What is the state of the community at the beginning of the play, as the play progresses and at the end of the play? How did Salem allow outsiders to disrupt its sense of community?

What conditions existed or were created within the community to allow Abigail and the other girls to gain power?

What is ironic about Abigail and the girls being able to seize power over the community?

What role did religion play in the process of seizing power?

What role did fear play in creating authority? How did some people choose to resist authority? Who are they and what form did their resistance take?

John and Abigail’s affair serves as a catalyst for the events of the play, yet historically no such affair ever took place. Why did Arthur Miller use his dramatic license to invent this relationship?

At the end of the play, John Hale has changed his opinion of the trials. What brings about this change?

John Proctor comes very close to admitting guilt so that he may live, and it’s at this moment that Reverend Parris tells him that his refusal to confess is vanity. John could lie, and confess, and stay alive for his wife and children. Do you agree with Parris?