Tituba's Confession

By Ananda Wint

[1] There are many scenes in Arthur Miller’s 1996 movie adaptation The Crucible in which we see the townspeople of Salem confessing to witchcraft. The first person to do so is the Parris’s slave Tituba (Charlayne Woodard). The opening scene of the movie shows many of the girls of Salem dancing in the misty woods around a bubbling cauldron, with Tituba at the center, mixing the brew and smiling at the girls as they ask her to make various charms so that the village boys fall in love with them. Abigail Williams (Winona Ryder) adamantly demands that Tituba make John Proctor’s wife, Elizabeth (Joan Allen), die so that she can have Proctor to herself; she even drinks the blood of a dead rooster to make the spell more powerful. Tituba is shocked and horrified at what Abby has done; she wants no part in dark magic. The audience later learns that Abigail and John have a history of adultery, and that Abby, who is still in love with him, will do anything to be with him again.

[2] The scene is interrupted by Abby’s uncle, the Reverend Parris (Bruce Davison), who stumbles upon the gathering and watches the girls scatter -- one teenage girl runs stark naked into the forest. As Parris investigates the scene, he finds the dead rooster as well as a toad in the boiling cauldron and is appalled. He assumes that something dark and sinister was going on in the woods and is hell-bent on finding out what happened and who was involved, especially after his daughter Betty (Rachael Bella) falls under a mysterious trance that Salem doctors can’t diagnose or find a cure for.

[3] Betty is not the only young girl in this catatonic state. Ruth Putnam (Ashley Peldon), the daughter of prominent townspeople, is also afflicted. When no cure is found, it is assumed that they are under the devil’s hand and an outside expert, Reverend Hale (Rob Campbell), is called to investigate. Hale is a man who is knowledgeable in the works of the devil, and it is he who uncovers the fact that the village girls were dancing in the woods. When he questions them in the town hall, Abigail Williams claims that it is the slave Tituba’s evil influence that had them dancing that morning in the woods.

[4] The scene that follows (0:29:20) shows Tituba being dragged from her small dwelling by Reverend Parris, a supposedly good Christian, a man of God, and being whipped brutally so that she would confess dealing with the devil. Tituba is a slave and therefore has no power to fight him off as he whips her mercilessly. She painfully exclaims, “Tituba not do bad thing!” Parris, however, along with Hale (another “man of God”) will not listen to a mere slave and keeps beating her. The camera angle during the whipping is a close-up of Tituba’s face, close to the ground, with Parris looming over her shoulder with the whip. The shot suggests Parris’s absolute power over “his property” and the right he has to abuse Tituba by law.

[5] After Tituba refuses to confess, Parris begins a second, more brutal attack until she is weeping and is forced to speak. Looking at Abby, who is silently present during all of this, Tituba cries, “She beg me conjure!” Abigail is horrified that her lie might be exposed. Tituba is clearly feeling betrayed by Abby and asks her, “Why you say bad thing, Abby?” Not only does Parris still hold the whip, the blue sky can be seen above Tituba, as if God himself is watching the horror below. Finally, the exhausted Tituba admits that she is indeed in league with the devil and that she wishes to confess.

[6] The next scene takes place within Parris’s household, in the room where Betty lay unmoving, under a “trance.” Tituba is clearly relieved not to have to endure any more beatings, her back cris-crossed with bloody lines. Reverend Hale begins his interrogation, asking her that when the devil came to her, whom else did he bring? At first Tituba is reluctant to name anyone, she’s a good woman who doesn’t want to hurt anybody else. She replies, “I couldn’t see. It was black, dark.” Clearly her answer does not satisfy Hale, Parris, or the Putnam’s, who are also present.

[7] The frightened Tituba is forced to make a claim that others in Salem are also making compacts with Satan. Ann Putnam (Frances Conroy) is hysterical and demands that Tituba say that Goody Osborne (Ruth Maleczech) and Goody Good (Sheila Pinkham), who were once her midwives, are witches. Ann Putnam is convinced that these women let her babies die after she gave birth, and she wants to see them held responsible for her loss. Tituba picks up on the woman’s desperation and uses it in her confession. She claims that both the women were on the devil’s side (easy targets since they are both outcasts).

[8] As Tituba speaks, her voice becomes stronger and clearer, until she appears to be preaching to Reverend Parris and the rest of the witnesses in the room. It is clear that she has some kind of awful history with Parris; she hints that she has either been beaten by him before, or something even worse happened (possibly a rape, which was not uncommon among slave owners). Parris begins to shrink away (as well as the rest of the group) as Tituba’s voice grows powerful in her accusations. As a slave, Tituba has never been in a position of power, unless one counts her knowledge of magic, and the way she can get the village girls to congregate around her. The feeling must have been a heady one as she rages at the crowd and condemns two other women.

[9] In a way, Tituba is the “other” within the Salem community. She is a powerless slave from Barbados, who apparently still practices some of her homeland rituals despite being a Christian. She is a black woman, the only one in town, and has virtually nothing in common with the villagers except that she is a Christian. Goody Good and Goody Osborne are also “others” in the town of Salem; they are dirty beggars who are brushed off by their society, just as Tituba has been taken advantage of and dismissed. It is curious that Tituba would name people who are similar to her, as witches. Perhaps it was easier for her to do so because she understood them more than the rest of the town. Or, perhaps, Tituba understands the dynamics of Salem. Since she is an “other,” a person with a history of abuse and disregard, she knows how the town responds to people like her. They need a scapegoat, and the only other people they can take their holy vengeance out on would be the beggar women. These women, furthermore, are midwives; people traditionally blamed for witchery and devil worship.

[10] By naming other townspeople, Tituba makes them into slaves of Satan, even if they are innocent. Doing so puts her on the same level as them; she is in a position to make all people equal, something that has never happened to her before. Tituba realizes that she not only has the power to enforce equality, she can take revenge for the suffering people like Parris and Abigail inflict upon her. Her speech makes the onlookers in the room back away in holy terror, her face the very picture of righteous fury as she points the finger. Tituba is not only trying to save her own life; she is the catalyst of the mass hysteria that sweeps Salem.

[11] After Tituba’s confession, Abigail Williams becomes hysterical and confirms Tituba’s accusations. Abby realizes the power that can be had by attacking her neighbors; it’s a new way for her to obtain John Proctor, or so she believes. Being the ringleader of the group of Salem girls, they follow her example by also making accusations. Even Betty Parris wakes up to scream about witches. Tituba watches the scene unfold, wide-eyed and solemn. Her confession led the girls into positions of power themselves. Like Tituba, women in Salem have virtually no say in the community. The witch trials gave them a voice, albeit a murderous, bloody one.

[12] Ultimately, Tituba’s confession led to the deaths of nineteen people in the community. Despite her small victory over her oppressors, she is still a slave who was forced into a confession that led to a gruesome conclusion.