Ezekiel Cheever

Ezekiel Cheever was a minor antagonist in The Crucible. He was a real-life American tailor who lived in Salem during the Salem Witch Trials who served as Chief Clerk of the Salem court, as well as drawing up warrants for the accused.

Biography
Like his real-life counterpart, Cheever serves as a clerk working directly for the chief judge, Thomas Danforth. While initially a friend of the play's hero John Proctor, Cheever becomes an antagonistic force in the second act after he arrests John's wife Elizabeth for witchcraft. Giles Corey comments that "It's a pity that an honest tailor who might have gone to Heaven must now burn in Hell" on hearing of this, and of fifteen other innocents arrested by Cheever and the marshal after having warrants drawn for their arrest.

Ezekiel Cheever reappears in Act III, this time to transcribe the conversation between Corey, Proctor and Danforth after Proctor convinces Mary Warren to testify that there are no witches in Salem. In order to give Danforth the power to arrest Corey for contempt after he refuses to name somebody who Danforth wishes to question, Cheever begins a record of Corey's hearing so it will qualify as a court and Corey is arrested. He further demonstrates his blind obedience to Danforth when he draws up warrants for the arrests of ninety-one people who come forward as character witnesses on behalf of Rebecca Nurse.

In the final act, when Danforth asks about Reverend Parris, Cheever comments that Parris is often seen crying around the town and that he believes it to be to do with a dispute over who the executed suspect's livestock now belong to.