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Literature: Senior High School: 11th and 12th Grade Quiz - The Crucible - Setting (Questions)

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This senior high school English Literature quiz questions you on setting in Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Setting in a literary text firstly consists of the location and the time in which the events take place. It is easy to forget that texts can have several settings, since events might occur in very different places or times. Buildings and spaces are also separate settings within the wider setting.

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Background events, even when these are merely mentioned by characters, are an important part of a text’s setting, as are political and social issues. This wider fictional world is referred to as context (but be careful not to confuse this context within the text with the author’s real-life context). Atmosphere, another key element of setting, usually changes multiple times in a text.

Setting in a play differs somewhat from that in a novel. Watching different versions of the play gives a sense for the many ways in which setting can be interpreted. As you read the text, consider how well you are able to visualize the setting. What effects do you notice?

Beyond time and place, The Crucible has few specific details about its setting. We know the types of rooms in which the acts take place and have a few indications as to the type of furniture present. More interesting is that the stage directions specify the type of windows and lighting involved. Many of the physical settings give a sense of entrapment.

The change of seasons is one aspect of setting, as is weather, although a less predictable, more temporary condition. A text’s setting also includes geographical elements such as region, country, environment, landscapes and buildings. Pay attention to the interaction of characters with their environment: how does this interaction affect the text?

One useful exercise is to compare the era in which a text is set with when it was written. In the case of Miller’s play, the date for the setting is determined by real events. Beyond this fixed point, however, are there any similarities between the setting and Miller’s own time?

Answer the questions below on setting in The Crucible.

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1. In which country is The Crucible set?
[ ] Germany
[ ] Soviet Union
[ ] United States of America
[ ] Ireland
2. In which year is the play set?
[ ] 1592
[ ] 1692
[ ] 1792
[ ] 1892
3. What is the Christian religious group to which the characters in the play belong?
[ ] Puritans
[ ] Lutherans
[ ] Methodists
[ ] Catholics
4. Which of the following settings is immediately associated with the practice of magic?
[ ] The meeting room
[ ] The bedroom in Parris's house
[ ] The river
[ ] The forest
5. The audience first meets most of the characters, including Abigail, Reverend Parris, John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale and the Putnams where?
[ ] In the forest
[ ] In the meeting room
[ ] In Betty's bedroom
[ ] In the Proctors' living room
6. Act II takes place in the "common room" of the Proctor house. The homey atmosphere of the setting is disturbed by which of the following?
[ ] The sound of Elizabeth singing to their children
[ ] The gun which John Proctor leans against the wall
[ ] The smell of the food cooking over the fire
[ ] John's washing of his hands and face
7. Which of the following is true of the trial scene?
[ ] The audience never knows what happens during the trials
[ ] The trial takes place in Salem jail
[ ] The trial scene is set in the meeting house and the trial itself occurs on stage before action shifts to the vestry room in the next scene
[ ] The trial takes place off stage, with only the voices of the judge and the accused being heard through the open doors leading from the vestry room
8. What is taking place in Andover in the autumn while the Salem executions are in progress?
[ ] Rebellion
[ ] The discovery of dozens of further cases of witchcraft
[ ] The entire population of Andover confesses to practicing witchcraft
[ ] The government orders an end to the trials in Andover
9. Act IV opens in darkness, with "moonlight seeping through the bars". What is significant about this setting?
[ ] Those convicted of witchcraft will be hung at daybreak and the timing gives Act IV a sense of urgency
[ ] The darkness is emblematic of the spiritual and moral darkness into which the town has descended
[ ] The darkness of the setting provides dramatic potential, so that the sun, when it rises in a new dawn at the end of the play, brings death, rather than life
[ ] All of the above
10. Which of the following is true of the spaces in which the action of the play takes place?
[ ] They are all comfortable, home-like spaces
[ ] They are large, public spaces
[ ] They are small, confined and primarily private spaces
[ ] The spaces grow ever more light and airy
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Literature: Senior High School: 11th and 12th Grade Quiz - The Crucible - Setting (Answers)
1. In which country is The Crucible set?
[ ] Germany
[ ] Soviet Union
[x] United States of America
[ ] Ireland
The play is based on historical events which took place in Salem, Massachusetts
2. In which year is the play set?
[ ] 1592
[x] 1692
[ ] 1792
[ ] 1892
The witch trials took place between 1692 and 1693. The play begins in the spring of 1692 and ends in the autumn of the same year
3. What is the Christian religious group to which the characters in the play belong?
[x] Puritans
[ ] Lutherans
[ ] Methodists
[ ] Catholics
Puritans disagreed with the use of any ritual or use of objects in religious worship, preferring instead to read and listen to the Bible and to sermons. Some of the activities to which Abigail initially confesses relate to the rituals thought to be magical
4. Which of the following settings is immediately associated with the practice of magic?
[ ] The meeting room
[ ] The bedroom in Parris's house
[ ] The river
[x] The forest
The forest symbolizes all that is dark, wild and untamed. Abigail and the other girls are accused of dancing like the heathen, or the native (non-Christian) inhabitants of the area. It is important to note that Reverend Parris's own reason for going into the forest is never given
5. The audience first meets most of the characters, including Abigail, Reverend Parris, John Proctor, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Hale and the Putnams where?
[ ] In the forest
[ ] In the meeting room
[x] In Betty's bedroom
[ ] In the Proctors' living room
A continual procession of people come into Betty's room, either out of curiosity, or because they have been summoned, or because they are seeking someone else who is there. At the center of all this motion lies Betty in stillness on her bed, aware of all that is going on and hearing the wild surmises of the other characters
6. Act II takes place in the "common room" of the Proctor house. The homey atmosphere of the setting is disturbed by which of the following?
[ ] The sound of Elizabeth singing to their children
[x] The gun which John Proctor leans against the wall
[ ] The smell of the food cooking over the fire
[ ] John's washing of his hands and face
John tells Elizabeth that he has been planting all the way to the edge of the forest; the presence of his gun brings the awareness of surrounding danger into the home. Danger does not enter the home from the forest, however, but from the other inhabitants of the town
7. Which of the following is true of the trial scene?
[ ] The audience never knows what happens during the trials
[ ] The trial takes place in Salem jail
[ ] The trial scene is set in the meeting house and the trial itself occurs on stage before action shifts to the vestry room in the next scene
[x] The trial takes place off stage, with only the voices of the judge and the accused being heard through the open doors leading from the vestry room
The real trial takes place as the accused are questioned, bullied and tormented into their confused confessions. Once the accused reach the court, the verdict is a foregone conclusion. The near impossibility of changing the outcome is emphasized by the trials taking place off stage
8. What is taking place in Andover in the autumn while the Salem executions are in progress?
[x] Rebellion
[ ] The discovery of dozens of further cases of witchcraft
[ ] The entire population of Andover confesses to practicing witchcraft
[ ] The government orders an end to the trials in Andover
Reverend Parris reports that the people of Andover have thrown out the court. He fears a similar riot in the town when Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor hang
9. Act IV opens in darkness, with "moonlight seeping through the bars". What is significant about this setting?
[ ] Those convicted of witchcraft will be hung at daybreak and the timing gives Act IV a sense of urgency
[ ] The darkness is emblematic of the spiritual and moral darkness into which the town has descended
[ ] The darkness of the setting provides dramatic potential, so that the sun, when it rises in a new dawn at the end of the play, brings death, rather than life
[x] All of the above
Darkness and light alternate throughout the play, which begins with the morning sunlight in Betty's room and ends with the sunlight on Elizabeth Proctor's face
10. Which of the following is true of the spaces in which the action of the play takes place?
[ ] They are all comfortable, home-like spaces
[ ] They are large, public spaces
[x] They are small, confined and primarily private spaces
[ ] The spaces grow ever more light and airy
The spaces grow ever more private and confined. Even the Proctors' living room is described as being "low and dark". The vestry room is much more private and confined than the meeting room in which the trial is held. This sense of private confinement emphasizes the lonely entrapment of the many accused