In his play "The Crucible", the author provides helpful descriptions of his characters in commentaries embedded in the action.
About Reverend Parris, he says,
"At the time of these events Parris was in his middle forties. In history he cut a villainous path, and there is very little good to be said for him. He believed he was being persecuted wherever he went...He was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them" (Act I, Scene 1).
Tituba, the second character to be introduced after Parris, is described as
"his Negro slave...Tituba is in her forties. Parris brought her with him from Barbados...her slave sense...warn(s) her that...trouble in this house eventually lands on her back" (I,1).
Abigail, the third character to appear in the play, is
"strikingly beautiful, an orphan, with an endless capacity for dissembling" (I,1).
Abigail provides further insight into her own hardened, ruthless character when she warns the girls,
""I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine...and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down" (I,1).
In contrast to Abigail, Mary Warren is
"seventeen, a subservient, naive, lonely girl" (I,1).
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