Chapter 2 of 29 · 4'53"
Ann Putnam comes to Parris's house with a spiritual accusation: her daughter Ruth is afflicted, and she has already sent the girl to Tituba to speak with the dead. "There is a murdering witch among us," she insists, turning grief into a charge that Parris cannot ignore.
Parris Refuses to Leap to Witchcraft
❝ Monologue · 9 lines Ann Confesses She Conjured the Dead
In Reverend Parris's house on a Salem morning, Ann Putnam describes her daughter Ruth's mysterious illness as the Devil's work. She admits she sent Ruth to Tituba to conjure the dead, then declares that a murdering witch is among them. Parris fears the scandal will destroy him; Thomas Putnam urges him to fight the Devil openly.
What looks like a visit about a sick child is really an accusation being assembled. Ann arrives grieving, but she has already taken a step the Puritans consider a sin: she sent Ruth to Tituba to speak to the dead. Once that is admitted, she reframes it as evidence rather than guilt — "There is a murdering witch among us" — and the babies she buried become proof that someone in Salem murdered them. Parris hears only the danger to himself: "They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house." He wants to wait for Hale and say nothing; Thomas Putnam pushes him the other way, insisting he strike out against the Devil and let the village bless him for it. The scene is less a conversation than a transfer of fear: Ann's certainty becomes Parris's political terror, and a private grief is converted into a public charge of witchcraft.
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“Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies un-baptized in the earth.”
She states her grief as a fact, and that calm is what turns it into an accusation.
literary
“I take it on my soul, but who else may surely tell us what person murdered my babies?”
She shoulders the sin first, then dares anyone to answer who killed her children.
Formal
“There is a murdering witch among us, bound to keep herself in the dark.”
It names a hidden killer and turns an unseen threat into a charge everyone can repeat.
Formal
“They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.”
Howl turns the neighbors into a mob, so a rumor becomes a public expulsion.
literary
Reverend Parris, I have laid seven babies un-baptized in the earth. Believe me, sir, you never saw more hearty babies born, And yet, each would wither in my arms the very night of their birth. I have spoke nothing, but my heart has clamored intimations. And now, this year, my Ruth, my only - I see her turning strange. A secret child she has become this year, and shrivels like a sucking mouth were pulling on her life too. And so I thought to send her to your Tituba - To Tituba! What may Tituba - ? Tituba knows how to speak to the dead, Mr. Parris.
Up next · 03breathe a wordThe scene: Abigail Threatens the GirlsShe buried seven infants and each died on the night it was born. When her daughter Ruth falls into the same strange illness, Ann treats it as proof that some hidden person is killing her children.
He is worried about his own position. As he puts it, the scandal in his own house means the village will howl him out of Salem, so he would rather wait for Hale and say little.
He wants Parris to act instead of waiting. He tells him to strike out against the Devil and promises the village will bless him for it, pushing him toward a public accusation.
It is an old way of saying 'listen' or 'you see.' He uses it to stop whoever is speaking and make them hear his point, which is why it sounds abrupt.
She is Parris's slave, said to know how to speak to the dead. Ann admits she sent Ruth to Tituba to conjure the spirits of her dead babies, which is why the talk turns to sin and witchcraft.
