bitter and cruel man. He is one of the wealthiest landowners in Salem. He holds a series of grudges against the citizens of Salem, including the Nurse family who he believes blocked the appointment of his brother-in-law to a position as minister. He compels his daughter to move forward with an accusation of witchcraft against George Jacobs because if Jacobs is executed, Putnam would be in a position to buy his land.
Rebecca Nurse
An elderly woman and a figure of sanity and purity. She is the one who suggests that Betty’s illness is simply a matter of being out in the cold. But since she was a midwife, she is an easy target of the charge of witchcraft and responsible for the unnatural deaths of the Putnam children. She is clearly a martyr in the play; an innocent wrongly hanged for witchcraft.
Judge Hawthorne
The presiding judge over the Salem witch trials. He is largely under the sway of Deputy Governor Danforth. He applies the same irrational logic as Danforth during the course of the trial.
Francis Nurse
The husband of Rebecca Nurse. He is a well-respected land owner in Salem. He joins Corey and Proctor in the challenge to the court after their wives are charged with witchcraft.
Betty Parris
The teenaged daughter of Reverend Parris. She falls ill after the night of dancing in the woods with the other girls that leads to the accusations of witchcraft. She falls into delusions after the charges are brought, claiming she can fly and she reacts in horror at the mention of the name of Jesus. This lends the air of the supernatural which drives the hysteria onward.
Sarah Good
The first person to be charged with witchcraft. She is homeless and she joins Tituba in fanning the flames of the witch hunt largely to save herself. She takes on a comic quality when she claims that Satan will save her and Tituba and take them to Barbados.
Ann Putnam
Wife of John Putnam. She believes the deaths of her infant children were due to supernatural causes.