Welcome back to The Literary Deep Dive. This is Episode 2 of our four-part exploration of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
 
 Today we enter the play itself, walking through Act One on the morning after everything changed. We meet Reverend Parris, a frightened minister more concerned with his reputation than truth. We encounter Abigail Williams, a beautiful seventeen-year-old with "an endless capacity for dissembling" who will stop at nothing to get what she wants. We watch Thomas and Ann Putnam, bitter and grieving, eager to blame witchcraft for their losses.
 
 We witness John Proctor's entrance—a farmer carrying the guilt of adultery, respected in Salem but regarding himself as a fraud. We see the tension between Proctor and Abigail, the dangerous electricity of their past affair that will ignite into community-wide destruction.
 
 Then Reverend Hale arrives with his books and expertise, eager to prove his knowledge of witchcraft. And in the chaos of his examination, Abigail sees her escape: blame someone else. Tituba, the enslaved woman from Barbados, becomes the first accused. Then the girls begin screaming names—Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, Bridget Bishop—and the witch hunt explodes.
 
 We'll analyze Miller's brilliant use of historical language, his precise character development, and his step-by-step demonstration of how hysteria begins. We'll see that it doesn't require evil masterminds—just frightened people, ambitious people, and grieving people, all given permission by authority to accuse others.
 
 Whether you're reading along with us or encountering The Crucible for the first time through this podcast, you'll understand exactly how Miller constructs his warning: how quickly fear becomes contagious, how easily accusation replaces evidence, and how the powerless discover they can gain power by naming names.