By the time Act Two rolls around, the witch trials are in
full swing, and numerous people have been accused of being witches. Cheever and Herrick
have been commissioned to work for the courts; one of their main jobs is to arrest
accused townspeople and bring them to jail or the courthouse. At the end of act two,
they show up on John Proctor's doorstep. Cheever himself states his purpose: "I have a
warrant for your wife." So, he is come to arrest Elizabeth Proctor and bring her to
jail. In addition to this, he has been ordered to "search [John's] house" for a poppet,
or a doll, and to look to see if that doll has a needle in it. Lastly, he has been
forbidden to "leave [Elizabeth] from [his] sight." Herrick is the one who chains her up
and takes her away in a wagon.
Those are the tasks that
Cheever is given. To give this context, earlier in the day, Abigail accused Elizabeth
Proctor of being a witch. At the actual courthouse during the day, Mary Warren had
stepped in and defended Elizabeth, saying that she was an upright woman, and there was
no way she could be a witch. Well, Mary had been sewing a doll, and stuck the needle in
the belly "for safekeeping." Abby saw her do this, and later that night, fell to the
ground with a needle stabbed in her belly, and claimed that Elizabeth's "familiar
spirit" was the one to do it. So, Elizabeth is arrested, and the doll with the needle
is used as proof.
I hope that those thoughts helped; good
luck!
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